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Given the injury, suspension, and outgoing transfer situation at Chelsea on Saturday, a 1-1 draw is certainly a perfectly acceptable result for Jose Mourinho's Chelsea side. The Blues now take a five-point cushion into the month of February, with Juan Cuadrado arriving, and the fixture list clearing up a bit. The boss will most certainly be pleased after the match (even if he won't tell the media), and frankly, so am I.
Thoughts:
- I can't remember the last time Chelsea had this sort of youth on the bench in such a big match. One suspension, two transfers, and three injuries will do that, I guess.
- It was nice to see Eden Hazard bounce back with a solid game after a bit of a sloppy start. He was the best player on the pitch today by a mile, and would have had an even larger impact on the match if Mark Clattenburg had brought his whistle.
- Jesus Navas was giving Chelsea all sorts of problems today, largely due to his speed. I really hope Chelsea manage to avoid drawing an opponent in the Champions League with wide men who are both lightning fast and better with the ball than City's Spaniard.
- It was nice to see most Chelsea fans applauding Frank Lampard on his Stamford Bridge return.
- Chelsea now find themselves in a fairly favorable portion of their Premier League schedule, so taking advantage of that and grinding out some results will be of the utmost importance.