Everton host Chelsea at the Hill Dickinson stadium this weekend in the Premier League. It’s a fascinating fixture with two sides that are on different trajectories.
Chelsea’s Continued Disappointment
Liam Rosenior’s side seem to be in free-fall, losing their last three games on the bounce. This includes two humbling showings against PSG in the Champions League Round of 16 – which ended in an 8-2 defeat on aggregate.
Elimination from Europe’s premier competition in an unceremonious fashion, coupled with that limp 1-0 defeat to Newcastle United in between, hurt Chelsea hard. Doubts have begun to appear over Rosenior’s future amongst many fans.
Let’s remember that it’s been three years since Chelsea were last in that R16 situation. This is only the second time Chelsea have been in the Champions League under owners Clearlake Capital and Todd Boehly. And frankly, it is difficult to see exactly in what aspect the club has improved since they took over almost four years ago.
Rosenior, at the helm for only two months, is Chelsea’s fifth permanent manager in those four years under the post-Roman Abramovich owners.
In that time, Chelsea have only won two trophies: the Conference League and the Club World Cup. Whilst the Club World Cup was a serious achievement that made many believe Chelsea were back at the adult’s table of world soccer, even just being in the Conference League was a result of failure the season before.
Big Spend; Little Reward
Boehly and Clearlake have spent around $2 billion on signing players since they took over, and there are some bona fide stars in that spend, like Enzo Fernandez, Moises Caicedo, Cole Palmer and João Pedro. Estévão also looks positive.
But this season looks to be another disappointing one, and even more worryingly, some of those stars may look to leave soon.
Just minutes after Chelsea went out against PSG, Fernandez was asked if he could guarantee he would be at Chelsea next season.
He replied: “I don’t know. There are eight games left and the FA Cup. Then there’s the World Cup and then we’ll see.”
The answer was non-committal to say the least. But who can blame him? Chelsea have not moved forward since he joined the club in January of 2023.
Everton Coming Up
Everton, on the other hand, certainly have progressed – especially this season. David Moyes joined the Toffees in January last year when the specter of relegation hung over the club. He guided them to safety in his first season.
But in this campaign they have truly excelled. They are currently eighth going into the weekend, and on track for their highest Premier League finish since 2019.
As the Premier League is highly likely to get five UCL spots next season, teams finishing between sixth and eighth (possibly even lower) will all fight for Europa League and Conference League football.
Who qualifies for which competition will depend on which team wins the FA Cup. But Everton are right in the mix and will firmly be aiming for European football next year.
Moyes has done an incredible job, and Everton have only lost three times in all competitions since January 5.
They will be confident of getting a positive result when Chelsea visit Merseyside.
