CHOULO19

Venue: Chelsea will come up against Roberto Martinez’s Everton at Goodison Park on Saturday, September 14th at 17:30 UK time. The Match: The match is part of the fourth round of the 2013/14 English Premiere League. It has been long awaited after two weeks of international football that never seems to live up to the excitement of club matches. This will also be the first fixture after the summer transfer window has closed and both sets of fans will be eager to get a look at the new signings that their clubs have made since. Chelsea come into this match sitting in second place with 7 points from the opening 3 matches behind Liverpool who have 9 and will be looking to continue their unbeaten start to the season. Everton, on the other hand, are still searching for their first win of the season after drawing all of their first three PL fixtures. They currently sit 15th in the table with 3 points. A Chelsea win would see us go top of the table till Monday at the very least when Swansea host Liverpool. Opposition Analysis: Everton's start of the season has been rather disappointing to the Goodison faithful. They are still undefeated, but as stated above, they have also failed to win any of their matches. They have looked solid at the back (apart from the Norwich game) and have dominated the possession in all of their matches, but the Everton players have often looked unsure what to do with the ball. They've created very little throughout the three games and have failed to score in two of them. It seems that the players are still getting used to Roberto Martinez's new system. The Martinez Effect: Roberto Martinez is known to be a very tactical manger with a certain philosophy of how his teams should play football. Even at relegation struggling Wigan, he insisted that the team gets the ball on the ground and pass it around from the back forward with the players looking to recover the ball by pressing high up the pitch when they lose it. This is obviously what Martinez has been trying to implement at Everton as well. The transformation from Moyes' "traditional English" style to Martinez's Spanish football philosophy has been evident in the stats: Everton's possession of the ball has gone up from 52% last season to 58% so far. Their passing accuracy also went up from 80% to 86% with the team attempting much more passes than last term; their average passes per match have gone up from 276 last season under Moyes to 378 under Roberto with the average pass length decreasing from 20 meters to 18. The team's woeful 2.5% chance conversion emphasizes their need for a new striker; something the manager has already addressed with the season loan of Chelsea's Romelu Lukaku (though he will be unavailable for this match due to the FA rule that forbids loaned players of playing against their parent clubs). Martinez likes his teams to press high up the pitch in two phases with his attackers pressing the opposition center-backs and then the midfielders pressing the opposition midfield once the ball is out of defense. But the Everton players have been unable to implement this effectively so far. Their average interceptions per game has actually gone down from 15.6 last season to 10.6 this time around. But this can all change with the deadline day signings of Gareth Barry and James McCarthy who have the mobility and tactical awareness that is required to mark passing lanes as Martinez asks of his players to do, unlike Osman and Fellaini. So, what should we expect from this Everton team? We should expect a tactically disciplined and defensively solid team that will look to keep possession and pass the ball from the back. They are still trying to accommodate Martinez's drastic changes at the club but they have made some excellent signings that will help them do just that. If their new signings click immediately, they can cause some serious damage. Last Meeting: The clubs last met on the final day of last season at Stamford Bridge. Naismith scored in the first half for the guests after Juan Mata had opened the scoring. But a second half goal from Fernando Torres ensured that Chelsea were the only club to complete the double over the Toffees. Team News and Expected Lineups: Chelsea: Jose Mourinho played the usual 4-2-3-1 Chelsea's last match in the European Super Cup against Bayern Munich: Cech; Ivanovic, Cahill, D Luiz, Cole; Ramires, Lampard ©; Schurrle, Oscar, Hazard; Torres. A similar lineup is expected on Saturday although Jose could hand Willian and Eto'o their debuts in the place of Schurrle and Torres. All of Eto'o Oscar, Hazard and Mikel picked up minor injuries with their NTs but all of them are expected to be fit for the match with Kalas the only Chelsea player missing. Everton: Martinez also played the famous 4-2-3-1 in his last match against Cardiff: Howard; Coleman, Jagielka, Distin, Baines; Fellaini, Osman; Miralles, barkley, Pienaar; Jelavic. Fellaini obviously won't be in the lineup since he completely a deadline day move to Manchester United. He will likely be replaced by James McCarthy, if fit, while Leon Osman could also be replaced by new signing Gareth Barry. McCarthy and Coleman are expected to shake off small knocks and be fit for the match while the match is likely to come too soon for Gibson and Alcaraz who are expected to miss out. Facts and Sats: - The Toffees have averaged the highest possession figure in the 2013-14 PL season so far. - Chelsea have won just two of their last 10 PL trips to Merseyside, losing 6 of them. - Should Everton fail to win this match, it'll only be the 4th time they have failed to win any of their opening four PL fixtures in 43 seasons. - If the game ends in a draw, Everton will become the fourth side in EPL history to draw all of their opening 4 matches. - During hi time at City, only Michael Carrick has attempted more passes than Gareth Barry. - Everton have allowed less opposition shots on target than any other team in the PL this season (5). - Roberto Martinez has won just 1 of his last 11 matches as a manger in the EPL. - All the 10 scoring opportunities that Eden Hazard has created for his teammates have come from open play. Betting Odds: According to SkyBet, the odds for this match are: 11/5 for an Everton win, 12/5 for a draw, and 5/4 for a Chelsea win. Match Coverage: The match will be live on SkySports in the UK, FoxSports in the US and Al Jazeera in the middle east. There should be plenty of streams available if you can't watch it on TV. If you're at work or not at home, the TalkChelsea official twitter account will be giving a live Twitter feed of the game so you don't miss a thing. Note 1: All stats used in "Opposition Analysis" are from Squawka.com Note 2: The players injury news are all according to PhysioRoom.com Note 3: The match facts and stats are from "Football App" for Android. Click here to view article.

The lineup predictions are a bit pointless, imo. No one knows yet who Jose prefers for the front 4 positions especially since we haven't yet seen Eto'o or Willian.

Moved to the football banter section since it's not directly related to Chelsea.

Alright then, let's do an experiment: Go stand in front of a moving train then come back and tell us what happened

What Benayoun said is that he doesn't care about Chelsea and the difference is that it was not just a statement; this attitude was mirrored in his actions whenever he played for us. As for Lukaku, yeah he probably should have answered differently, but he was probably thinking that this reply would get some Everton fans cheering for him already and that by the time he plays for Chelsea again the Chelsea fans would have long forgotten a silly comment he said on Everton TV.

Still, the "Chelsea is better than Tottenham in every aspect" is just rude and highly unprofessional.

Anyone else think he's been talking too much since he arrived? I mean he hasn't even played in a Chelsea shirt yet. He's overdoing it, imo. Needs to be quite and let his football do the talking.

I know, right?

He sent me a PM requesting that I suspend him. So did Raphael.

Fucking hell, Steve, that's not a crock that a freakin' monster! I can't believe this prehistoric animal still exists!

I don't get why we're making an issue out of the wages, surely Nathanial's development is the most important thing here?!

Not really. I suspended him upon his request. He can't sign in even if he wanted to.

Girl friend. He could always get her to move here where he has several Belgian team mates including friends from Genk.

He won't be given a starting spot without playing a single minute of football for Chelsea no matter what his rating on FIFA is. Like any other football player on earth he will have to fight for a place in the team. It's really not an alien concept.

His teams are always play a very tactical game. For example how they press in phases and how the players move on defense to mark passing spaces instead of players is not exactly typical. Player movement and passing on attack is also straight off the drawing board with the team sometimes executing a system of calculated 10-15 passes just to created a space for one player. Almost everything they do is drawn by Martinez as opposed to us last season for example when we main just relied on the natural ability of people like Mata and Hazard.

I've seen a few Europa League matches and he looked "uninspiring" to say the least. He's been away from the top level of football for 3 seasons, so like Jason said, it's best not to get our hopes too high before we see him play. Pessimistic old man level 1000!

I've probably missed less than a dozen Athletico games since he's joined them and no, I don't think he's as good as Cech who I think is currently the best in the world. Like I said, Thibaut will likely come here and challenge Petr for the spot, if he really is better then he should win it i no time. If he isn't then he just needs to keep improving till he is. The comparison with De Gea was just in the situation, not their skill as I clearly stated.

Courtois had a great game in the Copa Del Ray final, but that doesn't even compare to Cech's performances in the CL. There is no denying that he is capable of the amazing but it's just how often can he do it and with what consistency. In that cup final game, he made two stunning saves: one an incredible recovery save from Ozil after he had miss-judged the cross and the second, I can't remember from whom. But can he do the 10+ incredible saves that Cech did against Barcelona over two legs? Or go the right way for 6 pens saving three of them? Let's look at the recent Super games. In the European super, Cehc kept on making amazing saves fro 30 minutes of extra time. In the Spanish super, Thibaut made a couple of excellent saves, then let a very soft Neymar goal in. That's the difference. 1) Why ever not? He will get games and if he proves to be good enough he'll get more games until he becomes first choice. 2) De Gea and Lindergard. 3) Haha you're quite a dancer and I personally have never been able to dance. I've made my point very clear about this and no amount of dancing will change that you can objectively say that we would not have won the CL without Petr Cech. And that's just the most important example, I can give plenty more examples. 4) Nonsense. Keepers win their positions in training all the time. I just gave the example of Thibaut himself winning the first spot at Athletico in training. This is really what it all comes down to. If he wants to play for Chelsea he will have to come here and prove his worth. Again, just like Schurrle moved from a main role at Leverkusen who are also in the CL to a smaller role here so he can have a chance to prove his worth and be first choice at a top club like Chelsea. This is what all professionals have to do.

1) He will get his chances in the Carling and FA cups and some CL group matches and when Cech is injured or needs resting. That is more than enough. If he puts on performances that are better than Petr, he gets the spot. He also has all the time in the world to out-perform Petr in training. 2) And how do you know Barcelona won't buy a second keeper with Courtois to challenge him? No one gets a guaranteed spot at a top team. Every professional knows he has to fight for his place. It's not just for keepers. All players come to a bigger club to prove how good they are. Managers challenge players, if you think you are better than the players we have, come here, prove it and get the starting spot. That's the same reason why Andre Schurrle, MVG, Willian..etc moved here. 3) LOL you can joke around the subject all you want but everyone knows that you put any keeper in the world instead of Petr Cech in the 2011-12 season and we would not have won the CL. That's the difference between the best in the world and "not far behind". Asenjo was as highly rated as Thibaut was when he moved to Athletico and if Asenjo has been better than Thibaut in training he would have gotten the starting spot. Every manager chooses who he thinks is the best player. It's that simple.

Either thye are going to be surprised or we will. I have no idea if we're going to see Inter's Eto'o or some average striker from the Russian league. I honestly don't.

1) The point is, we don't have to suffer like united did because we have an experienced world-class goal keeper who can still be our number one until Thibaut is ready. 2) For a season, yes. He won't make a career of it. He's still very young and will have to fight to make a name for himself wherever he goes. 3) Don't avoid the point, you know as well as I do that had we had Courtois and not Cech we would not have won neither the CL nor the FA cup and we would not have been able to qualify to the CL and we would not have bought the likes of Hazard and Oscar and our current squad would not have been the same. Of course Courtois can be a good first choice keeper at a top club but he's just not the best in the world atm, Cech is and the above example is how much difference that can make.

Like I said, I'm not comparing him with De Gea, just the situation. Although when De Gea moved to united he was as highly rated as Thibaut is now. De Gea cost united a lot of points. He was even dropped by fergie for two months last season because of his poor performances. They threw him in too early and he wasn't ready and it has cost them at times. He'll win his spot the same way that Petr Cech won his. By taking advantage of the chances that he is given and you are forgetting that there is also training where he can prove his worth. What can we lose if we get rid of Cech when Thibaut is not yet as good? Just imagine we had done that before the 2011-12 season.

So was De Gea when United bought him and I bet they wish they had an experienced world-class keeper along with him these past two seasons. I'm not comparing the two keepers, just the uncertainty of the situation. Courtois is not the most talented keeper around, he's the keeper with the most potential. Anywhere he'll go he'll have to fight for his stop. I think he'll come here next season and we won't sell Petr. He'll get a lot of chances and if he's really as good as or better than Cech, he'll win the starting spot and we'll probably sell Petr at the end of the season. If he isn't and Petr remains first-choice, we''l keep them both until Thibaut becomes ready to be a starter.

Logic has failed to apply to the Lampard selection so far, so I wouldn't count on it.