Chelsea Frustrated by Everton Defence in Scoreless Draw

Chelsea had to settle for a point as they were held to a 0-0 draw by Everton at Goodison Park in the Premier League on Saturday.

The hosts were solid in defence and the west Londoners lacked spark in attack, although the Toffees were indebted to goalkeeper Jordan Pickford on several occasions for keeping the visitors out.

The England international variously denied Pedro, Eden Hazard and Antonio Rudiger to make sure manager Sam Allardyce maintained his unbeaten record since taking over at the Merseyside club on November 30.

Meanwhile, it meant more dropped points for champions Chelsea, whose title race is all but over at the season's midway point.

Both clubs provided their starting lineups ahead of kick-off:

The hosts were under the cosh from the off and did well to limit Chelsea to only a Pedro shot from range in the first 10 minutes.

They were then indebted to Phil Jagielka for keeping the game at 0-0 as he cleared off the line twice—a rare feat, per WhoScored.com—first from Tiemoue Bakayoko then from Willian on the follow-up.

For all their dominance, Chelsea did not force Pickford into action until the 35th minute. 

Bakayoko broke through the middle and fed Pedro on the left for the Spaniard to sting the Everton goalkeeper's gloves with a powerful shot.

The former Barcelona man then drew another stop from the 23-year-old moments into the second half before substitute Ashley Williams blocked Marcos Alonso's follow-up.

The England goalkeeper denied Hazard just past the hour mark after the Belgian attacker's surging run and low drive towards the corner.

There was little endeavour to go forward from the hosts. Per Opta, they did not have a shot on target during the match:

However, their defending was stout.

All their hard work was almost undone when Williams got his head on Victor Moses' cross 14 minutes from time and looked to have diverted the ball into his own net.

To the relief of Goodison Park, though, the ball ricocheted back into play off the bar, and Pickford then saved well again from Rudiger's hooked effort to keep the game goalless.

Chelsea simply could not find the killer blow and were almost sucker-punched late on when Michael Keane rose for a clean header from a corner in stoppage time, but he could only guide the effort over the crossbar.