Wasteful Chelsea cede grounds to title rivals

Jorginho rues a missed chance in Chelsea's 1-1 draw with Everton on Thursday night. (Photo credit: Premierleague.com)

A lot is going wrong in the premier league with covid ravaging sides to the point of games getting postponed at the last minute but not many saw it coming that Chelsea wouldn’t beat Everton at the Stamford Bridge Stadium on Thursday night.

Football will humble you, but for a team with lots at stake like Chelsea, allowing Liverpool who won at Anfield at about the same time the Toffees were causing some hiccups and City who destroyed Leeds this amount of space at this stage is hard to understand.

The Blues hosted Rafael Benitez’s Everton on Thursday night with the hopes of closing the gaps on the two teams in front of them, there were no real strikers in the Chelsea squad for the game with rumors of Covid hitting Romelu Lukaku and Timo Werner hanging in the air.

Chelsea started Christian Pulisic upfront with Mason Mount and Morrocan winger Hakim Ziyech supporting him; the visitors are still without Dominic Calvert Lewin, youngster Ellis Simms made his full debut upfront with Solomon Rondon missing from the squad as well.

While Liverpool was peeling away from Newcastle at Anfield, Chelsea were struggling against the Toffees and couldn’t make the breakthrough in the first half, chances here and there but poor end product meant they went into the break goalless.

Mason Mount got on the end of a Reece James assist to help Chelsea in front with twenty minutes left on the clock and fans of the Blues would think that’s it for the night but it took just four minutes for the visitors to draw level.

The visitors turned to youth and it paid off with another youngster Jarrad Branthwaite finding the target on the 74^th minute to restore parity and send the ground into wailings for their missed chances.

Jordan Pickford made series of brilliant saves to deny Pulisc, Mount and Antonio Rudiger but the blues will rue the missed chances as they now sit three points off Liverpool in second and four behind log leaders Manchester City.

"It was a freak result for this kind of match," Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel said afterward. He was visibly infuriated and couldn’t understand how his team couldn’t turn possession to results as they walked off the pitch unsure of when next they will return.