Chelsea fans will be concerned by Premier League news for Everton clash after recent trend

Chelsea already know who will be in charge for their clash with Everton this weekend, with the Premier League confirming the officials for the fixture. The Blues are in the midst of a thrilling Champions League chase with just five games remaining.

Enzo Maresca’s men are currently sixth place and two points behind Newcastle United, needing to finish in the top five to secure Champions League football for next season. The Blues have been in poor form of late, but they picked up a big away win over Fulham last time out, scoring twice late on, and they will be hoping that result sparks a big run-in.

The tricky part for Chelsea is that they have the most difficult run-in of the lot, facing Everton, Liverpool, Newcastle United, Manchester United and Nottingham Forest. That includes a hard-to-beat Everton side, the next Premier League champions and two of their direct top five rivals.

Chelsea are going to have to earn it, but that can take some comfort from the fact their Champions League fate is in their own hands. The first test is a tough-looking clash with a hard-to-beat Everton side that has been very resolute under David Moyes. The Toffees have lost just two of their last 13 games, and the Blues’ top two scorers are on droughts spanning into double-figure games.

Chelsea have their work cut out, but they might have some good news in the form of the referee appointment for this game. Chris Kavanagh will be in charge at Stamford Bridge, and Everton do not have a good record with him in charge. Kavanagh has refereed 15 Everton games to date, and the Toffees have only five of those games, also drawing five and losing five.

Interestingly, though, of the last five Everton games Kavanagh has refereed, the last four of them have been 0-0 draws - which would not suit Chelsea - and the other was a Toffees win, so the Merseyside club’s record under Kavanagh has improved of late.

As for Chelsea, they have had 20 games refereed by Kavanagh to date, winning 11 of those, drawing three and losing the remaining six. Concerningly, Chelsea haven’t won with Kavanagh in charge in the last eight games, not winning since 2022 when they beat Crystal Palace. In better news, of the first 12 Blues games Kavanagh was in charge for, they won 11, losing the other, winning the first six consecutively.

Perhaps concerningly, while the overall stats of Kavanagh refereeing Chelsea and Everton’s games appear positive for the former, recent trends show a clear turn on both accounts, perhaps favouring the Toffees.

Maresca on Chelsea’s Fulham win

Speaking after that dramatic late win over Fulham, Chelsea boss Maresca said: “To be honest I was quite positive [that we’d get back into the game] because the team were creating chances, and we were doing well,’ Maresca said of our second-half performance at Fulham.

“Sometimes you also have to have a little bit of luck go your way, and I think Tyrique's goal gave us that extra energy, an extra boost. Like I said, I was quite positive because the team was performing well. It was a fantastic goal from Pedro, as it was from Tyrique, but I think the entire team played well. Trevoh was good, Levi was good, the ones in the middle – Moi and Enzo, Cole was better. So I was happy for all of them.”