Everton boss David Moyes described the tackle as "not the best" but referee Alan Wiley showed only a yellow card to the Ghana international.

Now Cahill hopes Essien will apologise once he has seen a replay of the incident, which left Osman requiring lengthy treatment from physio Mick Rathbone.

Cahill said: "I was behind Ossie (Osman), so I didn't really see the tackle. I only heard the crunch.

"If he's gone over the top, he'll apologise. He's known for the odd dodgy tackle but Ossie is walking and that's the main thing. As long he knows what he's done, that's fine."

Cahill, whose spectacular overhead scissor-kick two minutes from time earned Everton a deserved point against Chelsea, says the fear of being dropped from the side is acting as a real spur to the squad.

Everton were without Mikel Arteta, Andrew Johnson and Leighton Baines against the Blues and Moyes will have difficult selection decisions to make when they return.

But Cahill admits everyone is desperate to be involved and he was delighted with his goal.

Cahill added: "I saw the ball pop up and I thought there was only one thing I could do, which was to scissor-kick it, Fortunately I got a great connection and when I turned around, the ball was in the net. There was a lot of relief.

"Chelsea are a very good team with world class players but though we conceded a goal to them, we kept believing. We have to fight to win games and we have great unity here. We respect each other and we all play for each other.

"You can see that on the pitch. You can go through the whole team and see everyone played so well. It's great to go to Chelsea and get a draw. Not many teams go there and get results but we are quite resilient and we deserved what we got.

"I've only been back a couple of weeks, so it's been hard. I'm just happy to be out there and to be part of this great squad. Everyone is fighting for their places. We took our chance when it came."