This past summer saw a flurry of spending across Europe's biggest leagues, and the Premier League certainly was no exception. In their quest to unseat Chelsea as the league champions, both Manchester United and Manchester City splashed quite a bit of cash to refurbish their squads. Cross-town rivals Arsenal took a more frugal approach, but the Gunners nonetheless managed to add experienced goalkeeper Petr Cech, whilst Liverpool, who failed to match their impressive 2013/2014 form and finished in sixth, attempted to boost their firepower and spent over £50 million on players like Roberto Firmino and Christian Beneteke.
Interestingly, despite celebrating their first league win in five seasons - and thus ending the duopoly the Manchester clubs had enjoyed for the past four campaigns - Chelsea chose to be more cautious in the transfer market. With the exception of former Barcelona star Pedro, who cost them over £21 million, and young defender Baba Rahman, whose price tag was a bit over £14 million, none of the team's other acquisitions hit the £10 million mark.
This is all despite receiving a nice influx of cash - over £100 million - thanks to their new sponsorship deal with Yokohama. Yet, supporters were left hanging when it came to trying to bring in some other targets, including Everton's John Stones and Juventus midfielder Paul Pogba. In terms of strikers, only Radamel Falcao - who endured a poor spell with Manchester United - was added, and the Colombian international will be really feeling the pressure to show that he is the same player that terrorized defenses during his spells with Porto and Atletico Madrid. Will the lack of a "big money" signing come back to haunt Chelsea? Only time will tell.
Finally, fact that Cech was allowed to leave for bitter city rivals Arsenal surely will not sit too well with Chelsea fans. The Czech international set a plethora of records during his time at Stamford Bridge, including 220 clean sheets across all competitions, and the fewest amount of games (180) to reach 100 shut-outs. Certainly, Asmir Begović has quite a bit of experience, having featured for Stoke City for five seasons, and with first choice keeper Thibaut Courtois out for about three months, the Bosnian international will be taking over goalkeeping duties for the foreseeable future, starting with against Everton this Saturday.
Everton
Last season saw Roberto Martinez's men finish in 11th place on 47 points, leaving them comfortably in the middle of the league table. This time around, the Toffees presently sit in ninth place, with five points from their first four games. Not surprisingly, it's Romelu Lukaku who is currently leading the scoring charts for his side, with two in the league and four across all competitions. The big Belgian attacker has been in good form ever since departing Stamford Bridge following a disappointing term there and will certainly relish taking on his former club at home.
In terms of personnel, Martinez will have to do without Tom Cleverley, Leighton Baines, and Steven Pienaar, whilst Bryan Oviedo is in doubt due to a knee problem.
Last year's edition of this very same fixture produced a nine-goal thriller, which finished 6-3 in favor of Chelsea. Everton have won only one of their last five meetings across all competitions, and although they have lost just two of their last seven matches against Chelsea at home, they have not beaten their visitors since September 14, 2013. It also so happened to be the first ever loss for Jose Mourinho upon his return to London and Martinez's first win as a Premier League manager.
Will it be an interesting case of déjà vu for the teams and their managers? As the French say, "On verra..."
Chelsea
With just one win out of their opening four games, it may be a bit early to start ringing the alarm bells at Stamford Bridge. After all, there are 34 matches between now and May. But it is quite hard not to find a single Blues supporter who isn't a tad concerned about how Mourinho's troops have been performing, with key players like Cesc Fabregas and Eden Hazard looking alarmingly sluggish and shadows of themselves from the team's title-winning season.
Chelsea have yet to win a game at Stamford Bridge and will be coming into this match following a loss to Crystal Palace just before the international break. And with a crunch London Derby against Arsenal next up the following weekend, Mourinho's side will be desperate to stop what has been nothing short of a frustrating downward trend and start making some inroads to catch Manchester City - who has a perfect 100 per cent win record thus far - at the top of the table.
For a team that prides themselves on being solid defensively, Chelsea have looked disturbingly porous. So far, they have not been able to prevent their opponents from scoring and have conceded eight goals in their last three Premier League away games (two from this season and one from last campaign). To put that in perspective, in their seven matches on the road prior to that, they gave up just four. And in their opening four games, Mourinho's men have already shipped nine, a number that Everton will hope to add to Saturday afternoon.
Will Everton manage to heap more misery on Chelsea? Or will the reigning champs finally get their season up and running?
You definitely won't want to miss out on this Blues vs. Blues clash. Make sure you bookmark our special Everton vs. Chelsea match page here at LiveSoccerTV.com so you can remain updated with scores and viewing options for your specific location.
Everton vs Chelsea team sheets
Everton lineup: Howard, Coleman, Jagielka (c), Stones, Galloway, Barry, McCarthy, Besic, Barkley, Kone, Lukaku
Everton bench: Robles, Mirallas, Lennon, Naismith, Deulofeu, Osman, Funes Mori
Chelsea lineup: Begovic; Ivanovic, Zouma, Terry (c), Azpilicueta; Mikel, Matic; Pedro, Fabregas, Hazard; Diego Costa
Chelsea bench: Blackman, Cahill, Loftus-Cheek, Kenedy, Willian, Falcao, Remy
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