Premier League: Everton v Chelsea betting preview, free tips & where to watch

Football tips, best bets and predictions for Everton v Chelsea in the Premier League

Where to watch

BT Sport 1, 12.30pm Saturday

Best bet

Everton over 0.5 first-half goals
1pt 27-20 Coral
Back this tip with Coral

Team news

Everton
Midfielders Andre Gomes and Jean-Philippe Gbamin are out while Fabian Delph is a doubt. Seamus Coleman is also missing.

Chelsea
Antonio Rudiger, Ross Barkley and Ruben Loftus-Cheek are out.

Match preview

Goodison Park icon Duncan Ferguson will have the fans behind him when the Scot takes charge of Everton for the first time on Saturday lunchtime, and it might be worth backing Big Dunc to get a tune out of his dispirited ranks.

Ferguson is in caretaker charge of the Toffees following Marco Silva’s exit on Thursday night and he kicks off his reign with a test against in form Chelsea.

Watching Everton get ripped to shreds by Liverpool’s pacy attack on Wednesday night would make you worry for Fergie’s hopes of a successful start given the calibre of frontmen that Blues boss Frank Lampard has at his disposal.

But it's likely that Everton’s dressing room are pleased to see the back of Silva, even though it was the players who let him down.

They revel in being written off, though, and even at home in this fixture, they are quite clearly the underdogs.

It’s not easy to find reasons to back them against an excellent Chelsea side, who should boss possession and territory. The Blues boast far more quality in midfield and have pace in attack to terrify Everton’s woeful rearguard.

But Ferguson can bang some heads together and instil more passion, but more importantly he can alter the shape of the side, which could at least make the Blues harder to beat.

Many supporters would probably far rather the 47-year-old was leading the line – even at his age he could arguably carry more of a threat than Moise Kean – because Everton can create chances.

Only five teams boast more than their seasonal haul of 203 shots. That they have scored only 16 goals this season tells you everything about the shortage of quality in and around the box. Sooner or later – and maybe Ferguson’s influence will help – they should click in front of goal.

But Ferguson inherits a team who are on a run of eight defeats in 11 and Chelsea should be licking their lips at taking on the home defence.

The Scot presumably has to ask his side to sit a little deeper against Chelsea than they did against Liverpool because that back three (maybe four if Ferguson tweaks the structure) will lose foot races more often than not.

And he has to be concerned that his midfield doesn’t stack up to whichever combination Lampard fields.

Chelsea were excellent in beating Villa 2-1 last time out, bouncing back from a couple of defeats. They have lost four times in the league, three to top-four rivals and the fourth at home to West Ham last weekend when they were simply off colour. They still dominated the game on pretty much every measure, it just didn’t go their way.

Chelsea are open and they concede goals and if there was one positive from Everton’s shocker across Stanley Park it was that they carved out chances galore.

Everton have scored only 16 goals this season and 11 of them have come in the first half. They are worth backing to find the net before half-time – though whether they are still in the game by the closing minutes is open to question.