Baggies, Blues Battle to Boring Boxing Day Draw
West Bromwich Albion and Everton have laboured to a 0-0 draw in the Midlands as both clubs looked to have had too much Christmas turkey for dinner.
An oft-turgid match saw the Baggies record a rare clean sheet while the Toffees extended their unbeaten run to seven matches under Sam Allardyce, albeit with a second stalemate in as many games.
The draw also saw the away side make it 12 Boxing Day clashes without defeat as both outfits stayed 19th and ninth in the Premier League standings respectively.
Salomon Rondon spurned a glorious chance to get the hosts up and running inside six minutes - the Venezuelan flicking Jay Rodriguez's inswinging cross wide of the upright.
Rodriguez put a good effort the wrong side of goal as the Baggies dominated early on, while Yannick Bolasie - back in the starting lineup for the first time in more than a year - fired a high and handsome effort over the bar in Everton's best chance after 25 minutes.
A dire affair was lacking in genuine quality and, Jordan Pickford's save from Chris Brunt's drive and Ahmed Hegazi's wayward header aside, both sides headed into the interval all square.
Mason Holgate was inches away from connecting from Morgan Schneiderlin's low centre just after the restart before the youngster was given the slip by Rondon down the opposite end - the striker, however, blazed wildly wide from a one-on-one with Pickford.
Ashley Williams saw his header from Gylfi Sigurdsson's corner held by Ben Foster in a rare shot on target, while Jonjoe Kenny superbly charged down Brunt's fierce strike as the sides traded blows.
Rodriguez and Tom Davies put efforts wide down opposite ends of the field, Matty Phillips missed Rodriguez's cross on the stretch and Sigurdsson wasted an Oumar Niasse cutback as the profligacy count mounted up.
Phillips and Brunt skied shots from promising positions while Foster thwarted Niasse twice late on, but neither team deserved to steal all three points at the Hawthorns.
