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1. ANTONIO RÜDIGER (8.2)
Here’s a fun fact: Antonio Rüdiger has now scored 10 goals in his Chelsea career, but has only ever scored in three stadiums, Stamford Bridge (x5), King Power (x3), and Spurs’ new nameless stadium (x2), which has only been open for 2.5 years.
Here’s another fun fact: Toni’s goal celebration referenced Sven Yidah’s from a couple years ago that went viral at the time, after he scored a penalty for Kenyan Premier League side Kairobangi Sharks.
Bonus fun fact: pay the man!
2. KEPA ARRIZABALAGA (8.0)
I didn’t think this was a particularly good outing from Kepa, let alone an “excellent” one, but he did make a couple good saves, one excellent tackle (on Lucas), and got lucky on the Harry Kane offside goal.
Kepa got plenty of undue credit for putting Kane offside, but replays make it pretty clear that Kepa just got stuck in no-man’s-land and was bailed out by Kane’s lack of awareness of the offside line. Fortunately, both Kepa (who raised his hand immediately) and VAR were well aware of the actual offside rule (i.e. measured from the second-to-last opponent, not the last opponent).
For people who are struggling to understand the offside, Rudiger is basically the goalkeeper here since Kepa is resembling an outfielder. Kane is therefore ahead of the last defender and thus offside. pic.twitter.com/2uQgtppSlp
— Bikram Karki (@KarkiBikram99) January 12, 2022
3. MATEO KOVAČIĆ (7.4)
Kova has continued his excellent run of form with another solid performance, just beating out Malang Sarr for the bronze medal.
vs. SPURS (LC, A, W 1-0)
EXCEPTIONAL (9.0+): —
EXCELLENT (8.0-8.9): Rüdiger (8.2), Arrizabalaga (8.0)
GOOD (7.0-7.9): Kovačić (7.4), Sarr (7.4), Jorginho (7.0)
AVERAGE (6.0-6.9): Hudson-Odoi (6.9), Christensen (6.9), Azpilicueta (6.9), Silva (6.7, sub), Werner (6.6), Lukaku (6.4), Kanté (6.3, sub), Mount (6.2), Alonso (6.2, sub), Ziyech (6.1, sub), Loftus-Cheek (6.0, sub)
POOR (5.0-5.9): —
BAD (4.0-4.9): —
TERRIBLE (3.0-3.9): —
OVERALL
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