On Sunday, Chelsea beat Everton 1-2 at Goodison Park and moved within 4 points of Manchester City in 2nd place, with Chelsea still having a game in hand. As always, there were plenty of talking points to take away from this match. Here’s what we took away from this match:-
1) Lampard isn’t past it – Frank Lampard scored an all-important brace to help us come from behind and beat Everton 1-2. The 34-year old England international’s future at Stamford Bridge seems in doubt but yesterday he once again proved that he can still be an important player for Chelsea. While he may not be a regular starter in the near future, handing him a new 1-year contract wouldn’t be a bad move at all. It always helps to have an experienced war-horse in the squad. In this case, the experienced war-horse is a club legend who hasn’t lost his ability just yet.
2) Luiz isn’t a replacement for Mikel – Yesterday Luiz and Lampard started together in the middle of the park. While Luiz has impressed one and all with his displays in midfield so far, yesterday’s performance was one to forget for the Brazilian. He was caught out when Everton scored the opener and was generally all over the place, not what you need or expect from your defensive midfielder. If Everton had more bite in their attack, it would have cost us. Luckily Fellaini and Mirallas were unavailable for Everton yesterday.
3) New striker needed…. the sooner the better – Torres had an average day yesterday. He fluffed 3 good chances and altogether missed a 4th simply because of his poor touch. While he’s no longer shy of taking on the shot, his first touch and his willingness to make runs are a cause for concern. Chelsea were linked to Demba Ba in the middle of yesterdays match by Sky Sports News. It’s a known fact that we are woefully short on firepower up front, and with Sturridge likely to leave for Liverpool, a new striker must arrive as soon as possible.
4) A defensive approach does us no good – Ramires started the match yesterday, but not in the pivot. He was deployed on the right-wing to counter the threat posed by both Pienaar and Baines. While it’s good that we show our rivals some respect, the defensive mentality needs to be dropped as we tend to struggle to create chances. Defensive cover is necessary but what’s the point of it if we fail to create any clear-cut chances? Chelsea struggled for large parts of the first half and a lot of it was down to tactical confusion. The day’s of “parking the bus” are well behind us now and the sooner we drop our ultra-defensive tactics, the better.
Other talking points:-
5) We’re learning to win ugly…. that bodes well for the future.
6) When Hazard plays well, the team plays well. He struggled yesterday…. and we struggled.
7) Hope Cech recovers from his injury soon!
It was a great game yesterday,all of them did well except torres who was unable to score goals…..well done 4 them
Sometimes I don’t think we’re watching the same match…
Luiz was good yesterday, he was relaxed and was comfortable enough on the ball so as the calm the game down when Everton were steamrolling us. He also provided with that fantastic chip to Torres who didn’t control it
Hazard played well yesterday, even if he didn’t touch the ball much, clearly improving as the game went along (he also cost us the goal with a terrible pass, he tries a little too much IMO, but that pass to offside Torres was absolute magic) but he was generally much more dynamic then Mata, who was generally mediocre (this is Mata we’re talking about so he was ok but i’m just not used to him performing like that). His passing was terrible (pass to Moses on the counter attack in the 70th minute or so is a good example) even when no pressure was on him and his dribbling wasn’t great (ran straight at Distin).
Torres is shooting that’s what we were waiting for so can’t complain. When I look at him he seems so weak, physically weak.. Why? BECAUSE HE’S PLAYING TOO MUCH, he must be exhausted, he’s played every single match, has no cover for him and generally deals with most of the pressure. Heck he’s played more than Cech I believe.
Don’t sell Sturridge and buy one striker, Man U and Man City have four each why not us? If we sell Sturridge, I’d like us to go for Walcott because he gives a bit of the same and if Torres starts training with him his top speed will definitely improve. If Sturridge stays, I would go for a player like Ba because he just doesn’t fuss about scoring.
Positive point : Turnbull, serious pressure and the man delivered. Didn’t expect that
I really think that torres did some hood runs yesterday and he was willing to get the ball. His finishing on the second hand was terrible
Another striker is needed Torres seems exhausted.
Y are u only luking @ d negatives………..there where postives 2 take frm dat game
Irokotola mike
Bitch please. A player doesn’t even need the ball to play well. Do you even know what pulling defenders mean?
Blue for real
We seriously need a new striker. Torres looks tired.
Get us a striker, Torres is finished