Unsung Heroes

Last season wasn’t by any stretch of the imagination one that Chelsea fans will look back on with great fondness, stuttering form in the league – crashing out of the FA cup to a mid table side and going out of Europe in the group stages (as champions as well).
Winning the Europa League was certainly a glimmer of hope and something to give the Stamford Bridge faithful something to sing about and the 3rd place finish looks fantastic considering the horrendous form that interrupted what looked to be a viable title challenge in the early stages of the season.
So despite this year certainly not going down as one of Chelsea’s finest – there was definitely some positives to take from it, not least the outstanding performances and progress of some of the players – there is endless praise for the squads huge names, the Frank Lampard’s the Eden Hazards and the Juan Mata’s of Chelsea’s squad will always be showered with praise but this article is to focus on the players who might be constantly exposed to praise from the media but deserve it just as much as those who are, not only over the 12/13 season but since signing for the club.
The first player I have to praise is Ramires, signed from Benfica in the summer of 2010 for around £18 million he had a pretty awful first year in the premier league, a barnstorming box to box midfielder in the Portuguese league was reduced to what looked like a primary school kid trying to play football with the secondary school kids, time after time he was robbed of the ball in bad areas by players more physically adept than him and it began to look like Chelsea had wasted their money – I remember being at Chelsea Sunderland (where Chelsea were humiliated 3-0 amongst big injury problems) and a man next to us standing up to shout ”Whoever scouted this Ramires must’ve been blind”
His style of play was one not likened to his nationality as he was a player of strong tackles, endless running and hard graft rather than the samba skills and free kick mastery commonly associated with the Brazilians and I think this made it even harder for him to earn acceptance with the Chelsea fans, however as he strung together the starts he began to adapt – there was no visible physical change but the way he used his weight was evidently changing, players were coming in to shoulder Ramires off the ball and were bouncing off of him, his powerful runs from defence to attack where beginning to become a very dangerous weapon at Chelsea’s disposal until finally he gave the fans some of that Brazilian magic to celebrate.
It’s the 20th of March 2011, Chelsea were four minutes of stoppage time away from securing a vital win against Manchester City at Stamford Bridge.
1-0 up at the time the ball was rolled into Ramires about 25 yards from goal, he turned and skipped past Joleon Lescott as if he wasn’t there before lifting his head up, dropping his shoulder and doing exactly the same to Kolarov before lifting the ball over Joe Hart into the top corner to score his first goal at Stamford Bridge and send the crowd into raptures – ”That’s a true number 7” were the words of the commentator.
From then on he hasn’t looked back, one of the first names on the team sheet regardless of the manager Ramires has added countless man of the match performances (including both home and away games against Arsenal last season) to his Chelsea CV and some incredible (not to mention important) goals, with his phenomenal lob at the Nou Camp and the opener in the FA cup final to pick out a few high profile ones.
Despite still being a more industrial player than many would expect of a Brazilian midfielder his tireless running and commitment to the cause has led to him becoming one of Chelsea’s most important players, winning players player of the season in 10/11 and goal of the season in both 10/11 and 11/12 and endearing himself to the Chelsea fans (myself included, in case you can’t tell) it’s no wonder that rumours are being bandied around of Rafa Benitez’s desire to take Ramires to Napoli but with the year he had for Chelsea last year I really can’t see that happening.
The second player, and perhaps a more relevant choice due to him being a recent acquisition is Cesar Azpilicueta.
Azpi has effectively ended any selection dilemma for Chelsea in a position which had previously posed great problems (any position which Jose Bosingwa is allowed to play in is a ‘problem position’) although his crossing and general attacking play could certainly use some work with him still yet to score a goal for the club, he’s done the job he’s tasked with doing (Defending) absolutely superbly all season, the best examples of his almost seamless transition into the Chelsea starting XI is the performances where you would expect a right back to struggle – namely the 2-2 draw against Tottenham where he was tasked with keeping the supposedly unstoppable force that is Gareth Bale at bay, Bale’s input in the game was minimal and for the most part he found himself running at Azpi without any success with all of his good moments in the game coming when he was drifting to the right and running at Cole.
A solid performer in big games, capable with both feet, good in the air for a full back and a willing runner for the entire 90 minutes his signing not only took Chelsea up a notch through giving them a reliable right back, but also allowed for (in my opinion) Chelsea’s strongest centre back Branislav Ivanovic to actually play in centre back and offer more competition and depth in that area (another problem area in the dark age that was the Jose Bosingwa era).
At 23 he is only going to get better and he should provide the stability that Chelsea need in a time where world class right backs are very hard to come by and with recent call ups to the Spanish national team it looks like he has a very bright future ahead of him, an absolute steal at £7 million.
There were many performers last season deserving of mention but aside from the usual suspects of Juan, Frank and Cech I think Rami and Azpi were the two most deserving of a little bit extra praise after the outstanding seasons they’ve both had.
Any ideas on other articles for me to write leave below and I’ll get right on it and before anyone asks yes, Ramires is my favourite Chelsea player.