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| 1. PEDRO - AMR | 8.6 |
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Minutes played72
Touches50
Passes35/38
Shots2**/3
Take-ons4/5
For the first time since his debut, Pedro is back on top of the player ratings pile.
Maybe it was the black shirts just like against WBA that first time, or maybe it was playing against terrible opponents who would not be fit even for La Liga's lower reaches ... whatever it was, the combination seemed to do the trick for Pedro, giving us a rare glimpse of some of his qualities we had witnessed over the years at Barcelona.
He now has seven goals on the season — in isolation, that stat is not that bad at all — good for fourth on the team behind Costa, Willian, and Oscar.
It must be fairly weird and surreal for someone who was so used to winning all the time to be slumming it in mid-table and not fighting for any trophies at the end of the season. Perhaps with more consistent performances next season, Pedro can help us right that wrong.
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| 2. RUBEN LOFTUS-CHEEK - AM | 8.2 |
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Minutes played90
Touches74
Passes53/57
Shots1*/2
Take-ons3/4
Fouls drawn4
The great hype and the great hope of the Chelsea Academy and the Chelsea midfield, RLC has now made a dozen appearances for the first-team this season. Five of those have been starts, only two of which had gone the full 90 (MK Dons was the other one).
Apparently, the young kid was hurting and cramping after this one (even though it was just Aston Villa), so perhaps some concerns over his stamina remain. Concerns over everything else should be allayed by this rather excellent, all-around performance, even though he was once against played as the No.10, which apparently is where we continue to insist on plugging him in.
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| 3. ALEXANDRE PATO - FC | 7.8 |
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Minutes played69
Touches31
Passes18/21
Shots2*/2
Tackles3
Fouls drawn2
Welcome to Chelsea, Pato! Stop being so adorable.
He may not ever score again for us. He may not even feature for us again — he seems to be having fitness issues as well, even if he's supposedly improving in that regard — though Diego Costa is set to miss one more game and Loïc Rémy is injured once again (and is also terrible still). So our forward options right now are Traoré and Pato, which, actually is sort of fun and exciting.
In a season of no hope, I'll take a bit of fun and excitement. And even if it's all downhill for Pato from here on out, we'll always have this one fine day at Villa Park.
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STARTERS:
Courtois (6.6), Baba (6.5), Ivanović (6.8), Miazga (7.5), Azpilicueta (7.3), Fàbregas (7.7), Mikel (7.4), Kenedy (6.4), Loftus-Cheek (8.2), Pedro (8.6), Rémy (4.9)
SUBS:
Pato (7.8), Oscar (7.0), Clarke-Salter (6.5)
OVERALL:
