Nordsjaelland vs. Chelsea: Community player ratings & statistics

Superb. Well, the save was, at any rate. In the 73rd minute, with the match still in the balance at 1-0, Joshua John cut inside from the left wing and unleashed a curling right-footed effort from the edge of the box. It looked for all the world as though the ball was going to find its way into the back of the net, that the on-loan midfielder had struck Chelsea a blow most cruel. And then Petr Cech flew across his goal and tipped the effort onto the post.

And really, that's pretty much all he did. One spectacular moment and nothing else from your goalkeeper in a 4-0 win? Works for me. Note also the pass completion rate. No bad distribution here.

Defensively sound. Two vital blocks from the left back prevented Nordsjaelland from getting on the scoresheet. The first was with the match still scoreless, and the second game just after that Petr Cech save, and Cole played each absolutely perfectly. Going forward, he was perhaps less successful, but with Victor Moses off his game and Jores Okore locking things down fairly well on the Nordsjaelland right, that's not exactly a black mark on his record.

Well, we're mostly going to remember the stunning free kick that made it 2-0 (David Luiz took a page out of Didier Drogba's book for that one), but he was actually very good across the board. His long passes weren't doing much at the beginning of the game, but he found his range later, completing 13 of 18 and linking play very nicely indeed. Didn't do much defensively. Didn't have to do much defensively.

The more restrained of the two centre backs, which basically means we barely noticed him. For all of Nordsjaelland's possession, they never actually threatened Chelsea through the central zone. The Blues' centre half pairing ended up combining for zero tackles and zero interceptions, which is a good summing up of the night. Apparently touched the ball 76 times. I think I've forgotten all of them.

Well, there were some lackadaisical errors, but I don't think we've seen Ivanovic fully focused yet this season. Partially focused is better then what we've got recently. Seemed to have some trouble tracking Joshua John whenever he went infield -- his positioning is fine but I'm not sure he really understands what to do when he's supposed to be handing another player off to a covering defender. Oh well. Was, as ever, a force going forward.

In a situation where his habit of bursting forward was perfectly acceptable, Ramires was... perfectly acceptable. Scored the fourth goal but had it served quite figuratively on a play by Oscar, so I'm not sure whether to give him much credit. Defended like he always does -- by running around and annoying everyone. Didn't provide much link between defence and attack, but was very suited to the pressing game Chelsea deployed. Caused a Chelsea going to be disallowed because he was fouled. You don't see that every day.

Wasn't good. There's something about Chelsea's left wing this year. In no fewer than three matches, the left winger's been completely isolated while the right-side player does all the work, and that was the case with Moses, who didn't see that much of the ball. Had a chance to put Chelsea up early, but was stuffed by Jores Okore, who picked up a head injury in the process. Considering how well the young defender played with the injury, Moses forcing the poor kid to have stitches might have been the most important thing he did all evening.

Managed to score twice only to see both strikes disallowed, one for a Fernando Torres offside and one for Ramires being fouled. No, I don't understand that one either. Other than those incidents, he played pretty well. The key man in Chelsea's pressing game, he won the ball eight times (four tackles, four interceptions), had 92 touches and a pass completion rate of 89 percent. His run and cross for Ramires' goal was spectacular.

Turns out that resting Juan Mata was just about the best thing that Roberto di Matteo could have done. Since his return, Mata has been on fire, scoring against Wolves, Arsenal and now Nordsjaelland. He also has four assists in that span. His brace here was slick, with a cool finish when Lampard set him free for the first chance and then a neat run through the centre of defence for the second. Managed to influence the game heavily when he wasn't scoring too. Good to see the real Johnny Kills back in action.

While his shooting boots weren't on on Tuesday, Torres managed to contribute in other ways. Had the 'secondary assist' (i.e. the pass before the pass that little Luka Modric is so famous for) for two out of the three goals. Won the free kick for David Luiz's great bit of David Luizyness. Harrassed and harried Nordsjaelland's back line all evening. Yeah, it would have been nice if he'd scored, but at least he played well and was involved in the match.

Came on for Victor Moses with 25 minutes left. Helped some, but was unspectacular.

Helped some, but was unspectacular. This is what happens when you're a holding midfielder and you're introduced with seven minutes to go and the score at 3-0.