Chelsea had the chance to progress into the quarterfinals of the FA Cup if they could be Man City at the Etihad Stadium. Man City however, dominated us and deservedly won the match. We struggled in attack and our defense, notably missing John Terry was extremely poor. We basically started the same team tonight, as 2 weeks ago where as City, had many notable changes to the line-up. We clearly lacked intensity in the midfield, leading us to only having 2 shots all match. This allowed City to tweak their tactics and control the match. Here are my player ratings for the match:
Petr Cech- 6.5/10
Cech had an extremely poor match by his standards. He fumbled the ball a couple times, and was lucky that Jovetic couldn’t convert the chance.
Branislav Ivanovic-7/10
Ivanovic was just about our best defender in this match, even though this clearly wasn’t one of his better performances. His attack was very poor, and he couldn’t have the same impact he made 2 weeks ago, as Silva, and Milner both defended against him well.
David Luiz- 6.5/10
David had an extremely lackluster performance against City. He dived into challenges, was caught out of position and he couldn’t keep his concentration at all. He can be blamed for the second goal, as he did not play the whistle, and allowed Nasri to stroll past him.
Gary Cahill -7/10
Although Gary was under an injury cloud leading up to the match, but he still looked lost out on the pitch. After the showing at West Brom, and this match, it’s clear to me, Gary needs John terry to bring the best out of him. He did make a couple good interceptions and last ditch tackles, but he was still poor today.
Cesar Azpilicueta- 7/10
Dave had an average game tonight. He did not attack, and his defense was only average. He should of defended better against Jovetic, when he scored the first goal for City.
Nemanja Matic-7/10
Matic was the biggest let down for me today. He seemed lethargic and dull, and Yaya Toure made a mess of him in the midfield. Two weeks ago, Matic was the MOTM, and kept Toure under raps with ease. This, in my opinion is why City won so easily today.
John Obi Mikel- 8/10
I’m not Mikel’s biggest fan, but he impressed me today. We never really got into the swing of things, and we were caught off the pace of the match but Mikel kept trying and broke down the City attack. Mikel was frustrating Toure and was Chelsea’s best player.
Ramires- 6.5/10 (Subbed off 60th minute for Torres)
We saw the best and worst of Ramires against City. He was awful in possession of the ball. His touch was very poor, and passing was wayward. He often gave away possession but he was the first person to win the ball back. His defense was very good which surprised me.
Willian- 7/10 (Subbed off 70th minute for Oscar)
Willian is obviously suffering from fatigue. He made a great start for Chelsea, but the past 3 weeks or so, he has seemed to be very tired. This has caused his attack to be sloppy, his shooting was woeful and his final pass was often off its mark.
Eden Hazard-7.5/10
Hazard is another player who has seemed to struggle from fatigue the past two matches. Hazard couldn’t contribute to the Chelsea attack and Zabaleta, with Milner kept Hazard quite.
Samuel Eto’o- 7/10 (Subbed off at half time for Salah)
Eto’o couldn’t get involved in the first half, but that was from a lack of service. Unless he was injured, I cannot for the life of me understand why he would be subbed off at half time, for Salah, a diminutive winger. I would of kept Eto’o on, and played him alongside Torres as a 2 man striking partnership.
Used Subs:
Mohammed Salah- 6/10
Salah could not involve himself at all in the 45 minutes he played. In fairness, he was playing out of position for 15 or so minutes.
Fernando Torres- 7/10
I’m not sure why Torres didn’t start this match as he would be a lot fresher than Eto’o and as he played very well the first time these 2 teams met this season. Again, Torres suffered from a lack of service from the midfield but when he did get the ball, he tried to attack the line.
Oscar 7/10
Oscar is another player who I feel should have been substituted on earlier in the match. He wasn’t too bad when he came on but the team as a whole played like a substandard side.
Luiz is a mess at central D. He does much better at DM. I’m not sure why JM keeps playing him there. He makes too many mistakes at that position. And Ramirez is just not showing anything these last few matches.
Tom, u know what is annoying me? Before luiz can make a pass, he needs to romance ball, that take some seconds away from the game. Terry dont do that. He needs to stop that. Ramires will think he is doing great, hahaha, he ll think hes playing wit his heart, he is doing it in a wrong way. U may run for the whole 90min, if u cant make a good simple pass is nothing. He is annoying me to be candid.
All players were under performed. Your rating is some how far from what I hv seen. Matic, Cech, and Cahill playing was relatively better than others. Mikel was z worest; he played standing in one place; he didn’t move; he couldn’t block almost all shots from his side. He couldn’t tackle; he dn’t pass ball to distant & start attacking and his short pass was awfule which helped city players to play near Cfc goal and can easily shot to z goal. Mikel weakness made Rami not to get ball and return back forgotting his roll. His slowness and poor tackling a reason for 2 goals. He deserved 4 not 8. Z strikers and AM failed b/c of no ball from DM. Matic was better in this position. Ivano dn’t block z danger cross. William played some how better than Haz but his last pass was useless. Haz and Eto not seen b/c of no ball pass to them from MF.
Can someone tell me what does KTBFFH mean ?
keep the blue flag flying high…
@ fik rami’s presence made mikel 2 play out of position.if u watched d match with keen interest,u wil see that mikel performd better when rami left the pitch.i know mikel was slow,but in this match rami was’nt pushn up field at all,but was tryn 2 turn a 4.2.3.1 to 4.3.3.even matic did better wen rami left b\cos there was a bit space 2 play in which rami was wasting.i think matic\lamp pivot wouldve been better 4 dis match.i stil concure with d rating.cfc 4 life.
Zyte u concure with the rating when the writer accidentally gave mikel 8? Does he make any difference? I cant see any visible difference between him and matic, the ‘only’ difference is matic is a fast version and awareness with vission frm deep. For now, the best combo is matic/lampard or luiz! I choose lampard cos hes faster than obi and good passer than ramires. Mikel should always partner ramires, that one should not even be a debate cos fast pacy ramires complement non pacy obi. I pray ginkel return in time. At least a good passer, fast, vision to partner matic
@ Fik: Was Mikel the playmaker?
Matic had a poor game yesterday- We played a 4-3-3 formation with Mikel as the anchor man- His work ws to sit deep in front of the back 4 to cut out attacks- Matic and Ramires didn’t hassle d city players enough, they cudnt make forward passes quickly and Yaya was slicing through Matic and Rami like butter.
Moreover the team was tired from over use. City was fresher.
In my opinion no chelsea player was worth a rating of 7 and above.
Cech was poor with his handling.
Cahill and Luiz cudnt deal with Dzeko, they allowed him to keep finding the pacey Jovetic.
Ivan and Azpi cudnt join d attack @ all- dey were terrible defensively leaving gaping holes @ d back.
Mikel was poor, Matic was worse and Ramires was the worst.
Hazard cudnt wade any magic- poorest performance all season.
Willian – No words to describe him.
Eto’o- No service
Torres – No service
Salah- Did dis dude even come on? Invisible- Looking like a poor piece of business frm out part.
Oscar- Shd v started- made a nice through ball on coming on for Torres to chase but d ball was just a bit ahead of him.
Jose Pls use all available players.
Neri ure wrong on this one. All of them played badly but u cant blame luiz alone for the first goal. What make luiz to be out of position? What make azpi to loose his marker(jovetic)? The answer to this is our dm(in particular mikel) no hate, we re analyzing, in 4231, yesterday, matic played as box to box, dzeko made a pass frm maybe 12 yard, iva has been dribbled, cahil try to cover for him, luiz came out cos no one marked free dzeko. Where is our anchor man? Where is matic? Too slow to come back in time. Azpi spotted the danger, leave his man to intervened not knowing its already over. We only play 433 when salah came on but switch back again to 4231 when torres came back again. Yaya played 3 or 4 shots in between the lines, i blamed an anchor man for this. U dont let that happened. Garcia didnt allow us to do that. Mikel/ matic shouldnt play together, any one of them should patner lamps, normal ramires(cos he has become abnomal) or oscar. Mou told ramires to help the midfield cos they were struggling with the tackle and pocession. With the consequence of leaving clichy open. I said kudos to them cos i knw how diffficult it is. U cant beat the best team thrice in a season, if it hapened, u knw something is wrong with best team. Moreover, u ve to play best player against the best. City re not resting players. All these people are professional, can u belief cahil can play the whole match? He did and he played well. They trained everyday even players do tell coach dat they will like to play this match, are u telling me hazard is tired when zabaleta and kompany and yaya are ready to eat him alive cos of revenge of the points we ve taken from them? Dont blame anyone, its city game and they won period. Well deserved. Enough raping, they re the best team in the league and they should watch out next season.
Cfc_obsessed
I agree with neri abayomi. They were all poor. Salah can still be good business. He is a proper winger. Tho I don’t think he is better than schurrle. Faster? Yes. Better? No. Chelsea is on the up. We need to pick ourselves up against everton.
Schurrle? Well, he is the first player to be given plenty chance this season in the xpense of kdb, guess what, he droped form suddenly without giving us warning. We all knw salah, he s still shy, he needs to start couple of games. Am ashamed of myself, i regret i am not a fan of schurrle. Forgive me pls
@cfc obsessed u may disagree with me,but u didnt hear me say dat i concur with d rating b\cos mikel was given 8.i am not a mikel fan,but a cfc fan.i tink u should also note dat i said i prefer matic\lamp.am not obsessed with mikel,but about cfc.i ve praisd rami b4,but now i must criticise him hopn dat he wil change.mikel is damn slow no doubt,but a betta passer dan rami.so de pivot i want is matic\lamp,matic\luiz or mikel\rami.
Spot on
Yea lets agree that we didnt we yesterday but assuming the likes Hazard,Ramires and Willian clicked yesterday,nobody would have remembered whether Mikel was slow or Luiz fumbled yesterday.
@Akiwunmi, you just said my mind. I wonder if people are open minded? Well everyone is entitled to express themselves…still let’s be objective and not subjective. Until Akin said it, the discourse focused on our pivot. Hazard/Willian and Ramires were all absent today, their inability to control play meant Eto’o was a no-no! Please house play the game all over again in your mind and you’ll see that our supposed AMs didn’t come to the party. That should have been the lead discourse, then. At the swansong we visit our DM, which I believe tried. @CFC, in our last match I told you, Matic/Mikel will work. You said they will be too defensive, which I said that will happen if the coach wants it so.
See, this is Matic’s first real taste of the EPL (forget his first cameo spell). This is the real deal! Still he is missing something. He runs like a bear , gets the ball…this is where he needs grooming. Give a nice through-pass. He gets the ball and voila! Away!!! Remember I told you Matic should be winning us fouls. He made Toure get a yellow (although he was also yellow carded which I think was rather harsh). Matic will come good, sooner then later. I here people call for MVG. Hahaha!!! Guys, each of these players has something the coaching crew needs! Yesterday was only the first time M/M was fully ultilzed and before I rubbish them, I’ll need them both to play again as our pivot. Remember they had little time inbetween games. They are not robots that need programming to get at their best again! Ramirez was the worst for me. For three games now he either gives the ball away or sends it miles off. He can run the whole 120min and make little positive change! He needs rest, and I bet you he will be back to his Blue-kenyan self. The first goal, Cech should have given Azipicueta a benefit of a doubt while he was running towards Jovetic, but he didn’t (IMO). The game against Everton will be different. The guys are resting now! Once again, Akinwunmi well said! A fan asked if Chelseafc can be ruthless without Hazard….my fear is JM wants to build the team around him. I could be wrong…that guy needs rest else he becomes HAZARDous to the team!
What did mikel do or what does he ever do. Came on against westbrom and boom… Today i knew it because mikel is so good at disguise, his teammates fail to know what mikels role is just look at Matic today who had no idea what mikel was doing…. It leads to confusion on roles because you may have to play mikels role plus your own. When a player can play a game without any contribution like mikel often does then you realise the team was 10 men already
What did mikel do or what does he ever do. Came on against westbrom and boom… Today i knew it because mikel is so good at disguise, his teammates fail to know what mikels role is just look at Matic today who had no idea what mikel was doing…. It leads to confusion on roles because you may have to play mikels role plus your own. When a player can play a game without any contribution like mikel often does then you realise the team was 10 men already, som people jax don’t get it, we played against them two times without mikel, and take a look back at those games hw we were playing beta in midfield nd see this one he played, rami played in those games yes it wasn’t good buh not lyk this one mikel disorganizes the midfied som1 should say the truth nd stop being sentimental.
@kes y r u laffing @ mvg? Do u not tthink he is good? The boy is class. My only happiness is that mou likes him so I’m sure his talent wld not waste on the bench. Mvg and matic and ramires are the future of our pivot. Can’t wait for next season. Afta d rubbish mou said about wenger, I want wenger to win the FA cup. So that everybody can stop talking about his barren run. Ktbffh
Can belief miles is wishing wenger a good luck. Na wa for u o. Wenger never wishes us sucess. Do i fucking care? Am i only one one who hate arsenal, barca, man utd here? I dont care about them and they can fuck off.
U seriously don’t know how to rate mikel 8/10..he wasn’t able to stop nasri and u r rating him 8,he couldn’t win eny tussle with yaya toure n ur rating him 8,couldn’t even pick a foward pass n ur rating him 8.I’m a nigerian buh u should know dat guy always gives an average performance always..david luiz n matic is just our best option in dat pivot…f**k ur ratings
The problem with some fans in this page is that; they make the analysis too personal. It’s either they delve to the Middle of the field or striker even when he got no supports for chances or the subject is switched to Mikel or bigotry etcetera.
I’m sure some fans are equally bored. When will we ever talk constructively, maturely or without prejudice on players perceived to be hated that much. Someone made a nice realistic comment another pops up and says he’s wrong. Please let us leave sentiments out of football. If you hate, Torres, or Mikel or any other player as a person, then its the more reasons not to dwell on the analogy persistently as if you are infallible … stop criticizing bitterly, criticize as a fan who knows his limits as not being a professional.
@Anonymous! Spot on…it got to a point of irritation! You despise a player that plays for your team and you call yourself a fan! Hahahaha!!! Guys condemning and making sick comments, let me ask if you’re a player and gets these words: all of’em…from a supposed fan what will you do! Some of these accused players have won more trophies than Wenger! Bon soir a tous!
@ anonymous & kes tanks 4 dat reasonable & matured comment.u are real fans of cfc.a real fan doesnt hate a player dat has won him trophies.ktbffh
Awful game by all the team, City deserved the win, so congratulations to them. The team pressed low on the pitch, with low intensity and we never could grab the match on our hands. I disagree with most of the ratings, in my opinion none deserved higher than 7.0. “Good news” is that we have only 2 competitions to focus on, and we must concentrate on showing good form on both of them. I think we shouldn’t crucify anyone, all the team performed bad and we must concentrate on improving rather than finding scapegoats. I still believe this team, they are on a building process and I think we’ve great chances to celebrate something at the end of the year. KTBFFH!!
I would like to start by saying thkans for the Word Press VOTD widget. I am fairly new to blogging and word press and I think its a great widget. I do have a question if you can help me. My name is Ryan Grothouse. I am the youth pastor at Dundee Baptist Church in Dundee, FL. We are currently using VOTD on our newly built church website (www.dundeebaptistchurch.com) to try and display our Awana schedule (its on the sidebar of every page but the home page). Your widget was the only one that I could find that would rotate based upon a date that we put in.Is there a way to have a specific VOTD display until the next date occurs. Or is there a way to put a range of dates so that it would display for a whole week?Basically we are looking for VOTD to change on Thursday to the new Awana theme night, display that verse until the following Wednesday, then have it change to a new theme night on Thursday again.I hope you can help. I really don’t know much about the code behind everything to attempt to do this on my own without the fear of messing things up.I am rebuilding our youth website and my personal page using Word Press and will be using VOTD on both of them because I think its a powerful widget to use. Thanks for your time and for the VOTD.Ryan GrothouseYouth PastorDundee Baptist Church863.439.2345