Chelsea player ratings vs. Man City: Blues get demolished at home

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Manchester City’s Belgian midfielder Kevin De Bruyne (C) celebrates after he scores their third goal during the English Premier League football match between Chelsea and Manchester City at Stamford Bridge in London on January 3, 2021. (Photo by ANDY RAIN/POOL/AFP via Getty Images) /

As a unit, Chelsea was abysmal in its game against Manchester City, how did each of the Blues’ players perform against the Citizens though?

Oh boy; we see a 3-1 scoreline, but also collectively recognize it could’ve been far worse. You could say that Chelsea, at least when it comes to the scoreline, was so close to being brutally embarrassed. The Blues—the defense in particular—were shambolic on the day. I didn’t have anything positive from the notes I prepared for this game, apart from a few points.

Manchester City picked Chelsea apart and did it so effortlessly, the Citizens looked to be playing in a league of their own. The Blues bad on the day, but City was excellent, as well, and deserves the utmost respect. It was tough to watch, to say the least. Pep Guardiola got it right, even with a number of stars missing, he had his team put in the best performance of the season. The Blues, quite frankly, put on their worst showing of the year, topping the Arsenal performance from a few weeks ago.

This was bad, but the show must go on—let’s rate each player individually:

Eduoard Mendy (Goalkeeper): 5/10

To be honest, Edouard Mendy wasn’t necessarily bad today. He couldn’t have done much better in any of the three goals he conceded today. His distribution was OK, and he had that one fantastic save in the 54′. That being said, I simply can’t give him more than a five after conceding three goals in one game. His defense let him down, there’s no two ways about it. Extra points for that save, by the way—wow.

Cesar Azpilicueta (Right back): 4/10

Am I being harsh on Cesar Azpilicueta? I don’t think I am. He was just completely out of sync, just like the rest of the defense. There was so much space waiting for him to be covered. He didn’t do much on the offensive end, either. In fact, him moving towards the attacking third so much in the first half not only left a lot of space for Phil Foden to attack on the counters, it messed with Chelsea’s defensive shape a lot because Mateo Kovacic and N’Golo Kante were both very advanced, leaving Kurt Zouma to cover a lot of ground on the counter.

He also had his fair share of blame in two of the three goals. First, he left Oleksandr Zinchenko with a lot of space on the wing, and then left a lot of space in the middle, through which the ball went to Foden. Then in the second goal, he was in caught in two worlds and chose to go up against Kevin De Bruyne instead of staying with Foden, who was a free man inside the box and scored the goal because Thiago Silva couldn’t close him down in time.

Kurt Zouma (Centreback): 4/10

Zouma is one of my favourite players at Chelsea right now, but against Manchester City, he wasn’t free from criticism. He was clumsy in possession, and had a lot of difficulty in dealing with Man City’s extremely efficient high press. That caused a bunch of giveaways early on from the Frenchman. Eventually, he had his problems in distribution when City was pressing, as there was no midfielder near him to support the defense and move the ball forward.

In the second goal, he went towards De Bruyne early on in the sequence. He got nutmegged and left a lot of space behind, which forced Silva to make the sliding challenge, and after that, you already know what happened. Poor defending from the team. This wasn’t the Zouma we’re used to, there’s no way.

Thiago Silva (Centreback): 4/10

Not a good game at all from the Brazilian—I think I’m going to say that about almost every player though. He was certainly not the Silva we know and love. He was far from his best, and his decision making was off. Before the first goal, when De Bruyne missed that chance, there was just so much space between Zouma and Silva. This patch of pitch got even wider when Silva moved a bit more towards his left. He had his difficulties in playing out from the back, and since there was no Tammy Abraham or Olivier Giroud, he didn’t have anyone to play a long ball to. The 36-year-old had problems going up against De Bruyne all evening.

Ben Chilwell (Left back): 4/10

Yet another Chelsea player that was far, far, far from his best; don’t worry, the list doesn’t end here either. Ben Chilwell was, quite frankly, smoked by Raheem Sterling. The English left back simply couldn’t keep up with his pace. Going forward, he was largely ineffective and didn’t even see the ball much, from what I can recall. Also, in the build up to the third goal, he was jogging towards Chelsea’s goal and left De Bruyne completely free when the Belgian was making the run inside the box. Really bad from the left back.

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