Everton will host Chelsea in their opening fixture of the English Premier League 2022/23 season. Frank Lampard’s men struggled last season and will look to change their fortunes this time around. Chelsea, on the other hand, will be disappointed after ending the season trophyless. They will be charged for the new season and will look to earn their first title under the new ownership.
Chelsea finished last season with 22 wins, 11 draws, and six defeats. The Blues scored 76 goals with an xG rate of 69.24. In return, the defence conceded 33 goals with a low xGA rate of 34.46. Chelsea will be without their powerhouse centre-back, Antonio Rüdiger. They had a few changes in the backline, and the German manager will look to settle them as soon as possible.
Everton finished the last season in 16th position with 11 wins, six draws, and 21 losses. The Toffees scored 43 goals with an xG rate of 47.36 and conceded 66 goals with an xGA rate of 57.33. Everton will be without their star player, Richarlison, who made a move to Spurs in the summer. Frank Lampard has brought in a few new recruits to improve the situation at the club.
Let us look at some of the stats from last season, and these will help us to know what can be expected from these two teams.
Chelsea – The 3rd best team in England last season
Chelsea were the third-best team in the league last season. The above viz shows the attacking, passing, and defensive stats of the Blues. When looking at the above chart, the general rule is that the longer the bar, the better the performance — you can see the league average in the middle, and the % is the percentile rank the player is in. We can see that Chelsea were highly ranked amongst other teams. The Blues had a high attacking action success rate and were effective with their passing. They will look to perform better this season and stay at the top.
Everton’s defensive duels success
Everton contested 93.04 defensive actions per 90 minutes and had a 78% success rate. The Toffees contested the second-highest number of defensive duels last season. They contested 2,790 defensive duels with an average of 67.46 duels per 90 minutes. The players were successful 1,742 times with an average of 42.12 duels won per 90 minutes. Chelsea will find it hard to get past Everton’s defence in the opening match.
Everton struggles to keep the ball
Everton failed to score a lot of goals last season. The main reason behind this was their inability to keep hold of the ball. Everton players attempted 12,231 passes and had the fourth-lowest attempt in the league. They also struggled to pass the ball into the attacking third. The Toffees averaged 43.02 passes per 90 minutes whereas Chelsea averaged 58.44 passes. Everton players need to keep the ball and be more precise with their passing.
Team news
Dominic Calvert-Lewin’s knee injury will keep him out for at least six weeks. Seamus Coleman and Salomon Rondon are the other notable absentees.
Timo Werner and Armando Broja are the injury concerns in Chelsea’s camp. Raheem Sterling and Kalidou Koulibaly could make their debut for the Blues.
Chelsea will be the favourites to take three points from this match. They were inconsistent last season, and that resulted in a loss of points in some of the matches. This time, Thomas Tuchel will expect better results from the players. Everton, on the other hand, need to start the season on a positive note. The fans won’t accept a poor finish this season. Frank Lampard is under some pressure, and he will expect his team to take him out of that zone.
