Chelsea Player Ratings vs Manchester City
FA Cup quite many times has produced classics and when Manchester City went away to the Bridge today to take on Chelsea, a classic was indeed expected. The game of two top clubs of English football ended on a one sided note as a young squad of Manchester City crashed to a 5-1 defeat at the hands of a much superior Chelsea team.
Manuel Pellegrini played a young Manchester City squad because of the champions league game against Kiev looming large and two games against Liverpool following next, the manager chose the safer option of resting players with only 14 players fit from the main team of City.
The game started on an even note with both sides getting fair possession on the ball but it’s Chelsea who emerged at the front and as the game proceeded, they looked threatening and eventually the first goal came from Diego Costa who neatly headed the ball from the cross of Hazard. Lovely link-up play and a simple finish!
Manchester City equalised immediately after the kick off through the boots of the young striker David Faupala and the score remained 1-1 at the half time interval.
The Second half was all about Chelsea who stepped up a gear and three minutes into the second half, Willian scored a dead accurate goal from an Eden Hazard lay off. 5 minutes later, Chelsea found the net again this time from a Gary Cahill volley. The ball fell into Cahill’s boot after a deflection from City’s defender. The game was closed here itself but there were more goals to flow. In the 65th minute, Eden Hazard’s clever feet earned him a free kick and Martin Demichelis received the first yellow card of the game after bringing down Hazard. Willian let Hazard take the free kick and the latter calmly bent the ball around the goal keeper’s side and a bad judgement as well as movement from Willy Cabellero led to
Chelsea put up an impressive display at the front and they had little to do at the back. Here are the player ratings of the Chelsea players.
Gk- Thibaut Courtois: 6/10
Courtois had very little to do in the game but he failed to keep a clean sheet in the end. The game was overshadowed by Chelsea’s attack and the defence had their work cut out.
RB: Caesar Azpilicueta: 6/10
Azpilicueta failed to follow the run of Faupala which eventually was turned into the goal but he recovered after that and in the second half he had very little to do.
CB: Branislav Ivanovic: 6/10
Branislav Ivanovic took the armband for Chelsea and played as their captain and did very good at defence but he has to take some blame for letting Iheanacho put the ball into the box for Faupala to score. Apart from this, Ivanovic had a solid game at the back.
CB: Gary Cahill: 7/10
Gary Cahill showed a lack of pace to let Faupala run and score and he shook off an injury scare and was one of the best Chelsea players on the pitch today. In the second half, he started the ball, made the run and took a good position and then clinically volleyed the ball into the net to register a goal to his name. Aerially too, Cahill looked much better.
LB: Baba Rahman: 7/10
Baba Rahman started the game again after an impressive display against PSG and he got the grip of the game really well. His attacking forays and wonderful crosses deserved conversion but it wasn’t meant to be. Overall, the partnership of Hazard and Baba was a great one to watch today as Baba provided constant overlapping runs and he won the penalty in the second half too after he barged forward!
CM – Cesc Fabregas: 6/10
Cesc Fabregas’ revival in form goes on after another good display. His link-up play with Pedro was a joy to watch as the Spanish teammates continued to trouble city. Cesc had a quite game as the game proceeded and he looks to improve week by week to pitch in and help this Chelsea side’s upsurge.
CM- John Obi Mikel: 6/10
Mikel provided as a good cover for the defence and his partnership with Fabregas throughout the game was decent. The only fault was that he surrendered position many times but overall, with Matic’s fitness issues, Mikel has stepped up really well to take his place.
AM: Willian: 7/10
Willian was the centre of Chelsea’s counter attacks and he got himself involved in many attacks of the home side and his performance definitely deserves a 7 and not to forget him getting on the scoresheet.
AMR: Pedro Rodriguez: 8/10
Pedro was one of Chelsea’s best player on the pitch. He continued to trouble Kolarov on several fronts with his deceiving pace and trickery and quite many times he almost scored but his biggest chance came early on in the 14th minute but he shot just wide. Pedro has been improving weekly and he looks like he has the capability to hit back at the critics of his.
AML: Eden Hazard: 9/10 – He is back!
Eden hazard provided two assists and scored one free kick and he put up an outstanding performance after being slammed from the critics for poor display after poor display. Hazard was the man of the match for me and indeed he has a lot more to do to get to the heights he reached last season!
ST: Diego Costa: 7/10
Diego Costa scored a beautiful header to open the scoring and he continued to cause city problems early on. He was subbed off in the second half and I have to say, under Guus Hiddink, Costa is reaching some top heights with an impressive ability to find the net so far.