Stoke v Chelsea player ratings
Chelsea contrived to lose at the Britannia Stadium despite controlling large periods of the game and the outstanding Andre Schurrle scoring twice. Here’s how we rated the players in their 3-2 defeat against Stoke.
Petr Cech: 5
At fault for Stoke’s first goal, although he wasn’t helped by his defence. Could do little about the other two he conceded.
Branislav Ivanovic: 7
Had a good game and did well going forward on the right-hand side. Could have done better for the first Sunderland goal though, when he failed to win a header.
John Terry: 6
Collectively, Chelsea were unconvincing defensively at times but individually the two centre-backs had decent games. Terry handled Peter Crouch well for the most part and won several important challenges.
Gary Cahill: 7
Looked good alongside Terry but could have been tighter to goalscorer Stephen Ireland for Stoke’s second goal.
Cesar Azpilicueta: 5
Certainly at fault for the second goal, losing out to Jon Walters. Caught napping on a couple of other occasions and didn’t have much success going forward either. The time seems right to restore Ashley Cole at left-back
Ramires: 5
Oh dear. The Brazilian missed a number of chances, which ultimately proved costly. He gave the ball away cheaply several times too. An afternoon for him to forget.
John Mikel Obi: 8
Excellent, especially in the first half. Closed the opposition down brilliantly and used the ball well to supply Chelsea’s attacking players, which he did when setting up Schurrle for the opener. Fully justified his recall to the side.
Andre Schurrle: 9
The German scored twice and was unlucky not to complete a hat-trick when he hit the bar. But aside from all that, his all-round display with and without the ball was exceptional. He worked hard and constantly looked to attack Stoke’s defenders or find a team-mate.
Juan Mata: 7
In the team for the third consecutive match and again showed flashes of his very best, especially in the first half. However, he did fade after that and the defensive side of his game was again lacking.
Eden Hazard: 8
Not quite on a par with his display at Sunderland in midweek, but Hazard was again superb. He was a constant threat to the home defence and his close control under pressure is great to watch.
Fernando Torres: 7
Not a productive game for the Spaniard in front of goal but he worked hard to occupy defenders and create space for others. A credible display.
Frank Lampard: 6
Neat and tidy but wasn’t really able to impose himself on the game after replacing Schurrle in the second half.
Demba Ba: 6
Gave Chelsea more of a physical presence up front but Sunderland dealt with him fairly comfortably.
Samuel Eto’o: 6
Showed good movement but also found it hard to get into the game after coming off the bench.
Stoke
Mark Hughes’ side were second best for long periods but hung in there and were rewarded with only their fourth league win since the former Chelsea man took charge. This was a game the Blues should have won at a canter though.
Man of the match
Schurrle
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08/12/2013 @ 3:02 pm
A bit unfair to blame Dave for their second as it was an obvious foul that gave them possession. In addition he is a RB playing at LB which leads nicely onto my next point. Jose needs to put Iva back as CB if he wants to keep playing him but he should only play RB if we have no other choice. He gets caught out of position far to often, his crosses are not particularly good and his failure to close down made the opportunity for their winner yesterday.
08/12/2013 @ 1:06 pm
pls no eto’o , Ba,mikel bertrand, in cfc