Sports

Chelsea Held By Youthful Everton, Premier League Chase Derailed

Chelsea suffered a setback in their Premier League title challenge at home when they were held to a 1-1 home draw by an injury-hit Everton on Thursday, leaving the Blues four points adrift of table-toppers Manchester City.

Chelsea, themselves missing their first-choice strikers due to COVID-19, failed to turn early dominance into goals before Mason Mount made the breakthrough in the 70th minute when he took a pass from Reece James and fired past Jordan Pickford.

Mount had missed one of the hosts’ many chances in the opening period when, clean through, he was denied by Pickford’s outstretched foot.

The visitors drew level within four minutes of Chelsea going ahead when Anthony Gordon floated a looping free-kick to the far post and 19-year-old Jarrad Branthwaite stretched out a boot to turn the ball past goalkeeper Edouard Mendy.

Chelsea struggled to make further inroads without Romelu Lukaku, Timo Werner and Callum Hudson-Odoi, who had all tested positive for COVID-19. Kai Havertz was also unwell and awaiting the results of a test.

The draw left Chelsea in third place behind Manchester City who thrashed Leeds United 7-0 on Tuesday, and Liverpool who won against Newcastle United by 3-1 also on Thursday.

Izuchukwu Okosi

Izuchukwu Okosi is a Nigerian sports and entertainment journalist with two decades of experience in the media industry having begun his media journey in 2002 as an intern at Mundial Sports International (MSI) and Africa Independent Television (AIT), owners of Daar Communications Plc. In October 2004, Okosi joined Complete Communications Limited, publishers of Complete Sports newspaper and Complete Football magazine as a reporter and later script writer for the Complete Sports studio. He worked there for 13 years until October 2017. Okosi also worked various times as Correspondent, Content creator and Editor at Sports Market International Magazine, Opera News, All Nigeria Soccer Media and Iconic Media Watch. He also undertook freelance writing gigs for some local and international organizations. Okosi is a member of the Actors Guild of Nigeria (AGN), Association of Movie Producers (AMP), Association of Voiceover Artistes of Nigeria (AVOA), Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN) and Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ). He has been part of cast in some Nollywood movies and radio dramas including Blood Money 2, Scores To Settle, Dead End 2, Another Campus Tale and Battle Line. Aside mainstream media and the entertainment industry, he has interests in scouting/unearthing of talents in the sports and creative sectors, exports business and property development.