Community player ratings from a 'not good enough' performance against PSG

Had we been able to watch the 4-2 defeat to Bradford, my guess is that would probably be one of our lowest rated games of the season.  But since we didn't, and thus we didn't solicit any community ratings, it is this game that slots in behind the 5-3 loss to Spurs as the second worst for the year.

It follows a string of decent results, notable mostly for the number of highest ratings achieved by our goalkeepers.  Despite the result, that trend continues with Courtois's second Man of the Match in a row and fifth in his last eight starts.  That's fairly amazing, but the by now usual comments once again apply.  It's great that he's this good; it's not so great that we have to rely on him being this good to get results.  Wake up, Costa & Co!

And even when your goalkeeper is great, something like the Thiago Silva header can happen out of nowhere.  While David Luiz's game-tying goal was a piece of Drogba-esque magnificence, Silva's header was an unlikely combination of ridiculous defending and ridiculous placement from a ridiculous distance.  Ridiculous, just like the final result.  Not really a knock on Courtois though, who made a tremendous save on just the play before to keep our noses in front.

I was convinced that Gary Cahill would go the entire season without an appearance on the community player ratings podium, but not for the first or the last time, I was proven wrong.  And so, now, even Cahill has a top three performance to his name.  Albeit in a game that we'd much rather forget about as quickly as possible.

For the second straight season, Cahill grabbed himself a goal in the Champions League Round of 16.  But what in the world was going on that Silva goal?  Why was Terry grabbing Cahill?  Some things will remain a mystery forever, I suppose.

Looking back, all three goals conceded to PSG in this round came from crosses into the box, with all three of our supposed defensive stalwarts responsible for at least one head-scratching error.  Cahill let Cavani go free in the first leg, while in the second leg, Ivanovic got beat by David Luiz, and Terry got completely lost on the third goal.  When you make such errors, you cannot expect to win against any opposition, in any competition, regardless of how well or how poorly you play at the other end.

Thanks to the result, Hazard's rating is pretty low.  And his influence did fade quite significantly as the match wore on (meanwhile, PSG grew in confidence, and in number of fouls committed on the Chelsea man, too).

But in the first half, along with Oscar, when we were playing well, he was his usual effervescent self.  Poor Marquinhos was floundering, though we didn't make him and the rest of the defense pay thanks poor final passes and touches.

Nice to see him continuing to be in the penalty-taking groove as well after his miss earlier this season.  Absolutely hilarious how confident he was taking that one in extra-time, with everything on the line.  Overall, he was perhaps the only player to show any true desire and conviction on Wednesday night, but as we've said many times before, we cannot expect him to always do it by himself.  This may be Hazard's lowest rating since the Newcastle loss, but while that prompted Jose to give him a day off to let him recharge, that's a luxury we simply cannot afford the rest of the way.  He needs a bit of help, and the rest of the boys need to find themselves once again.