Let’s just forego the usual witty opening and delve right into the player ratings from Chelsea’s loss at Newcastle.
Dismal. Grim. Bleak. Funereal. And to think those words describe what we now know were the best parts of Chelsea’s performance at Newcastle: the 93 minutes when they were still entitled to a point.
Kepa Arrizabalaga, Goalkeeper: 4
Goalkeepers have to be able to count on their centrebacks. Centrebacks have to be able to count on their goalkeepers. At Chelsea, the trust deficit runs in both directions.
No matter what angle we try to take, it comes out looking bad for Kepa Arrizabalaga. When Allan Saint-Maximin set up for the cross, Arrizabalaga was near the top of his six-yard box. As the pass came in, he retreated towards his goal line. At the start of that play, Arrizabalaga as closer to Isaac Hayden’s point of contact than he was to his goal line. A step, a jump and a punch could have sent the ball clear to safety.
But, you say, a cross like that is the responsibility of the centrebacks who are holding the defensive line and nominally marking the men in the box? Well, in that case, Arrizabalaga’s primary responsibility was stopping the shot, which we know he didn’t do. Maybe the centrebacks thought Arrizabalaga would come out to claim it. In that case it’s a failure in communication.
Confident control of the box, communication, reading the flight of the ball, decision-making, reaction time, arm strength… if you forgive one or two, you only do so by stipulating the shortcomings in the others.
Reece James, Right back: 7.5
Reece James was Chelsea’s best player on both sides of the ball. He led the team in defensive actions (eight) against an opponent who accomplished hardly anything on offence until after James went off with an injury.
During those long spans adding up to Chelsea’s 70% possession, James provided the most creative passing on the team, not just with his now fully-trademarked crosses but with throughballs and quick vertical passes to send Callum Hudson-Odoi behind (ever so briefly) Newcastle’s defensive line. If Chelsea were ever going to find a way to send a ball to a player in a tiny pocket of space somewhere in front of Newcastle’s goal, James would have been the originator. Somehow, a right back is emerging as the new Cesc Fabregas.
If his injury is severe, expect teams across Europe to add several zeroes to the price tag on their left backs and await a panicked call from Chelsea on January 30.
Andreas Christensen, Centre back: 6.5
For his second game in a row, Andreas Christensen showed an oddly physical side. Oddly not just because it’s him, but because of how he is going about it.
Christensen has been very willing to go high up and over the back of an opponent to win an aerial duel, even if that results in him flipping over onto the ground in front of the opponent. For a player who usually fears contact with the ground as much as contact with another player, this is a good step. He’s being confrontational without going eye-to-eye, which might be the best thing for him. As a result, he won eight aerial duels, most of which at Joelinton’s expense.
Antonio Rudiger, Centre back: 5
A few years ago, in reference to David Luiz, I wrote that Antonio Conte needed to instill a zero-defect mentality in Chelsea’s centrebacks. This was around the time Luiz was gathering acclaim for all the random auxiliary things he would do, with no regard (from him or his advocates) for his actual duties as a centreback. You know, that whole defending thing.
Rudiger does not go on adventures like Luiz would, nor does he occasionally save a game with a free kick to offset the others he ships to the opponent. Rudiger just has days when the small errors stay in the background because they have no lasting impact until there’s the big one that does. For a centreback – like a goalkeeper – nothing else matters if the ball ends up in the back of the net. That’s the mentality Rudiger and this battery need.
Fikayo Tomori and Kurt Zouma hopefully enjoyed their mini-vacation, because it’s over now.
Cesar Azpilicueta, Left back / Right back: 6 + 1 = 7
I was going to rate Cesar Azpilicueta’s performance as a 6.5, but then I remembered that he put in 6.5 performance as left back for 74 minutes and then as right back for 16 minutes, so I gave him the bonus point.
Chelsea are utterly dependent not just on his reliably high standards, but how well he covers the gaps on both sides of the squad.
Think about: at the beginning of the season, all we heard was how Azpilicueta was done and dusted, a nice guy who’s the club captain but rarely wears the armband because he’s rarely on the pitch, unable to match the pace and offensive nous (gotta have some nous) of Emerson and Reece James.
Here we are and Azpilicueta is the starting left back because Emerson is not up to the task, and when Reece James goes down with injury, Azpilicueta slots over to cover James and no one is much the wiser (at least not on the right: everyone knew that Emerson had come in for him on the left – more on him below). If anything happens to Azpilicueta, this team is in grave danger.