By Alyce Collett (13/02/25)
Above: Everton Manager Brian Sørensen. Photo: Everton FC
The week ahead is a bit of an interesting one for Everton, with the Toffees set to face Chelsea again after only facing them a week ago. This time, the clash is in the League, compared to the last meeting being an FA Cup tie.
The quirk in the fixture was certainly front of mind for many who had gathered for Everton coach Brian Sørensen’s pre weekend press conference.
Despite the negative result the Toffees got against Chelsea last week, Sørensen was able to find the positives out of the performance, but it was tinged with some frustrations.
“We were disappointed with the way that they came back into the game.” He explained.
“I think if they hadn’t got that penalty awarded that we would be 1 – 0 up for halftime, and then we can make a plan, and we’re very good at seeing games out. Where it’s 1-1, then we get a bit more aggressive with our pressure, and then the game becomes a bit more open, and they’re very good at that.”
“We also knew that we have to have a result in the first hour or so, because of the bench that they have available. It would be very hard to get back into games against Chelsea. So that really disrupted our plan, but I think until the penalty, they didn’t look to create any big chances, all the shots were from far out.”
“So, disappointed that the game ran away from us that way. I’m not saying that Chelsea weren’t the better team, Chelsea will always be the better team, because it’s what they have available going into a match. But we also need to get the margins on our side, they don’t need that help to win a game, they’re good enough.”
When asked about whether playing the same opponent two matches in a row helps his side at all, Sørensen was not 100% convinced either way.
“I don’t know if it helps, but I don’t know which side has more advantages.” Sorensen said.
The Everton boss acknowledged that Chelsea at home is a difficult task and that “they’re in good form,” but also that his side has “things that we know we can do better, we want the best on the ball, so we have to be better at that,” and this quirk in the fixture gives his side the perfect chance to do that.
“It’s going to be tough either way, but Chelsea has an amazing squad and we need to get everything right. We can’t make mistakes, like we did with the third goal on that free kick and so on, so we just have to be at our very best to get something out of the game.”
Sørensen has previously spoken about the need for regular matches for his side to build their connection, but with international breaks and other disruptions coming up to the weekly occurrence of matches, that might not be easy to achieve for the side. But, the Everton boss has a plan.
“We’ll try to play some games behind closed doors when that period comes so we can keep everyone going.” Sorenson said.
“But we also have to take into consideration that actually after that international break, the Villa game doesn’t come in a good time” the Dand also said, noting that a number of his players will be playing for their national teams during the international break.
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