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These would normally be called "bullet points" but in honor of Mr. Interim, we shall call them FACTs. Fully Actuated Conceptual Truthitudes. FACTs. Bullet points are normally signs of '90s PowerPoints and crutches of lazy writing (i.e. DPeezy's résumé) but thanks to FACTs and the Rafalución, they are the weapon of choice this time around.
First, the envelopes please:
- FACT: This update adds five matches to the table, starting with the time Chelsea got Adam Le Fondre'd (that sounds dirty) and ending with the time they held powerhouse Brentford scoreless for 55 minutes.
- FACT: The 4-1 win versus Wigan is the one and only Chelsea performance rated 7+ on average in the last nine matches (4W - 4D - 1L).
- FACT: Ross Turnbull es muy muy mal. Him and Yossi Benayoun - resurrected! - are the only two players to be rated lower overall than Fernando Torres.
- FACT: Yossi Benayoun has made an appearance in four of the last five matches. Meanwhile, Milan Lalkovic sits disused and sexy in a dusty, moldy corner of Twitter-land.
- FACT: Juan Mata has played in every single match so far under Interim. Every. Single. Match. He has also recovered from his mini slump and is back to regularly posting high 7's and winning your Man of the Match awards.
- FACT: Oscar is on fire and has won your last two Man of the Match votes. He now has five such wins, three of which came on European nights and the other two in the two legs versus Brentford. He may not be fully ready for the grind of the Premier League just yet, but he's clearly a difference maker in the right situations. (And he's also, like, twelve years old.)
- FACT: After posting four sub-6 performances over five matches, a day of rest treated Cesar Azpilicueta right and propelled him to an 8.4 and Man of the Match versus Wigan.
- FACT: Branislav Ivanovic has slowly and quietly become quite bad. Or at least low rated. Which aligns quite well with my personal world view of Bane not being quite up to scratch in the center of the defense and not always offering as much as the team would truly need at right back. Being run ragged by Brentford of course will not help. See also: Gary Cahill. See also: John Terry. It's a good thing we have a tactical mastermind guiding Chelsea towards strengthening that defense. Sigh.
- FACT: Frank Lampard and David Luiz (and Oriol Romeu) remain the only players to have shown consistently improved performances in this tumultuous Interim period.
- FACT: Juan Mata, Eden Hazard, and Petr Cech remain the three highest rated players overall. Hard to argue with those three as the best players of the season (so far) for Chelsea.