Chelsea’s starting XIII: Player ratings for the starting Blues and Rams

Frank Lampard was the biggest winner in Chelsea’s Carabao Cup tie against his Derby County Rams. Stamford Bridge still loves him, he proved his managerial chops and Chelsea won the game while Derby won the footballing.

Thirteen Chelsea players started the Carabao Cup fifth-round tie at Stamford Bridge: XI wearing Blue and two wearing white. Here is how they stacked up.

Willy Caballero, goalkeeper: 6

Willy Caballero’s goalkeeping was the final ignominy on Derby’s opening goal (not counting the first own goal), as a long-range, not particularly hard shot passed right by the toe of his boot. Not that Caballero is ever a calm, reassuring presence at the back, but he seemed to exacerbate the lack of composure and comunication among Chelsea’s defenders. When Gary Cahill is struggling to stay on his feet and complete simple passes and Andreas Christensen is hiding from responsibility, you want someone a bit more reliable in the net. Had David Nugent’s shot gone in instead of hitting the post, the game would have gone to penalties, which is Caballero’s chance to shine. By late in the game, the win was assured regardless of the bizarre road to get there.

Davide Zappacosta, right-back: 7

Zappacosta had one of his better performances, using his speed well to dribble past his opposite number along the touchline and making good crosses into the box. He also was second on the team in overall defensive actions behind <squints> Cesc Fabregas. Zappacosta made good use of the half-space on offence, but still managed to recover to defence when the play moved in the other direction. This was doubly important on Wednesday given the centre-backs’ performance. Zappacosta also got away with the foul that distracted Derby County leading to Cesc Fabregas’ winning goal, so that’s almost an assist, right?

Gary Cahill, centre-back: 4.5

This was not the performance Gary Cahill needed. Not ever, but certainly not at this juncture. Even before he had his Steven Gerrard moment in the 9′ he had already muffed a few simple horizontal and back passes, and he was never steady in defence. His passing, his movement, his positioning, even his physicality – yes, Gary Cahill’s physicality – let him down. Who knows how much chance Cahill ever had of moving into Maurizio Sarri’s Premier League XI. But this game confirmed Sarri’s opinion of him – however unfair a sample size n=1 may be – and we’ll be lucky to see him this side of Belarus any time soon.

Andreas Christensen, centre-back: 4.5

This was not the performance Andreas Christensen needed. Not ever, but certainly not at this juncture. The only advantage Christensen has is youth and potential, which could see him land some place decent in January on an early transfer. His father-agent will not take well to him being subbed off for David Luiz. We struggle to remember the last time a Chelsea manager made a non-injury centre-back sub. That’s Jose Mourinho territory in terms of message sending. On the subject of message sending, how many e-mails to technical directors around Europe did Sten Christensen blast out last night?

Fikayo Tomori, Derby County, centre-back: 7

TFW the guy who scored an own goal against (for?) his parent club five minutes into the game gets a higher rating than the two Chelsea centre-backs. For the remaining 85 minutes, though, Tomori was a solid defender who kept his composure under waves of Chelsea pressure and played the ball out of his third quite well. He demonstrated his maturity and character by quickly compartmentalizing the blunder and playing the game he wanted to play.

Emerson Palmieri, left-back: 5

Emerson broke a few ankles early in the first half with a wonderful dribble down the left. That was about it for his night, really. Only Willian had fewer defensive actions than Emerson: Willian had zero, Emerson had one. But really, what else was he doing out there?