I think it’s fair to say that Chelsea and City are the two best teams in England with squads head and shoulders above the rest, and this fixture was set to be a spectacle. A real six pointer where the only two teams competing for the title this season collided. With a respectable five point lead at the top of the table; it wasn’t really a game which Chelsea desperately needed to win, although if they did win I’m sure the bookies would’ve paid out for them to be crowned champions at the end of the season as they would have a very comfortable eight point lead – not that City haven’t recovered from being eight points behind in the title race before but it would have been easy to write us off, for sure.
Source: chelseafc.com
Before the game, I personally thought Mourinho would’ve instructed his team to stay open and let the likes of Hazard, Oscar and Willian work their magic and send out a message to the rest of England, as a pose to their defensive mentality shown at the Etihad back in September. It was a chance for Chelsea to more or less kill City off and run away with it, and to be honest, it’s hard to not be critical of Mourinho’s game plan despite their great defending and work ethic.
Where was the flowing football that tore a good Swansea side apart away from home? Where were Hazard’s glistening, weaving runs down the left wing? Finally, where were Mourinho’s balls? No matter who you’re playing, when you’re at home the main objective should be to win. Especially with the incentive of going eight points clear of your nearest rivals. Although they still have a relatively comfortable lead at the top, Chelsea’s “Let’s not lose” attitude is hard to dismiss. Anyway, I thought City were by far the better team and we were unlucky not to win and it was certainly an improvement on our horror show vs Arsenal. However the solidity and organisation of Chelsea’s defence paid off for them. Here’s how I’d rate each City player individually:
Joe Hart: 7 – Hart didn’t have much to do all game and certainly wasn’t at fault for their goal. There was no mistakes with his distribution unlike recent weeks and he commanded his area and dealt with the one corner Chelsea had. No faults to pick up on but nothing particularly special about his performance, seven is fair.
Bacary Sagna: 8 – Given the unfair criticism Sagna receives off a lot of City fans, I thought he had a fantastic game. I’ve said all season he doesn’t deserve the stick he gets off of a lot of people, and dare I say it – he’s outperformed Zabaleta on quite a few occasions in my opinion. As much as I love Pablo he hasn’t been great this season and I think City fans’ love for him have made it hard for them to see that and saw Sagna as a scapegoat. However, he dealt with one of the finest players in the world extremely well today. Apart from his assist, Sagna didn’t give Hazard a sniff. Although Chelsea weren’t really trying to open us up and Hazard didn’t see as much of the ball as usual, Sagna was solid and didn’t seem to put a foot wrong – also winning more aerial duels than any other City player with 5.
Vincent Kompany: 6 – I think it’s pretty clear Kompany hasn’t performed as we know he can for the past few months. Of course he’s had an injury or two but he just hasn’t dominated opponents’ attackers like he always has done, with Demichelis outperforming him more often than not. Although he was a lot better than he was against Arsenal, you could say he was at fault for their goal. It’s tough to call but it looks like Kompany pulled out of the interception at the last second, for whatever reason I don’t know – but it was certainly the wrong decision. With that mistake aside, he defended well for the most part but in truth wasn’t called upon many times – especially in the second half where Chelsea didn’t seem to pose much of an attacking threat.
Martin Demichelis: 7 – Demichelis was back to his usual self today after a disappointing performance against Arsenal. Similar to Kompany, he never really had a lot to do given Chelsea’s defensive mentality but he was reliable and ready when called upon. He also had the highest pass accuracy out of anyone else on the pitch with 85%.
Gael Clichy: 9 – Yet another flawless performance from the Frenchman. In recent weeks I’m pretty sure I’ve turned into his biggest fan and I’ve backed him for a long time. His consistency is superb and he seems to play well even when City don’t. Today, he did everything right. He defended well and made a few vital interceptions and did well to cope with Willian who looked like one of Chelsea’s liveliest players. He got up the pitch to help Milner out plenty of times too and looked like he was full of energy, even pressing Courtois twice as the furthest man we had up the pitch. I can only praise Clichy for his recent performances and he continued his fine form today capping off a great display from our full backs. Guaranteed Kolarov start vs Hull next week then…
Fernando: 7 – Fernando had a quiet game, he broke up the play a few times and his composure slowed the game down when needed, which is important in such a big fixture. There was no faults to pick up on, although he’ll probably be the one to take a place on the bench once Yaya returns from the African Cup of Nations.
Fernandinho: 9 – Simply outstanding. For me, he was the man of the match today and our stand-out performer. He seemed to control everything, he stopped a lot of Chelsea’s attacks through the middle and started most of ours. All he needed was a goal and it would have been almost identical to one of Yaya’s signature performances from last season! Instinctive passes, marauding runs and solid tackles. Absolutely fantastic performance from our #25.
Jesus Navas: 7 – For the first time in a while, I wasn’t so critical of Navas after a game. He wasn’t flawless by any means but he caused problems and the only real fault in his game today was his poor end product. He did well against arguably Chelsea’s best defender in Azpilicueta and gave him a really tough time, but his end product was really lacking and his crosses didn’t often reach a City player.
David Silva: 7 – This was a tough one, if I was rating his first half performance it would probably scrape a 5, but his second half performance was probably a 9. Apart from his vital goal, he was invisible in the first half and over-hit quite a few passes. However in the second half he didn’t seem to put a foot wrong. He was threading balls through the Chelsea defence often and looked like the magician we know every time he got the ball. With such an important goal and fantastic second half display, a seven may seem harsh but his poor first half did let him down.
James Milner: 8 – Yet again, Milner put in a great shift and didn’t step a foot wrong against a top side (Disregarding Arsenal two weeks ago). Although he wasn’t as effective as he was in the reverse fixture back in September, his reliability and constant threat out wide was pivotal in how we played today. He linked up with Silva brilliantly on quite a few occasions and with a bit more luck he could’ve got himself a few assists. A solid performance from our Jimmy who looks like he’s staying until summer at least after all.
Source: chelseafc.com
Sergio Aguero: 6 – Sergio hasn’t quite found his form yet and it almost hurts to see just what sort of impact an injury can make on a player’s performance. He was absolutely unstoppable before his injury but hasn’t scored since. To be fair, Chelsea’s young centre back Zouma did well and kept him relatively quiet, but he did miss a one on one which you can’t help but think he would’ve scored two months ago. Whether he meant it or not, he did grab an assist so he did have some sort of positive impact on the game. I’m sure he’ll find his feet again and I’m hoping he does what we know he can do against a struggling Hull side next week.
Substitutes
Frank Lampard: 5 – It doesn’t matter how well he played or what he did, Super Frank was always going to be the talking point of today’s game. A Chelsea legend returning to The Bridge – except this time he was playing for their biggest rivals. I think everyone apart from Chelsea fans wanted a Lampard winner today. I personally couldn’t have thought of anything better but it just wasn’t meant to be. He was rather quiet but didn’t do anything wrong and I wouldn’t blame him if the occasion got to him a little, given the circumstances.
Edin Dzeko: 5 – Similar to the Arsenal game, Dzeko came on with not long to go and didn’t do much but he wasn’t at fault. He hasn’t had much playing time at all since his return from injury and although I’m not his biggest fan, there’s no room for criticism and it’s clear he needs more minutes.
Stevan Jovetic: 5 – The Montenegrin only got a small run out for the last few minutes, replacing Silva which Silva himself wasn’t happy about at all. Although we were all over Chelsea and had them on the racks around their area for the last few minutes he struggled to get involved but there’s not much to pick up on given the amount of time he played. Expect him to get quite a few more minutes next week.
Ewan Bayliss
Latest posts by Ewan Bayliss (see all)
- Chelsea vs Manchester City: Player Ratings - February 1, 2015
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Powerful blog by a promising journalist, looking toward to future blogs.