Tosin Adarabioyo thinks Chelsea are one of the best attacking club's in Europe, despite them failing to score against Everton on Sunday.
Adarabioyo put in a stellar display to keep the Toffees at bay in a 0-0 draw at Goodison Park, most notably producing an outstanding block to deny Iliman Ndiaye what looked like a certain late goal.
At the other end of the field, however, Chelsea's typically potent attacking four of Nicolas Jackson, Cole Palmer, Jadon Sancho, and Pedro Neto struggled to test Everton keeper Jordan Pickford, whose clean sheet was his seventh of the Premier League season. Pickford's shut-out also put an end to Chelsea's 15-match scoring run in the top flight, with the Blues last failing to score on the opening day of the season against Manchester City.
"It was a very difficult game," Adarabioyo told Chelsea's official website on Monday. "Everton are one of the best teams in Europe at keeping clean sheets and we’re one of the best at scoring, but they did very well."
Looking ahead to the second half of the season, the defender, who joined Chelsea from rivals Fulham on a free transfer in the summer, said: "We have a lot of confidence heading into the New Year. We’re having a good run at the moment, we’re full of confidence, and we just keep going."
Enzo Maresca: "I’m absolutely happy"
Chelsea's draw with Everton extended the club's unbeaten run in the Premier League to nine games.
The last time they lost was against league leaders Liverpool back in mid-October.
The stalemate did, however, see Chelsea fall further behind the Reds in the title race, whose thumping 6-3 win over Tottenham Hotspur on the same day saw them move four points clear at the top of the table.
But despite losing ground on Arne Slot's side, Blues manager Enzo Maresca insisted he was delighted with his team's performance.
In fact, he thought it was better than in the 2-1 win over Brentford last week.
Explaining why, Maresca said after the game: "I just said to the players I’m more happy today than the Brentford game. The reason why is I was quite worried about this game. It’s a tricky game, a tricky stadium, a tricky team."
"They are defensively top," he added. "They are one of the five best teams in Europe in terms of clean sheets. You struggle to create chances against them. It was not an easy game."
Maresca specifically heaped praise on Adarabioyo, as well as the rest of the Chelsea defence.
"Tosin was very good, Levi [Colwill] was very good. Rob [Sanchez] was there twice when we needed him," he said. "All the players defensively were very good. I’m happy for them. Clean sheet, we don’t concede."
Up next for Chelsea is Adarabioyo's old team Fulham, who the Blues welcome to Stamford Bridge on Boxing Day.
The last time the two sides faced each other back in January, Chelsea won 1-0 courtesy of a penalty kick scored by Cole Palmer.
Adarabioyo was on the losing side that day, but there's no doubt he will be hoping things will be different this time around.
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