Chelsea 0 Everton 0:CHELSEA'S TITLE challenge may just have run aground at last. Talk of securing an unlikely treble, aired briefly and rather reluctantly by Guus Hiddink in the build-up to this occasion, was choked last night by a wonderfully rugged and committed Everton team to leave the hosts frustrated and forlorn.
Manchester United perch six points clear of the Londoners this morning with a game still in hand. Even Hiddink’s ability to eke the best from this squad may struggle to bridge that chasm.
The home side’s was a leggy display which only rallied in the closing stages once desperation had set in, and even then most of the best chances fell to the visitors.
There can be few opponents a team would wish to confront less for a sixth game in 18 days than David Moyes’ workaholic Everton. Their energy may have been draining by the end, but their tenacity remained and Tim Cahill, thrashing a shot into the side-netting, and Steven Pienaar might still have earned a first win over these opponents in nine years.
There had been a lengthy exchange prior to kick-off between the managers, their conversation littered no doubt with congratulations at the other’s achievement in steering his team to the FA Cup final next month. This had duly become a dress rehearsal for that show-piece, a chance for players on both sides to size up direct opponents, even if the visitors’ selection had rather hinted at a team keeping their powder dry.
Everton had opted against returning triumphantly to Merseyside following Sunday’s FA Cup semi-final victory over Manchester United, staying instead in a plush Kensington hotel ahead of this fixture.
The quartet of changes made last night reflected an energy-sapping season rather than any lingering hangovers from the post-Wembley celebrations. Yet the momentum generated by that success in the penalty shoot-out was carried by the altered line-up.
The visitors were the slicker team initially, and the smouldering frustration that pursued Moyes down the tunnel at the break was a reflection that his loanee forward Jo, cup-tied at the weekend, had missed two glorious opportunities.
The chances were both neatly created, if reliant upon the hosts’ uncharacteristically ragged back-line. Michael Essien was sprawled on the turf at the other end early on when Segundo Castillo put Cahill through on goal in the inside left channel, only for his shot to strike Petr Cech.
That served to calm the goalkeeper’s early nerves, though two minutes before the interval and with Everton’s rearguard having rarely been tested he might still have been beaten. The hosts surrendered possession too readily in midfield and Pienaar liberated Jo down the right, only for the striker to slip under vague pressure from John Terry.
Moyes cursed such profligacy, though there was encouragement to be drawn from the home side’s lethargy. Cahill, gathering Jo’s cross before spinning and spitting a shot at goal that Cech did well to save, and Pienaar had also come close while Chelsea laboured.
Alex, too, may have been fortunate to escape conceding a penalty to Leighton Baines’ darting run, which ended abruptly with what might have been deemed a trip.
The best Chelsea had mustered were efforts from distance from Essien and Frank Lampard, though there was more fizz to Chelsea’s approach once Cahill had provided yet another wake-up call early in the second period, when the Australian flicked a header which was gathered by a diving Cech.
Anelka dragged a shot wide of the far post after scurrying through and, once the striker had been replaced, even Terry ventured up-field to force Tim Howard into a wonderful save.
Yet, for all the home side’s sudden desperate urgency and Everton’s weariness, there remains such resilience and purpose to Moyes’ team that the visitors simply would not yield. Joleon Lescott’s block on Lampard’s shot, smothered just as the net gaped, summed up the effort and endeavour that might have merited more than a point.
Didier Drogba might have denied them when his shot struck the bar at the death.
GuardianService
CHELSEA:Cech, Ivanovic, Alex, Terry, Ashley Cole, Ballack, Essien (Mikel 60), Lampard, Drogba, Anelka (Kalou 60), Malouda (Di Santo 77). Subs not used: Hilario, Belletti, Mancienne, Mellis.
EVERTON:Howard, Jacobsen (Jagielka 87), Lescott, Yobo, Baines, Osman (Rodwell 89), Castillo, Neville, Pienaar, Jo (Saha 90), Cahill. Subs not used: Nash, Hibbert, Vaughan, Gosling. Booked: Neville.
Referee:Mark Halsey (Lancashire).
