And now, the moment you've all been waiting for! Community player ratings from Chelsea's 5-1 win against Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday! Unfortunately, nobody thank I'm aware of keeps track of statistics from FA Cup matches, so I don't have as much information as I'd like to play with, but hey. Better than nothing, right? At least I remembered to do them this time.
Petr Cech - GK | 6.5 |
Minutes played90
Graham says6
Never that badly challenged by Tottenham despite their goal and a few clear chances. Saved in the first half by John Terry's knee and then the goalpost, and very lucky not to be sent off after wiping out Emmanuel Adebayor when the Spurs striker raced clear for their goal - Gareth Bale being onside and scoring is all that saved Cech from a straight red card and a suspension. Was his now-usual calm self on crosses, which is a positive, but there's really nothing there you could describe as 'good'.
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Ashley Cole - LB | 6.7 |
Minutes played90
Graham says7
Not much in the way of attacking runs from Cole, who was needed more to contain the attacking runs of Aaron Lennon than anything else. He was generally effective there, and thanks to Lennon's particular brand of specialness whenever the left back did end up getting beaten Lennon would give the ball away of his own accord shortly thereafter. There was one frightening moment that came when Cole lost Lennon in the six yard box, allowing the winger to pick out Rafael van der Vaart for what should have been the opening goal.
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David Luiz - CB | 6.6 |
Minutes played59
Graham says6
An unfortunate evening for David Luiz, who was stretchered off with a hamstring injury sustained during the play that led up to Tottenham's goal. It's difficult to blame David Luiz for failing to chase down Emmanuel Adebayor there, considering he pulled up limping very quickly, but he did make one key error that very easily could have led to a goal when he failed to deal with a (quite good) diagonal ball from Rafael van der Vaart to Adebayor in the first half, allowing the striker to escape him and putting Petr Cech into real trouble. Fortunately, Adebayor missed the resulting chance and the ball crashed off the post and to safety. So that was the bad - the good was everything else. He ate up Gareth Bale whenever he got past Jose Bosingwa (which was depressingly often) and made several key interceptions as Spurs tried to enter the final third. The severity of his injury is unknown, but it looked to me as though he'll be out at least a few weeks.
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Jose Bosingwa - RB | 5.6 |
Minutes played90
Graham says5
I'll be honest: I've watched this match three times now and I still haven't seen anything good out of Jose Bosingwa. There are no stats available for the FA Cup, so that means I can't even say anything nice based on those. I miss you, Branislav Ivanovic. Maybe don't punch people in future?
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Frank Lampard - CM | 7.7 |
Minutes played90
Graham says8
Oh man, there were some awesome moments from Frank Lampard. How about the ball over the top for the opening goal? Didier Drogba did most of the work, of course, but Lampard's pass was so good that Drogba sought him out specifically to celebrate. If that's not good enough for you, how about the ludicrous 35-yard free kick that made it 4-1 80 minutes in? The ball was hit with such swerve that Carlo Cudicini ended up wrong-footed, and ended up rippling the side netting. Sure, Cudicini might have done a bit better, but nonetheless it was pretty awesome. Even discounting the two goals he had a huge hand in, Lampard was good all game. Chelsea mostly used him to distribute on the counterattack, which was highly profitable all day, and he worked pretty well with John Obi Mikel in pivot. Nice work from Lampard today.
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John Obi Mikel - CM | 6.9 |
Minutes played74
Graham says6
Effective throughout as Chelsea did a pretty good job stifling Tottenham's play through the middle. Lots of quietly good moments, but hard to pick out anything truly great in his performance. I wasn't happy with his kick out at Scott Parker in the very late game (neither was Parker, as it sent the England captain* into an amusing little berserk rage), so I'm going to dock him for that. Arbitrary? You betcha.
*lolwut.
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Salomon Kalou - LAM | 6.4 |
Minutes played59
Graham says7
Got a lot of abuse in the threads, which I don't understand considering that he nearly singlehandedly created the opening goal when he dispossessed the execrable Kyle Walker in Chelsea's half, blazed up the pitch, and slipped in a pass that Juan Mata really should have converted. He kept Walker mostly pinned back, preventing him from doing the one thing he's really good at (running around a bit, as some might say). Kalou did some silly things and wasted some chances, but he also did very well in creating those chances in the first place, and was a key part of Chelsea's attack as they battered Tottenham to pieces. Too much hate for him, methinks.
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Juan Mata - CAM | 8.2 |
Minutes played90
Graham says8
Scored a 'goal' which I'm not really going to give him credit for, but provided two brilliant assists to Ramires and Florent Malouda for goals number three and five. Mata was excellent in this game, taking advantage of the space that was offered up by Luka Modric and Scott Parker and doing a fine job of supporting attacks where he could and creating them otherwise. Lost in the furore over his goal was the shot which would have gone in about thirty seconds prior if not for a magnificent diving stop by Carlo Cudicini. All in all, a pretty nifty performance by our little trequartista.
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Ramires - RAM | 7.8 |
Minutes played28
Graham says8
Kept Gareth Bale quiet for much of the match, caused Benoit Assou-Ekotto some serious issues and scored the decisive goal. I think he's a but better fit on the right in a 4-2-3-1 than he is in the pivot, and it's wonderful to see such a good performance after the indifferent one at Craven Cottage. Defensive gifted and able to read the attack and put himself in important positions. A far cry from his first few months in England, and, indeed, from last week.
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Didier Drogba - CF | 8.7 |
Minutes played84
Graham says9
Scored the one of the best Wembley goals you'll ever see when he latched onto a Frank Lampard pass, manhandled William Gallas, turned and rifled a shot past Carlo Cudicini at his near post. Hadn't been entirely at his best before that goal, although he was still causing Tottenham problems. After that, he was a demon, giving Chelsea time and space in the middle, ripping open the Spurs defense at will, and basically being the consummate Didier Drogba. He's never been one to shy away from the big ocassion, has he?
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Gary Cahill - CB |
7.0 |
Minutes played31
Graham says6
Had an interesting job, coming into the match with Tottenham having just scored and getting ready to push hard for a second. All things considered, he did a fine job, and gave Carlo Cudicini a bit of a scare with a speculative volley from a corner. Did his job with a minimum of fuss, and I guess you can't ask for much more than that.
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Florent Malouda - LAM |
6.1 |
Minutes played8
Graham says6
Scored the fifth and final goal, obviously, slotting home through Carlo Cudicini's legs after being played clean through by Juan Mata. That's Malouda's first goal since his strike in August against West Bromwich Albion, which feels like a long time but was actually only about 21,000,000 seconds ago (give or take), and it was about as useful as tissue paper in a blizzard or Jose Bosingwa in a football match. Still, a goal's a goal, although he gets docked points for the hilarious screwup to deny Fernando Torres his chance to score.
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Fernando Torres - CF | 5.8 |
Minutes played7
Graham says5
Came on for an injured Didier Drogba and I don't think he touched the ball in his few minutes of pitch time.
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