Everton have been made to deal with their relegation battles over the past two seasons with Dominic Calvert-Lewin facing regular spells on the sidelines, and as the season approaches the business end the fight to preserve top-flight status might feature the towering talisman on the periphery once again.

Last season, a late burst of form propelled the relegation candidates away from the danger zone, concluding the term four points and two places above relegated Burnley.

But with the bottom three looming once again, manager Sean Dyche will be hoping that the recent purple patch that followed his January arrival will be maintained and the two-point gap to 18th-place West Ham United can be stretched further still.

Calvert-Lewin has scored just once from 11 league outings this season to complement a similarly uninspiring preceding year that landed just five strikes from 17 appearances, and with the 26-year-old missing the past seven matches in the Premier League, Dyche has been forced to utilise Demarai Gray in a dynamic striking role.

Gray has held his own, but against Chelsea in the club's last encounter, it was 22-year-old forward Ellis Simms, recalled from his loan spell at Championship outfit Sunderland, who burst past the hapless Kalidou Koulibaly in the dying embers of the contest to fire the ball home and restore parity, earning an invaluable point to maintain distance above the depths of the division.

How good is Ellis Simms?

Simms' goal at Stamford Bridge was his first for the Toffees since rising from the club's youth ranks and spending a string of spells out on loan.

For the Black Cats this term, the ace plundered seven goals and two assists from 14 starts, impressing the newly-appointed Dyche and earning a recall to aid his parent outfit in the fight to preserve top-flight status.

Simms has made just one starting appearance since his return to the fold, but he could indeed start to see opportunities increase after demonstrating his clinical edge against Chelsea, hailed for his "superb" maiden strike for his Premier League outfit by writer Peter Guy.

Also praised for being an "absolute nuisance" by Phil Smith, the £7k-per-week star ranks among the top 15% of forwards across Men's 'Next 8' divisions – the leagues preceding the established big five – for rate of goals and the top 14% for progressive carries per 90, as per FBref, illustrating a growing prowess as a lethal force and as a transitional cog to whir Everton into life.

Calvert-Lewin, in retrospect, is mired in woe and ranks only among the top 84% of forwards across Europe's major leagues for rate of goals and the top 78% for progressive carries per 90, highlighting the stark plummet from prominence that saw him bag 21 goals across all competitions during the 2020/21 campaign.

Simms is raw but he is a brute in his powerful and imposing offensive play, and this level of gritty tenacity is exactly what Dyche needs to bully opposition into submission and secure yet another Premier League year for this proud Merseyside club.

Should the youngster achieve that for his outfit, then the former Clarets boss may well discover that he can finally cash in on Calvert-Lewin, a beleaguered striker who is now a shadow of his former self.