Everton's entertaining attack points to goals on challenging trip to Chelsea

Premier League
Sky Sports Premier/Main Event, 2.15pm Sunday

Chelsea are the only team in Europe's top leagues who are unbeaten in all competitions and Maurizio Sarri's side should maintain that record against Everton at Stamford Bridge, but it could be a tricky test for the Blues.

Sarri's men have dropped points in only three Premier League matches this season, drawing against fellow heavyweights Liverpool and Manchester United as well as West Ham, which is considered the most surprising result of the campaign in betting terms.

The stalemate at the London Stadium followed the previous occasion Chelsea played a Thursday Europa League contest and, despite a smoother passage home from Belarus this time compared to their cancelled flights from Greece, it does make the Blues more vulnerable than usual.

It's perhaps not enough to suggest a punt on Everton, but the Toffees could play their part in a high-scoring contest with both teams scoring.

Chelsea's only blank this term came in that trip to West Ham, but they still had 72 per cent possession, six shots on target and fell just shy of two expected goals, around the same rating they got for last week's effort against Crystal Palace which finished 3-1.

Alvaro Morata scored twice in that match to boost the Blues as their excellent start has been achieved without a prolific striker as Olivier Giroud, their matchwinner away to Bate Borisov on Thursday, has also been struggling for goals.

If Morata can continue his upturn in form that will be a huge boost, although with Eden Hazard in great nick there will always be creativity from Chelsea in the final third, with Pedro and Willian offering further thrust from wide positions.

Everton have conceded nine goals in their five Premier League away matches, not coming particularly close to a clean sheet, and their defensive issues are compounded by the absence of loan centre-back Kurt Zouma, who cannot face his former club.

However, Marco Silva's outfit are prepared to trade blows and their main strength comes in the attacking areas with Theo Walcott, Bernard and Gylfi Sigurdsson behind Richarlison.

The Merseysiders have failed to score in the Premier League only once this season and that was in a 2-0 defeat to Arsenal when they created a cluster of first-half chances to break the deadlock.

It would be a blow if Richarlison fails to recover from a knock, but Chelsea are not watertight at the back anyway.

The Blues have conceded in five of their six Premier League home matches and their impressive away record of just one goal conceded could be misleading as the average league position of their road opponents was 15.8 going into this weekend's fixtures.

Recommendation
Both teams to score
1pt 5-6 Betway

Bet on this match at Soccerbase.com

Team news
Chelsea
Cesc Fabregas needs to be assessed after illness.

Everton
Loanee Kurt Zouma is unavailable against his former club with Yerry Mina pushing for his first Premier League start at centre-back. Top scorer Richarlison needs to be assessed.

Key stat
Everton, who have not won at Stamford Bridge since 1994, have lost on seven of their last eight trips to Chelsea.

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