Ellis Simms scores late leveller to rescue vital point for Everton at Chelsea

Heroes come sometimes in unlikely forms. Ellis Simms has been a forlorn figure since returning to Goodison Park from his loan spell at Sunderland, but he came off the bench to score an equaliser that at least lifted Everton a point clear of the relegation zone, even if they remain fourth bottom. It’s so tight in the bottom half, though, that a win would have lifted them to twelfth.

Simms had scored seven goals in 17 games on loan at Sunderland earlier in the season before being recalled by Frank Lampard shortly before he was sacked.

The one real opportunity Sean Dyche had given him was away at Liverpool, when he was asked to play a lone strike role that really didn’t suit him. Big he may be, but chasing lost causes is not his style. Here he showed what he can do with players near him, picking up the ball on the left, drifting infield, and finishing via Kepa Arrizabalaga’s hand. As such, this joined the lengthy list of Chelsea games this season that they have dominated but failed to win.

In Enzo Fernández and João Félix, Chelsea have two players of immaculate touch. They’re always on the half-turn, capable of finding space where none seems to exist, both blessed with a remarkable range of passing.

Add in the deft talents of Kai Havertz and Mateo Kovacic and it’s perhaps not surprising if there are times when they seem almost beguiled by their own virtuosity, creating gorgeous networks of passes that often end up, 30 seconds or a minute after they began, back where they started.

That can be useful in breaking an opponent down, making them chase until the process of attrition generates chances, but if the failure of Graham Potter sides to score as many goals as it feels they ought to is down to anything beyond the absence