Chelsea ratings: Rudiger, Kante and Hazard lead Blues’ best performance

Jorginho, Midfielder: 6.5

Jorginho was lucky to escape a booking – perhaps even a red card – within the first five seconds of the opening whistle. For whatever reason – sending a message, clumsiness, unchallenged aggression, cartoonishly and inappropriately imitating Manchester City’s tactical fouls in midfield – he put an arm into Sergio Aguero’s head moments after kickoff. Perhaps Jon Moss was willing to overlook anything so early, or the off-pitch officials were still booting up VAR. Either way, he got away with one.

Despite sitting at the base of midfield on a side that held 39% possession overall and 30% possession in the first half, Jorginho managed only four defensive actions. That is less than half of the more attacking midfielder, N’Golo Kante. Perhaps being so technical as a regista comes at the expense of basic defensive skills.

Jorginho may also want to invest in a new penalty kick routine. Ederson read it the whole way, which seems to be a theme when it comes to Chelsea’s opponents and all things Maurizio Sarri. Sarri adapted and nearly won his first cup. Jorginho did not adapt, was complacent in his trademark, showy tell and contributed to Sarri not winning his first cup.

N’Golo Kante, Midfielder: 9

Kante continues to flummox even the most expansive vocabularies wielded by the most critical watchers. He does so little wrong, and most of what he does defies description and explanation. We can either give a dry move-by-move recitation or just babble out some adjectives. He is that good.

Kante made one of Chelsea’s best runs into the box, nearly bringing down a perfect pass from David Luiz to give himself a one-on-one shot at Ederson. He controlled every aspect of the midfield, overcoming a few early turnovers to take control of himself and his domain. Kante compensated for both the wingers in front of him, the midfielders around him and the defenders behind him. This was the kind of performance that makes you think his position matters so little because he will always be Kante, regardless of where he lines up for any given play.

Ross Barkley, Midfielder: 6

Barkley was the most questionable name on Sarri’s starting XI, and he was the most questionable performer through his 88 minutes. He seemed like an unsatisfying compromise between Mateo Kovacic and Ruben Loftus-Cheek. Both of those players bring a distinct package to the field, and Chelsea could have used either of their specific talents. Instead they had Barkley, who has a bit of each but no entirety of what the team needed.

Barkley seems a bit adrift in the squad right now. Whether this is a question of tactics, confidence, motivation or fatigue (not sure how it could be fatigue) is wide open, but is not promising at this stage of the season.