The Community Player Ratings are back and better than ever! Well, they might be kind of the same as ever, but they're definitely back. Click through the jump for the ratings, stats, and comments for Chelsea's 2-0 win against Wigan Athletic.
Petr Cech - GK | 7.1 |
Minutes played90
Touches55
Passes11/26
Shots faced5
Saves made5
Goalkeeper claims4
Graham says6
Dealt with everything thrown at him fairly comfortably and kept a clean sheet in the process. With Wigan's strength in wide positions, Chelsea desperately needed him to command the box, and that wasn't a problem for most of the night. Had a couple of decent saves, but nothing too taxing. If Jordi Gomez's header had gone in, however, it'd have been a very different story.
One of the most interesting part of Cech's game was his distribution. As was pointed out earlier, he helped spring the counterattack that led to Chelsea's second goal, but for much of the rest of the match it was a complete mess. Cech's strategy of hitting long passes forward to Fernando Torres (disinterested) and the Eden Hazard / Juan Mata duo (midgets) we resulting in Wigan possessing the ball for far longer than they should have, and when he tried to go short he confused everyone in the back line. Was all very strange.
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Ashley Cole - LB | 6.4 |
Minutes played90
Touches53
Passes30/33
Shots0/1
Tackles4
Interceptions5
Clearances0/1
Crosses0/0
Graham says7
Was pretty much a-ok at left back. Was only as adventurous as appropriate thanks to the presence of Wigan's marauding wing-backs (Victor Moses got the better of him a couple of times), which was a relief -- we could easily have been cut open if he'd spent much time high up the pitch. Lots of tackles, lots of interceptions.
All in all, did his job, and did it well. Except for that second half shot. But I think we can forgive him that.
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David Luiz - CB | 6.9 |
Minutes played90
Touches63
Passes39/44
Shots1/1
Tackles1
Interceptions7
Clearances5/8
Blocked Shots0
Graham says6
There was something a little bit... off about David Luiz's game on Sunday. It's not that it was bad, or at least the stats don't say it was bad. He did have approximately eleventy billion interceptions and was probably our best long passer on the night. He didn't have any David Luizy moments of utter terror. But he never looked as comfortable as he sometimes does. At his best, the Brazilian just doesn't let people get past him -- here he seemed a little bit tentative.
I mean, I don't know, he was fine. And it's not like Wigan tested him. So hey, whatever.
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Branislav Ivanovic - RB | 7.8 |
Minutes played90
Touches68
Passes32/38
Shots1*/1
Tackles2
Interceptions2
Clearances2/6
Crosses0/3
Graham says7
He didn't actually defend that well (especially against Victor Moses in the second half, where he was constantly burned by the fact that Juan Mata really really hates tracking back), but his contribution to the attack can't be ignored. Ivanovic both started and finished the move that resulted in Chelsea's first goal of the season, and that's going to result in some happy feelings towards the right back.
I'd still like a backup though.
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Frank Lampard - CM | 6.8 |
Minutes played90
Touches73
Passes55/63
Shots1*/1
Tackles3
Interceptions1/1
Graham says7
It wasn't Frank Lampard's finest effort, but Frank Lampard's finest efforts involve him scoring hattricks and forcing opposition midfielders to commit sepukku over their embarrassment at not being twenty percent as good as Frank Lampard despite theoretically playing the position.
Although there were complaints about Chelsea's poor transition through the pivot, both Chelsea goals were the result of Lampard passes -- he set up Eden Hazard for that spin in the second minute, and he also threaded in the ball that led to the penalty. And scored the penalty, of course. Yeah, he was a bit sleepier in the second half, but so was the entire team.
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John Obi Mikel - CM | 6.3 |
Minutes played90
Touches59
Passes49/52
Shots0/0
Tackles2
Interceptions2
Graham says6
It's difficult to know what to make of John Obi Mikel's game. For much of it, he was a calm, collected presence in the centre of the pitch. For some of it, he embarked on a merry old voyage of the derps. In other words, there were some bad giveaways that are overshadowing his other contributions. Should they? I'm not entirely sure how damaging the couple of mistakes he made were, considering it was against Wigan, but then again the 'against Wigan' angle makes the entirety of his defensive contribution less relevant.
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Ryan Bertrand - LW | 6.6 |
Minutes played90
Touches30
Passes19/21
Shots0/0
Crosses1/1
Graham says6
Ramires was ill, and it turns out that our next option on the flanks with Marko Marin out was a left back. Hey, it worked in Munich! Kind of!
Anyway, Bertrand is clearly not a dynamic attacker in the mould of Eden Hazard and Juan Mata, but he did his job pretty effectively, combining with Ashley Cole to defend his flank well. He chipped in a little bit on the attack too, setting up the chance that Fernando Torres saw cleared off the line, but in general was un-involved with most of Chelsea's play. Which is what you might expect from your spare left back playing as a left winger.
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Eden Hazard - CM | 8.5 |
Minutes played64
Touches31
Passes17*/23
Shots0/0
Interceptions3
Graham says7
Got Chelsea off to a flying start with his superb turn past Ivan Ramis and subsequent pass to Branislav Ivanovic, then won a penalty off that very same Ramis which Frank Lampard converted for a 2-0 lead. Was by some distance the best player on the pitch early on, but following that incredible spell, where Wigan could only slow him down by fouling, he started giving the ball away too often, including one bizarre sequence where he dropped back down into deep midfield and promptly passed it straight to Franco di Santo. Probably doesn't deserve all of the praise he was showered with after the match.
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Juan Mata - RW | 6.6 |
Minutes played83
Touches64
Passes50/54
Shots0/0
Crosses0/1
Graham says5
I suspect that unless Mata gets significant time off over the next few months, this is the version of him that we're going to see. And it's not very good. Just like at the Olympics and in preseason, Mata played some very tired football. He simply doesn't look capable of the sort of creative play that marked the early stages of last season. Granted, it didn't help that he was stationed on the right, where he rarely impresses, but this was hardly the Spaniard's finest moment in a Chelsea shirt.
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Fernando Torres - CF |
6.6 |
Minutes played90
Touches28
Passes9/14
Shots1/1
Crosses0/0
Graham says6
Didn't get much service (read: made poor runs) in the first half, but wasn't entirely disastrous. Had three impressive moments -- should have won a penalty in the first half against Antolin Alcaraz, could have gotten another one on the chance that was cleared off the line by Ivan Ramis (and really, staying on his feet and getting the shot away was pretty incredible) and then went through three or four players and was fouled on the edge of the box late on. But the problem was that these sorts of moments were too few. Needs to be more involved, but perhaps that's the product of the team sleepwalking their way through the match. His failure to anticipate Ivanovic's cutback late on cost him a goal.
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Oscar - CAM |
7.0 |
Minutes played26
Touches23
Passes16/21
Shots0/1
Interceptions2
Graham says6
Made his Chelsea debut as a substitute for Eden Hazard and was... alright. Like Hazard, had some hugely impressive moments, but also gave the ball away far too often, misplacing three or four routine passes in the centre of the pitch that could have hurt badly had Wigan made the most of them. Most of us are going to remember his breakaway chance and that wonderful pass to Ivanovic, however -- I'd attribute the slightly sloppy play to nerves.
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Raul Meireles - RW |
5.3 |
Minutes played7
Touches7
Passes1/4
Shots0/0
Interceptions0
Crosses1/2
Graham says5
Had half of Chelsea's completed crosses in seven minutes of playing time. I don't remember any of his touches. Ah well.
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