1. THIAGO SILVA (7.1)

Thiago Silva continues to amaze and regardless of what happens this season or next, it’s been a true privilege to watch him play for us. This may be a bit of recency bias speaking, but he’s up there with Marcel Desailly and Ricardo Carvalho as players who come to mind first if I’m asked to name a favorite, or something like that.

On a more cautionary note, Silva has made 25 appearances this season, and while he’s finished in the top three a most impressive 13 times (that’s a prime Hazard or Kanté type of ratio), that 25 is a huge number considering we’re still just in January. He has almost 2000 minutes already; he had 2800 all of last season. He’s not played more than 3000 minutes in a season since 2018-19, and if he continues at the current pace, he might even set a new career high for appearances (46 in Europe, 51 in Brazil).

Not saying that he can’t do it, but after making it a very specific point to moderate his workload last season, we’ve not been afforded that chance very often this season — this is a common theme that plays into the extreme fatigue and malaise we’re seeing in the squad these days.

2. KEPA ARRIZABALAGA (6.6)

Kepa got a fair amount of punching practice in this one, and did mostly quite well. He also made an excellent save, which unfortunately did get lost in the immediate aftermath as we allowed Adam Webster an absolutely uncontested free header on a corner to score the equalizer.

Here’s Kepa’s save (haven’t found any embeddable clips yet).

3. ANTONIO RÜDIGER (6.1)

Toni just keeps trucking along, the only ever-present on the team, and one of the highest and most consistent performers. May that long continue!

vs. BRIGHTON (PL, A, D 1-1)

EXCEPTIONAL (9.0+): —

EXCELLENT (8.0-8.9): —

GOOD (7.0-7.9): Silva (7.1)

AVERAGE (6.0-6.9): Arrizabalaga (6.6), Rüdiger (6.1)

POOR (5.0-5.9): Azpilicueta (5.7), Ziyech (5.5), Kovačić (5.5, sub), Kanté (5.4), Werner (5.0, sub)

BAD (4.0-4.9): Havertz (4.9, sub), Jorginho (4.8), Alonso (4.7), Mount (4.3)

TERRIBLE (3.0-3.9): Hudson-Odoi (3.7), Lukaku (3.6)

OVERALL