Breaking Down Branislav Ivanovic's Performance for Chelsea vs. Everton

LONDON — Branislav Ivanovic's performance against Everton on Wednesday night has grabbed the headlines, but for all the wrong reasons.

Chelsea's Serbian defender was caught in a tussle late on in the game when he appeared to head-butt James McCarthy. According to BBC Sport, the FA has since confirmed that Ivanovic will face no retrospective action, with no case to answer.

While the debate will rage on over the incident, Ivanovic is left to concern himself with one thing: his overall display against Everton.

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It was another solid performance at right-back from a player who is as influential as ever in this Chelsea team.

Indeed, Ivanovic's performances remain at such a standard that Cesar Azpilicueta is still being played out of position on the left side of Chelsea's defence. There is a battle in that area, with Filipe Luis and Azpilicueta continuing to share left-back duties.

On the right, there is only one master: Ivanovic.

The Everton game reinforced that, as our analysis below outlines.

Defensive impact

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Given Chelsea's dominance over Everton, there wasn't much for Ivanovic do defensively. He helped keep Chelsea's shape at the back but more importantly was required to contribute further forward.

That said, he made a vital defensive header from Chelsea's six-yard box around the 70-minute mark—a time when Everton were enjoying their best spell in the game.

Importantly, Ivanovic didn't make one foul in the entire game.

Sure, Everton didn't consistently pose questions of Chelsea's defense, but Ivanovic remained disciplined enough to avoid committing needless fouls whenever the opposition were in possession.

His only altercation came close to the end with the aforementioned clash with McCarthy.

Attacking influence

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A look at Ivanovic's heat map shows us how much success he enjoyed on the flanks against Everton on Wednesday evening.

Bryan Oviedo had a torrid time dealing with the likes of Willian and Juan Cuadrado, so he probably didn't appreciate having Ivanovic in his face for much of the 90 minutes, either.

Indeed, Ivanovic spent more time in Everton's half than his own.

That's vital for this Chelsea team. Without an out-and-out winger, Jose Mourinho needs his full-backs to press forward and provide the width they can lack at times.

Ivanovic does that; so too does Azpilicueta, to a lesser degree.

One criticism of Ivanovic is that he didn't have possession too frequently in Everton's final third, where he would have been more dangerous by providing crosses and extra numbers to get at a stubborn Everton rearguard.

End product

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Ivanovic thought he'd scored against Everton when Nemanja Matic's shot deflected off him and into the net.

The linesman rightly called him offside, though, so the defender couldn't claim to have won Chelsea six points in their last two games.

His goal against Aston Villa at the weekend outlined the threat Ivanovic can be in attack, and the fact he was in such an attacking position to deflect Matic's shot into the goal just shows the types of positions he takes up at times.

That's positive for Chelsea. It means they're constantly rotating, not just relying on their striker and other attackers to produce goals.

The negative is Ivanovic's crossing, which needs work. He is a central defender-cum-right-back, but a player of his quality needs to do better with the crosses he supplies to team-mates. 

Ivanovic supplied six crosses against Everton on Wednesday, but not one of them was successful.

Discipline

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We've touched upon this already, but Ivanovic is fortunate to escape a ban for his part in the melee at the end of the game.

It was goalless at the time, as the resulting free-kick from Gareth Barry's foul on Willian—in which Barry was also sent off for a second yellow card—saw the Brazilian fire home an exquisite winner.

With the controversy surrounding Diego Costa's ban of late, Chelsea's players need to be more disciplined during games to avoid bans. The media spotlight is on them more than ever, and they're fanning the flames by grabbing opponents around the neck.

That's not to exonerate Everton players from their part in the fracas, but with a title on the line, avoidable suspensions are inexcusable. 

*All stats courtesy of Squawka

Garry Hayes is Bleacher Report's lead Chelsea correspondent. All quotes were obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted. Follow him on Twitter @garryhayes