Everton manager Frank Lampard has warned his team about Chelsea’s “qualities” ahead of Saturday’s Premier League opening clash between the two teams.
Chelsea will visit Everton’s Goodison Park to start their 2022/23 Premier League campaign this weekend.
Both teams spent a couple of weeks in the United States for pre-season and neither looked very convincing in the friendly games.
Having beaten Chelsea at home towards the end of last season, which was crucial to Everton’s relegation escape, Lampard is quite confident that their fans will once again play an important role.
However, he is clearly aware that his team will likely spend the majority of the game defending in their own half.
“I think we have to understand the qualities of Chelsea,” the Toffees manager told beIN Sports ahead of the game.
“They will probably have more possession of the ball than us.
“They are a very possession-based team, they have that quality — I know that from working there.
“But that doesn’t have to be a huge problem for us as long as we defend in a very organised fashion.
“We have to understand that it takes a lot of work ethic as a team to try to get that result and then have trust in our players in attacking areas that we can give them problems too.”
Everton managed to secure a 1-0 win over Chelsea in May despite having just 21 percent of the ball throughout the game, so Lampard had a fairly good point.
Thomas Tuchel’s men, on the other hand, failed to convert any of their 17 chances in the game and paid for it.
This time, however, Everton will be without Richarlison, who scored the winner in that game, or most of their centre-forward options due to injury and suspension while Chelsea’s new signing Raheem Sterling is expected to start.
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