Courtois: We deserved to win

Thibaut Courtois, just like the fans and supporters is rueing the missed chances that stopped Chelsea from getting closer to second-placed Manchester United yesterday.

The Blues were held 0-0 at Goodison Park as Everton’s dogged defence repelled the attacks of the champions.

Coutois, who celebrated his 50th shut out as a Chelsea player said: “I think we deserved to win.

“Coming to Everton is always a tough game. I think they always give something more against the big teams, they had a good run the last five games so we came here and we knew we had a tough game.

“We tried to win, I think we were a bit unlucky with a few balls that were saved on the line. Jordan Pickford made two good saves and there was an unlucky ball that hit the bar, so we did not have the luck.

“We had to be careful of the counter-attack but except a corner and a dangerous free-kick, they did not have any chances so we defended very well and we were unfortunate not to win.

“‘They had eight or nine players in their box,” he told Chelsea FC. “We tried to move the ball and tried to find space because with the quality of Willian and Pedro and Eden, we tried to have the gaps to shoot. The only thing we could maybe have done more is more shots on target, try to shoot from distance rather than always a cross because we did not have the big guy up front in this game.

“When we lost against West Ham we did not have a good game. We started a bit slow and were not as strong as they were, and they won that game. Maybe against Everton if you were losing 1-0 early, maybe you could have the same difficult game so we were very concentrated in the beginning, trying all the game to keep the clean sheet which was a good thing about today, and we tried to score but we couldn’t.

“At half-time the manager said we don’t have to lose our patience, we were to move the balls to the side to try to get Willian and Pedro or Moses on the other side to have a one-v-one. With a defender maybe have a dangerous shot or cross in the box. Everton changed their system second half, that changed the game as well, it was even harder to create chances. We created some and we didn’t score so I am not happy with that but we have to keep on going.

“We could have won and should have won maybe but okay, we move on to the next game.”

Chelsea face Brighton on Boxing Day at Stamford Bridge at 3pm.