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1. EDEN HAZARD (8.0)
Minutes: 78
Touches: 41
Passes: 23/28
Shots: 2**/3
Take-ons: 3/4
Hazard’s second Man of the Match of the season, in just his fifth start — easy to forget that he missed most of the season thus far.
We highlighted his performance here; unfortunately he was withdrawn from the fray before he could complete his hat-trick and get Chelsea all thee points. Presumably it was precaution for the weekend, as his level of involvement did start to drop around the hour-mark, even if he did manage to score again beyond that point.
The freedom of the 3-5-2 does suit Hazard very well, perhaps even more so than the 3-4-3, but it does put even more burden on him than usual. Still, he almost hauled Chelsea to victory here.
2. THIBAUT COURTOIS (6.7)
Minutes: 90
Touches: 51
Passes: 22/41
Saves: 4
Wouldn’t necessarily expect a goalkeeper among the highest rated players after conceding three goals, but were it not for a few excellent saves, the scoreline could’ve been even more crooked than it already was.
3. DAVID LUIZ (6.7)
Minutes: 55
Touches: 35
Passes: 14/18
Shots: 1*/2
Tackles: 10
Block+INTs: 2
Fouls committed: 4
A bit of a mixed bag from David Luiz in this one. His goal obviously was great, but his play eventually became too erratic (even by his standards) and the minor(?) injury didn’t help. His personal tussle with Nainggolan was fun to watch for a while, until he started losing the battle.
We all wanted to see the 3-5-2 with David Luiz as the midfield anchor, but as it turned out, that was the wrong choice for this game.
His day ended on a weird note, with him visibly upset at being withdrawn despite asking for a sub earlier in the game. Some outlets in Italy even called in a lip-reader, though it was pretty obvious that he was cursing out someone as part of his five-second angry. Probably Conte. And that’s okay, as long as cooler heads prevailed later, we hugged it out, and are ready to go again on Saturday.
STARTERS: Courtois (6.7), Cahill (6.0), Christensen (6.4), Azpilicueta (4.9), Alonso (5.5), Fàbregas (5.2), David Luiz (6.7), Bakayoko (5.9), Zappacosta (5.6), Hazard (8.0), Morata (6.4)
SUBS: Pedro (6.5), Willian (4.7), Rüdiger (6.1)
OVERALL:
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