Player Ratings- Chelsea v Swansea

Chelsea headed to South Wales, in this fixture, to face Swansea. After easily dispatching of PSG midweek, as well as a 16^th minute red card for Chico Florres, you may have thought Chelsea would destroy their opponents. However we could only manage the one, Demba Ba goal, which was enough for us two earn the 3 points. Again we were sloppy on goal with only 3 of our 26 attempts were on target. We had 62% possession and 12 corners.

Here are my player ratings for this match:

Petr Cech- 7.5/10

Cech made 2 great saves in the first half, and other than that, had a reasonably quiet game.

Cesar Azpilicueta- 7.5/10

Dave had a decent game, completing his defensive duties with ease. He also helped our cause in attack by providing support to our left-winger.

John Terry- 7.5/10

Swansea had basically no attempts at our goal and therefore left our defenders with an easy task. Nonetheless, JT, did manage to deal with the attacks in which the few Swansea attacking plays.

Gary Cahill- 7/10

Gary basically played the same as JT, however is attacking threat in set pieces wasn’t as prominent.

Branislav Ivanovic-7/10

Brana played all right, though his attacking prowess wasn’t as prominent as Daves.

Ramires (Subbed off 45^th minute for Eto’o)- 7.5/10

I felt that Ramires was our best player going forward in the first half, so I was surprised to see him get subbed doff at half time. He made surging runs forward, from his deep lying role and offered our forwards, outlets to pass to.

Nemanja Matic-7.5/10

Matic played a wonderful ball for Ba to latch on to and score, and broke down many Swansea attacks, in their own half.

Andre Shurrle (Subbed off 45^th minute for Oscar)- 7/10

Shurrle had a relatively quiet first half, and therefore I was surprised to see him get subbed off.

Willian- 7.5/10

As usual, Willian worked his socks off today, tirelessly running up and down the pitch, to track Swansea’s counter attacks, as well as to try create something from deep for us. I however, feel his is getting to tired and this is showing with his sloppy play when he has possession of the ball.

Mohammed Salah- 7.5/10

Salah has turned into a great signing for Chelsea recently. His blistering pace and tricky feet often confuse defenders, as shown against Swansea, however my only criticism of him, is that he is very sloppy when trying to play that killer pass or shot.

Demba Ba (Subbed off for Mike in the 80^th minute)-8/10

Ba played with confidence today and deserved his goal. He held off the defense really well, allowing our midfielders to create attacking chances and altogether was just a nuisance for the Swansea defense.

Used Subs:

Oscar- 7.5/10

Oscar provided an attacking spark for us in the second half with his combination play with Willian causing problems for the Swansea defense.

Samuel Eto’o- 7/10

Eto’o seemed lethargic while he was on and didn’t really get involved until Ba was subbed off. Even then, Eto’o was very, very sloppy, and stuffed up a few chances on the counter.

John Obi Mikel- N/A

 Mikel came on the dying minutes of the game and picked up a yellow card.