From best to worst: Chelsea player ratings from another Sunderland shocker

One clear pattern that has emerged over the last couple years of running these community player ratings votes is that, normally, in a Chelsea loss or draw, more often than not, our goalkeeper will be the highest rated player.  A testament to our long-standing quality between the posts, surely.  Fortunately, Courtois looks ready to continue that tradition established by Petr Čech.  (Actually, probably continuing the work of his predecessors like Cudicini or De Goey or others, but we did not have community player ratings or this blog back in those days.)

This is Thibaut's third clean sheet on the bounce (a personal best in a Chelsea shirt) and he's conceded just 4 goals in his last 10 starts.

Another pattern that has emerged, though this one only since January, is that when Nemanja Matić plays, he is likely be on or just off the top three highest rated players' podium.  Win, draw, or lose, Matic's consistently excellent play is ... well ... consistently excellent.  He rode such consistent excellence to last year's highest rated player overall, and after a slow start, has maintained it once again this year.  He's been in the community player ratings' top three nine times already this season, which is just one less than team leader Eden Hazard (though only once was Matić the number one star).

Despite the frustrating afternoon altogether at the Stadium of Light, the Serbian SPIDERBEAST was often at his spiderbeastly best.  Minus a couple silly turnovers and a few even sillier long shots, though he was hardly the biggest culprit there.

Terry, who according to FIFA is not as good of a defender as, say, Dani Alves or Gerard Pique, remains our best center back.  He even found it in himself yesterday to pull off one of those ol'e diving headed clearance throwback tricks despite his aging legs and body.  Commitment to the end, no question about that.

Soon, it'll be time to once again start talking about Terry's future and (probably) another one-year contract extension.  But eventually a longer-term solution/successor will have to be found, either from within (Zouma?  Omeruo?  Kalas?  Christensen?) or from the outside (Varane?  Subotic?  Pick your favorite...).