Chelsea Player Ratings vs Stoke City
Very few might have expected Chelsea to drop two points against a resilient Stoke City but the best bit is that Stoke City did draw against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge and their draw keeps them three points clear of the Blues from West London! Certainly no one would have expected Stoke City to be above Chelsea at the start of the season with 9 games more to go in the premier league.
The match between Chelsea and Stoke kicked off on an equal footing and as the match proceeded, both the teams had their fair share of attempts and their keepers were kept busy during the match but it was Chelsea who eventually took the lead from a sublime goal coming from Bertrand Traore. Traore was played ahead of Costa who was rested and the lad showed supreme composure, dribbling and a tidy finish to put Chelsea ahead in the 39th minute of the game.
The second half it was all tilting in Stoke’s way. Earlier proceedings saw Arnautovic trouble Courtois and then moments later, the Belgian keeper had to pull off a brilliant diving save to deny Shaqiri. Chelsea were denied a clear penalty after Oscar was bundled down by Muniesa.
Just when it looked like Chelsea were earning a victory along with a clean sheet, a bad punch from Courtois gave a free header to Diouf who put it into the empty net and a moment of magic from Traore earned the hosts only a point.
After a draw at the Bridge, here’s the player ratings of the Chelsea side.
GK – Thibaut Courtois – 5/10
The Belgian produced really good saves to deny Ibrahim Affelay and Shaqiri but he should have done better to deny a goal for Diouf. There were no excuses for that crucial error.
RB : Caesar Azpilicueta – 5.5/10
Although Azpilicueta pushed forward whenever the chance arose, he just struggled to cope up with Arnautovic.
CB : Branislav Ivanovic – 6/10
He was the captain of Chelsea but he still needs a lot of improvement if he has to handle PSG and Zlatan Ibrahimovic in midweek. His partnership with Cahill needs tuning.
CB: Gary Cahill – 5/10
Aerially Cahill looked good but he was inconsistent with dealing the attacks coming from the ground.
LB : Baba Rahman – 5.5/10
Baba was visually short of confidence and he failed to contain shaqiri on several occasions but his delivery from the wide areas was good as usual.
CM : John Obi Mikel – 6/10
Mikel is a reliable presence in the midfield but he was much silent in the game and his partnership with Matic was fruitless to the attacks.
CM : Nemanja Matic – 7/10
Matic got an assist to his name by providing a simple pass to Traore but he didn’t move too much to prevent Stoke attacks. In simple he wasn’t the effective Matic we’ve seen so many times.
RW : Willian – 7/10
Willian was a really bright presence throughout the game moving all over the pitch and he gave Butland quite a work to do but the latter responded well to his efforts.
CAM : Oscar – 6/10
Oscar needs a lot of improvement. He’s far from his best and he picked up a really needless yellow in the game after a reckless challenge on Imbula.
LW : Eden Hazard
Eden Hazard was sparkling with his movement as usual but his final passes were eventually a big let down and he was withdrawn later in the game with PSG game looming.
ST : Bertrand Traore – 7/10
Traore really impressed and repaid the faith of Guus Hiddink and more importantly, he displayed why he can be a great second striker for Chelsea!