Chelsea player ratings: Mateo Kovacic clear on top, Alonso hits the extremes

Ross Barkley struggled with an early injury for about 40 minute before coming off for Mateo Kovacic just before the half, setting up an outstanding performance by the Croatian as Chelsea edged past Newcastle 1-0.

Both clubs have different managers, but the balance Saturday’s game looked much like last season’s first-half meeting between Chelsea and Newcastle. The Blues had 71% possession (down from 81% last season), almost three times as many passes (down from 4.5 times as many last season) as the Magpies and eked out a one-goal win. Amongst the differences this time: Chelsea scored from open play, not needing an Eden Hazard penalty and DeAndre Yedlin own goal; the Blues denied Newcastle any shots on goal; and there was actually some purpose and creativity to go with all that possession. Anywho, player ratings.

Kepa Arrizabalaga, Goalkeeper: N/A

Newcastle made only 259 passes to Chelsea’s 634, and yet all but two Newcastle starters had more passes than Kepa Arrizabalaga. He collected a few crosses, charged out for one aerial ball that left both Fikayo Tomori and Kurt Zouma down for the count (Tomori took it worst) and otherwise stood around watching the game through his binoculars.

Cesar Azpilicueta, Right back: 7.5

Newcastle made no effort to press Chelsea, knowing that doing so would invite a counter-attack. As soon as the Blues regained possession, the visitors took to their 4-5-1 shape deep in their zone.

This brought Chelsea’s full-backs even further up and central than usual. Azpilicueta linked up with Willian, as usual, for overlapping runs on the right and sending crosses into the box. On a few set pieces Azpilicueta ended up as the deep covering defender, but for the most part he was an adjunct attacking midfielder. If that’s what the game demands, he’s of course up for it.

Kurt Zouma, Centreback: 7

The centrebacks did not have much reason to stay deep, either, and this brought Zouma and Tomori up against the Blues’ attacking midfield line quite frequently. For the most part this wasn’t a problem, as long as somebody (the other centreback, a full-back, a midfielder) dropped into a covering position.

But they didn’t always, and this is where Chelsea’s centrebacks need to step forward as vocal leaders and organizers. They have the full view of the play at all times, and the greatest responsibility, especially in games where it would be easy to get sucked in and then hit hard by Allan Saint-Maximin or Joelinton on a counter. Zouma and Tomori are good defenders and a good pair, but they need to make their voices heard by each other and their defensive teammates.

Fikayo Tomori, Centreback: 7

Overall, Tomori had a better game than Zouma, mainly due to his better abilities on the ball. However, Tomori more than Zouma threw himself into attacking support without much regard for who was covering or getting back. And in the 67′, Tomori undercooked an absolutely needless back-pass to Kepa Arrizabalaga, which a Newcastle player pounced on and nearly got off a shot if not for a brilliant recovery tackle by Zouma.

Marcos Alonso, Left back: 6.5 – 8.0

Alonso’s performance had so many disparate aspects we’ll leave it to you to decide how to rate any or all of them from the range given above. We can’t decide.

Defensively, Alonso was fine, except for the little matter of Allan Saint-Maximin, who was a very serious and not little at all matter going up against Alonso 1v1. If Newcastle were willing to invest a little bit of time maintaining possession in Chelsea’s defensive third so they could isolated Saint-Maximin against Alonso, they would have had at least a shot on target for their efforts. Saint-Maximin completely overwhelmed Alonso physically and positionally.

Alonso started the game with a streak of indiscipline and poor decisions. He escaped a booking in the 8′ before finally seeing yellow in the 23′ for pointlessly lashing out after losing a shoulder-to-shoulder battle. He looked a bit unhinged, perhaps the booing from the travelling fans was affecting him, and did not seem to have his head in the right place tactically, technically or in any other aspect of the game.

As the first half wound down he brought everything under control, but was wandering further afield than ever. Several times in the second half he was firmly planted on the right side of the pitch as Azpilicueta stayed close in his orbit, giving the Blues a large overload but, again, leaving the left side vulnerable to the counter that never came. Alonso supported the attack in more ways than usual given how freely he was moving, and obviously scored the winning goal: a strike that rarely comes off a left back’s foot unless that left back is a “false 3” like he is.

Weight each of those factors (and any others) as you will.