Chelsea sit top of the Premier League following their 2-0 victory over Newcastle at Stamford Bridge on Saturday. Here’s how we rated the Blues’ players in their third win in three matches.
Petr Cech: 7
Normal service was resumed following a bad mistake by Cech against Reading. Produced an excellent – and important – second-half save to deny Demba Ba.
Branislav Ivanovic: 7
Did well defensively and again offered much going forward.
Gary Cahill: 8
Newcastle’s attacking players ask questions of defenders – and Cahill had all the answers. Positionally excellent and made good decisions throughout. A fine display.
David Luiz: 7
Back in the side and apart from a first-half mishap when he was dispossessed near the edge of his own penalty, he was very impressive.
Ashley Cole: 7
Held his own against the dangerous Ben Arfa.
Raul Meireles: 6
Struggled to assert himself, although he did produce a fabulous pass to Fernando Torres in the second half.
John Obi Mikel: 7
Compensated for Meireles’ lack of presence with a sound performance in midfield. Did well.
Ryan Bertrand: 7
Provided excellent defensive cover for Cole and popped up in dangerous positions himself when the chance arose.
Eden Hazard: 9
Exceptional again. Provides assists for fun and also grabbed his first goal for Chelsea. There’ll be plenty more to come. Every time he receives the ball he looks equally capable of producing a killer pass or leaving two or three defenders in his wake.
Juan Mata: 9
Hazard and Torres will get many of the plaudits, but Mata’s movement gave Newcastle a nightmare. His use of the ball was superb too.
Fernando Torres: 9
Quite simply, Torres looks like the complete striker at the moment. Pace, skill, works the channels, links play – the lot. And of course he’s now scoring. The finish for his goal was brilliant.
Ramires: 7
Freshened things up for Chelsea when he came on midway through the second half as Newcastle were having a decent spell.
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This post was last modified on 26/08/2012
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i respect juan mata so much.....he is a key player to me yesterday.juan with dat one leg control the field more dan anybody.eden is phenomenal...excellent....torress is wonderfull..mind u i love ramiress more dan gold ...he is marvellous.mikel perform yoman job..luiz,cahill,ivanovic they are great..cech my man u show them dat u can still perform at the top...meiriless u are nt bad i love u..u are all excellent..the matteo the great leader dat perform wonderin the face of adversary...yet u are still performing it...keep it up...u are born to will cup...go come back with super of them all...we are waiting for u....mr de matteo u are great