Chelsea: Ruben Loftus-Cheek leads player ratings vs. Bournemouth
By George Perry
Ruben Loftus-Cheek showed he may be even better for Chelsea as a winger than as attacking midfielder. The rest of the Blues stayed well below the standard he set against Bournemouth.
Chelsea turned 73% possession and 1,108 touches into 896 passes and 25 shots en route to Eden Hazard coming in on his day off to score off some sloppy play for a 1-0 win over Bournemouth. The calendar and decorations say December, but the showing at Stamford Bridge was pure September.
Kepa Arrizabalaga, Goalkeeper: 7.5
Willy Caballero could have kept this clean sheet, but the game was nervy enough. Arrizabalaga only faced three shots on goal, but came through in the final 30 minutes of the game to keep things steady and controlled as Bournemouth pushed and stretched against an increasingly complacent Chelsea side. Arrizabalaga was a rock, refusing to take the bait or get ruffled when potential teammate and Diego Costa wannabe Callum Wilson jostled into him early in the first half.
Cesar Azpilicueta, Right back: 7
Like most of Chelsea’s back-line, Azpilicueta was there to pass more than defend. He was one of four players with over 100 passes. Bournemouth sent many of their early counter-attacks down the left. In the second half they balanced their attack more, which pushed Azpilicueta into service more regularly. That was a strange decision by Bournemouth as Azpilicueta was unsurprisingly more reliable than Emerson. Azpilicueta looked to play crosses towards Olivier Giroud or anyone else in the box, which continues to raise questions about what Maurizio Sarri really wants out of his full-backs.
Andreas Christensen, Centre back: 5.5
Christensen committed a few errors throughout the game and again showed the fragility and tendency towards frustration that has defined his 2018. He made a true David Luiz tackle midway through the first half, coming out of position to make a lunging tackle… which he missed, allowing Bournemouth to continue driving towards Chelsea’s box. His night ended early as he came off with an apparent hamstring injury and walked straight down the tunnel. This brought on David Luiz for the final 10 minutes, who used the opportunity to show just how dire the centre-back situation is with Gary Cahill in exile and Ethan Ampadu not even in the squad.
Antonio Rudiger, Centre back: 7
Rudiger took over the David Luiz role of serving long ball passes, completing 17 of 21 attempts. He has shown this ability repeatedly over the last year, reinforcing the notion that passing may be Luiz’s value proposition, but it is not his unique value prop. If not for Rudiger, Chelsea would have been chasing the game by the 70′.
Emerson, Left back: 6.5
Emerson vacated the space on Chelsea’s left side, Bournemouth used that space to counter throughout the first hour. Funny how that works. And, contrary to conventional banter, Emerson did not have the – say it with me now – pace (!!) to recover and interdict the attack. He had some strong dribbles during the first half, but missed a clear chance to give Chelsea the lead in the middle of the second way. The ball came to him in the box from about 10 yards out and he was staring only at the keeper, but could not finish it. Marcos Alonso would have, and likely would have kept the left side buttoned down.