Everton 0-1 Chelsea

44 min: "What do people do while they are waiting for Everton to score?" wonders William Corkill. "I'm eating damn good cold soup."

GOAL! Everton 0-1 Chelsea (Essien 41): Essien plays a one-two with Wright-Phillips, via a hefty deflection of an Everton defender, and pops the ball past the stranded Howard. It was Chelsea's first shot on target, though they have undeniably been the better team.

38 min: Yakubu is harshly whistled for backing into Carvalho. A lone voice from the Goodison terraces can be heard to bellow, "Another poor decision ref-er-reee!" which is quite polite in its own way.

35 min: NOTHING WORKS! NOTHING WORKS! WHY DOES NOTHING WORK? That came earlier than expected, but never mind. Essien picks out Wright-Phillips with a terrific pass, but Jagielka makes a fantastic tackle. Seconds later he's there again, this time blocking the Chelsea man's shot.

30 min: ... but yet another dire delivery. "Most players' nicknames are dull affairs," says Gary Naylor, "but I'd like to suggest that John Terry be referred to as 'the fourth official'." I'm pretty sure England's Brave has been yabbering away at Martin Atkinson far more than the fourth official has so far tonight. 29 min: Pienaar, who has swapped flanks with Fernandes, clatters into Ferreira so it's a free-kick to Chelsea on the right side ...

27 min: Kalou skips past Hibbert - how is he still playing regularly for a top five Premier League team? - so easily, but his pull-back fails to find the target.

25 min: J Cole whips a ball in and Jagielka does well to head away.

23 min: Carvalho booked for a late tackle on the rampaging Lescott. Nothing malicious in it - he was just a touch late.

20 min: Art Durbano is just chock full of fascinating facts. "The 10 outfield players Chelsea have on the pitch right now have combined for 25 goals in the league this season (as Chelsea players)," he says. "That's precisely as many as John Carew and Roque Santa Cruz have between them."

18 min: Howard smothers SWP's slide-rule pass looking for J Cole. "Where's Drogba?" demands Dan Barron. "That's twice this week he's not even been on the bench. Is Avram Grant willing to concede the league title just to screw me and my fantasy team?" Yes. Yes he is.

16 min: ... which Fernandes strikes and nearly beats Cech. The shot bounced a couple of yards in front of the keeper and he just about managed to spoon it away.

15 min: Sometimes it strikes me that Chelsea play like a tactically strong Championship team. They're very direct to get the ball into the final third, then they look to play. It works a treat for Watford, Stoke et al, but it's not necessarily what you want to see from, in theory, the second best team in the country. Free-kick to Everton, decent position ...

12 min: ... which is horribly over hit by Kalou.

11 min: The stadium announcer, sounding like the mum from Bread, very politely tells the Chelsea fans to "remain seated" in the away end "in the interests of safety". If they don't I imagine a much louder, angrier voice will start screaming "SIT DOWN!" through the Tannoy until they comply. Corner to Chelsea ...

9 min: SWP humps a toe-poked cross over everyone waiting in the box.

6 min: It's been quite a bright opening. Everton zipping the ball around nicely, Chelsea less so but still showing some spark.

3 min: Wright-Phillips gets a yard of space on the edge of the box, but Jagielka blocks his shot. The corner is headed away.

2 min: And nice stuff from Chelsea too. Yakubu gives the ball away cheaply in midfield, Ferreira gets on the overlap, but his cross is punted away.

1 min: Good early stuff from Everton. Pienaar slides a cleverly-angled pass into the box, but Carsley can't get on the end of it.

Peep! And we are off for what could be the final meaningful match at the top end of the Premier League this season.

Carefully hand-selected chosen-for-no-particular-reason email dept. "I agree," says Bryon Whitley. "Everybody needs to lay off Avram." Apart from Mr Abramovich presumably. "I'm with you on Avram Grant - I think he's done a decent job," says Nick Einhorn. "Plus, if he holds on to his job it will be great encouragement for other zombies who dream of holding important positions in the sporting community.

More positive thinking: Sod the Uefa Cup place! If Everton win this they're right back in the Champions League hunt. There's a neat symmetry there, no? Both these sides are five points off where they want to be and running out of games ...

Podcast plug: If you fancy hearing James Richardson, Kevin McCarra, Barry Glendenning and Paul Doyle wax lyrical about Chelsea's slim title hopes and sundry other topics why not listen to Football Weekly? That, I ought to point out, is meant is a rhetorical question.

Team news:Everton: Howard, Hibbert, Yobo, Jagielka, Lescott, Neville, Carsley, Fernandes, Pienaar, Johnson, Yakubu. Subs: Wessels, Baines, Gravesen, Anichebe, Rodwell. Chelsea: Cech, Ferreira, Carvalho, Terry, A Cole, Wright-Phillips, Mikel, Essien, J Cole, Anelka, Kalou. Subs: Hilario, Makelele, Shevchenko, Malouda, Alex. Referee: Martin Atkinson (W Yorkshire)

One man to have had a hard time of late is poor old Avram Grant. He may, as Paolo Berni says, look like Droopy the Dog, but I've got an unfathomable soft spot for him. To my mind he's done a perfectly decent job at the club, particularly so when you consider the shoes he had to fill. Chelsea are unbeaten in 17 league games, so when he sticks up for himself, I think he's got a fair case.

Advanced warning dept. I'm being heavily hampered by gremlins in the machine here, so apologies if things are a little slow at first. It's not so much a meltdown as a slow-burning lava flow of problems. If my entries from, say, 70 minutes onwards simply contain the words "NOTHING WORKS! NOTHING WORKS! WHY DOES NOTHING WORK?" you'll know why.

Preamble: Right, let's start in a positive frame of mind (because, let's face it, that might not be an option later). If Chelsea win this, they go two points behind Manchester United, having played a game more. That would mean for Chelsea to win the title, all they would need to do is beat United at Stamford Bridge (and all their other games) and then hope the Reds lose at Blackburn or Wigan or at home to West Ham (as they did last season).

Am I convincing anyone that the title race is still on? No? Well, let's look at it from the other side then. Everton have Portsmouth breathing down their necks in the race for that much-coveted Uefa Cup spot, and Villa are arguably still in with a shout as well. So, for the Toffees, this is a big one. Sort of.