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Game of the week - Everton vs. Chelsea
The FA Cup remains a genuine source of hope for those sides for whom the season's original expectations have not quite been borne out. On Saturday, two such clubs meet at Goodison for what should be an compelling and competitive battle. Those connected with the other sides remaining in the competition will be interested spectators, largely because they know that by the time other matches in England kick off, a major threat in the draw for round five will have been eliminated, regardless of the outcome.
Were games won on endeavour, territory and hard work, then Everton would be an awful lot higher in the Premier League table than the 14th place that they currently occupy. Unfortunately for the Toffees, their acute lack of firepower in the final third appears to have placed something of a glass ceiling over their aspirations. Rarely has this writer failed to be impressed by their team ethic, spirit and the quality of their play up to the point where it really counts. However, this inability to finish a game off with the opposition on the ropes is a double-edged sword. It offers a ray of hope to beleaguered opposition and also means that in a game you may have totally dominated, one flash of inspiration or an individual error can mean grave disappointment. The points thrown away from winning positions are a testament to this. Moreover, with Steven Pienaar now a Spurs player and Tim Cahill preoccupied with winning the Asia Cup for the Socceroos, David Moyes has felt the need to field two strikers recently to retain a genuine goal threat. The knock-on effect has been the lapse of a normally reliable defence – conceding twice in successive games has never been, and never will be the Moyes way. It would be interesting to see how the club would fare were a world class striker bestowed upon them, for while one player does not make a team, there appears to be a widespread acknowledgement that such a player would improve Everton enormously.
Three victories and three clean sheets would indicate that Chelsea may be turning a corner, but it would probably be wise to wait until after this engagement before passing any sort of judgement based on conviction. Having gone on what could only be described as an appalling run (including 2 points from 18 on the road), the FA Cup appeared to offer the first green shoot of recovery when the Tractor Boys of Ipswich were thoroughly ploughed over by a seven goal margin. Successive victories over Blackburn and Bolton have been aided by some uncharacteristically sloppy defending but an end to the worrying trait of leaking late goals can only be a welcome thing, and while Carlo Ancelotti's claim that this puts them right back in the title race may be a mite over-optimistic, he will no doubt be approaching this trip with more confidence than he would have done a few weeks ago. Michael Essien is always a huge player for the Blues, and this will especially be the case on Saturday. His ability to cover the area from box to box, linking up with team-mates at both ends of the field will be a necessity if Chelsea are to match the high tempo that their opponents will face early on. Then having seen through the early passage of the game, they will look to make their superior quality tell, just as they eventually did in the 2009 final. On that day of course, Everton went a goal up very early on before succumbing 2-1.
Everton have only won one of the last 26 meetings between these two sides in all competitions, and one would have to suggest that an imminent change to that sequence is less than likely. This will almost certainly be a tight affair of few opportunities, played at a typical cup-tie tempo. This will mean that key moments are more likely to settle the tie rather than one team being gradually overwhelmed by the other. The key difference may well be Chelsea's greater ability to take their chances, and a single goal victory for the visitors may well be the result.
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