These things are never fun to write after dropping points, especially for matches we really should have won. There were few standout performances from Chelsea during their 0-0 draw against Queens Park Rangers and plenty of players underperformed, some significantly. Fun! Stats, as ever, are from WhoScored.com.
Petr Cech - GK | 7.3 |
Minutes played90
Touches44
Passes7/23
Shots faced3
Saves made3
Goalkeeper claims0
Graham says6
A third clean sheet out of four attempts this season? That's not bad going for Petr Cech, who, error for Reading's second aside, has been very solid all season. QPR didn't pose that much of a threat, however, only getting off three shots all match, none of them particularly dangerous (although Park Ji-Sung's free header probably should have been).
And then there's the distribution question. Cech kept going long against a rather large QPR team. Chelsea are markedly less large, and that meant he ended up simply kicking the ball right back to the opposition whenever he punted it. Some of that is because we weren't very good at linking defence to midfield, but it's still a very annoying habit.
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Ashley Cole - LB | 6.8 |
Minutes played90
Touches67
Passes34/40
Shots0/0
Tackles4
Interceptions0
Clearances1/2
Crosses0/2
Graham says6
Well, he defended well, which is much of the point of a defender. However, Cole was somewhat lacking going forward. Save for a few rare moments of intelligent interchange with Ryan Bertrand, most of Chelsea's attacking play came down the right hand side. Down the left was mostly meh unless Eden Hazard came over to help. Either way, it's difficult to claim that Cole had anything more than a decent game. Four tackles is nice though.
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John Terry - CB | 6.7 |
Minutes played90
Touches51
Passes32/39
Shots0/0
Tackles2
Interceptions2
Clearances2/4
Blocked Shots1
Graham says6
I'll be honest -- I was expecting John Terry to score today. It seems like he always does whenever he's embroiled in controversy, and there was plenty to go around at Loftus Road. Unhappily, he did no such thing, although he should have won a penalty for us when Ryan Nelson decided to to a rugby tackle on the captain as they contested a free kick. I'm slightly concerned about the knee problem he pulled up with in the second half, but that's something to fret about later.
As for his defending, it was fine. I guess.
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David Luiz - CB | 6.9 |
Minutes played90
Touches49
Passes26/33
Shots0/1
Tackles2
Interceptions2
Clearances5/5
Blocked Shots2
Graham says7
David Luiz lives on the complex borderlands of genius and insanity. On Saturday, he stayed safely within the bounds of normal human existence, recognising danger and dealing with it sans any David Luiz malarky. He was repeatedly described as 'lucky' on the broadcast, which was nonsense -- instead he was simply able to absorb everything that QPR threw at him without batting an eyelid. Oh, and provided more accurate long passes than anyone else on the pitch. Take note, Petr Cech.
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Branislav Ivanovic - RB | 6.3 |
Minutes played90
Touches68
Passes34/45
Shots0/1
Tackles1
Interceptions1
Clearances2/4
Crosses0/3
Graham says5
Well, he didn't defend disastrously, which is a marked improvement from the beginning of the season. I'm not entirely sure what Ivanovic is meant to be doing these days. He's not a good crosser and he's not that fast, but if he's supposed to be a defensive right-back he's generally too high up the pitch, which I think is an issue with the system.
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Frank Lampard - CM | 4.8 |
Minutes played90
Touches72
Passes33/48
Shots2/4
Tackles2
Interceptions1
Graham says3
I really like Frank Lampard. I think he's an adequate player in the double pivot as long as he remains disciplined. His defensive ability is understated, and he's the best side-to-side distributor we have in the midfield at the moment. But he was awful against QPR. His positioning was so poor that at one point in the middle of the match I remarked to a colleague, 'Mark Hughes should just tell his players to put the ball where they expect Lampard to be'. And then there's his passing, which was woeful. Chelsea cannot afford to lose the ball in the centre as often as they did in this match. Fortunately, it's a hugely atypical performance from Lampard -- he's not a great double pivot player, but he's rarely as poor as this. How he played ninety minutes I'm not entirely sure.
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John Obi Mikel - CM | 6.5 |
Minutes played90
Touches63
Passes51/60
Shots0/1
Tackles1
Interceptions2
Graham says6
I was getting ready to write lovely things about John Obi Mikel's performance. His defensive presence was excellent, his control of midfield unparalleled. He even played in some very nice passes.
And then he pulled that backpass nonsense to Cech, nearly costing Chelsea the whole match. Now, I'm kind of used to writing these kinds of reports for David Luiz, who goes from the sublime to the ridiculous with such regularity that you could turn him into a curly-haired clock, but Mikel should know better. Unfortunately, as memory tells us, he sometimes doesn't. I don't want to let that one moment overshadow the rest of his performance, but... ugh.
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Ryan Bertrand - LW | 5.4 |
Minutes played58
Touches21
Passes8/11
Shots2/2
Crosses0/2
Graham says4
Against Wigan, Bertrand was barely involved. Against Newcastle, he was excellent and in the thick of things. And then he was barely involved again here. 21 touches in 58 minutes is embarrassing for a player who's ostensibly a midfielder, and although that's not entirely his fault, being available for a pass tends to men that you'll get passes. Bertrand wasn't and didn't.
Did have a nice cross in the second half that nobody bothered to attack, though.
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Eden Hazard - CAM/LM | 7.0 |
Minutes played90
Touches57
Passes30/36
Shots1/3
Interceptions2
Graham says7
Not Hazard's best day, although he wasn't bad at all. He blew that glorious chance at the end after Victor Moses picked him out in the penalty box, and he probably should have scored very earlier (curse you, Julio Cesar!), but both shots were the result of some good movement and intelligent play. Also, he won a penalty that wasn't given. Hazard is going to get fouled a lot, and I hope that that doesn't mean he's treated unfairly by the referee.
Chelsea probably should have tried to get him the ball more often.
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Ramires - RW/CM | 5.2 |
Minutes played90
Touches48
Passes25/30
Shots0/1
Crosses0/0
Graham says4
Urgh. Ramires played relatively poorly again -- he hasn't had a good match since the FA Cup Final, bringing to mind the frail midfielder with an awful touch that we were introduced to early on in 2010/11. Showed a flash of ability when he set up Eden Hazard early on for what should have been a goal, but otherwise didn't do much in terms of contributing to the attack.
Shifted into a 4-3-3 later on, whereupon he was a little more comfortable, but we still haven't seen the best of him yet. Of note: He made seven tackles on the match, so his play wasn't all bad.
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Fernando Torres - CF |
4.7 |
Minutes played81
Touches35
Passes13/18
Shots1/1
Graham says4
The good, the bad and the ugly from Fernando Torres. Let's start with the tasty bit. That surge into the penalty area through three defenders was magnificent, and the far post shot attempt was very, very dangerous. Sadly, that was pretty much the extent of his good work on Saturday.
He didn't have the Juan Mata/Eden Hazard combination providing him service, but whenever he did get the ball he was hugely wasteful with it, repeatedly running impenetrable into thickets of defenders. Off the ball, he wasn't much better, with poor movement (attack the crosses, Torres!), and the enduring memory most people will have of his performance will be him going straight down the tunnel after being substituted for Daniel Sturridge.
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Victor Moses - LW/RW |
6.8 |
Minutes played32
Touches16
Passes11/11
Shots0/0
Crosses1/2
Graham says7
Victor Moses made his Chelsea debut in the 58th minute, coming on for the disappointing Ryan Bertrand to save the day. Save the day he nearly did, causing QPR's defence a number of headaches and very nearly setting up Eden Hazard for the winning goal. I'm not sure why his shot/deflection thing doesn't count as a shot in the official statistics, but Opta are weird like that. All in all, an impressive performance, and I hope we see more of the youngster.
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Daniel Sturridge - CF |
6.8 |
Minutes played9
Touches11
Passes6/7
Shots0/0
Graham says6
Didn't get much time, but made the most of it, adding a spark of energy to Chelsea's attack. Still doesn't look like a real focal point at centre forward, preferring to drift side to side to pick up the ball, but he seems very willing to contribute to build-up play these days. No silly shots here! A pretty promising cameo, although no more than that.
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