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.
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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.
N’Golo Kante (Defensive midfielder): 3.5/10
I never thought I’d see a terrible Kante performance in this lifetime. The Frenchman just did not have a good game, simple as that. He had his usual interventions and all of that, but his passing, decision making and defensive coverage could not have been farther from his best. Kante was at fault for the third goal, obviously. Apart from that, He had so many giveaways that just isn’t normal for us to see from him. It was a forgettable night from the Frenchman, who also received a yellow card, which means he will be suspended for the next game.
Kante was also sometimes sitting in front of the two centrebacks so that he could help them play through the press, but he didn’t provide with anything. He’s never been known for his ball-carrying ability. Instead, Kovacic could’ve done a much better job in that situation because we saw him do just that at Real Madrid; he really is an excellent ball carrier. Anyway, he was replaced by Billy Gilmour in the 64′ and nobody batted an eye, which is again, unusual.
Mateo Kovacic (Central midfielder): 4.5/10
Kovacic had a really bad start to the game, as six or seven minutes in, he already had a couple of giveaways and dispossessions. He wasn’t involved much in the first half because City had the ball for so long, and was so effective with it. I also noticed him being in a really advanced position at many points during the game, which was weird to see. This begged the question of: who’s going to provide coverage when both the winger and the fullback are high up the pitch, while the defensive midfielder is near the opponent’s box, himself?
Like I said above, the Croatian’s ball-carrying ability wasn’t utilized. It’s true, we haven’t seen him use it that much in his time at Chelsea, but we saw in the second half that he still has it. In the 58′, he got the ball and dribbled past a bunch of light blue shirts and took a shot which was wide, but again, why not use it to break the press? Anyway, the second half was a bit better from Kovacic.
Mason Mount (Central midfielder): 4/10
It took a little while for me to figure out what rating I should give to Mount. It’s not that he had a game with both ups and downs, but it’s the fact that it didn’t even feel like he was there, you know? For large stretches, I had completely forgotten about the English midfielder being on the pitch. When he did have the ball, he wasn’t doing much with it. I have nothing else to say, really, he just wasn’t good.
Billy Gilmour (Defensive midfielder): 4/10
The young Scotsman came on for Kante in the 64′ and seemingly looked like the youngster with the least experience on the pitch at the start. He lost the ball two or three times in quick succession, and after that, grew into the game a little bit. He was tidy in possession, good passing, that’s about it, not enough time to make a serious impact when down 3-0.
Kai Havertz (Central midfielder) (5.5/10)
Kai Havertz didn’t really do a lot with the ball the few times he got a touch. There wasn’t much movement from him or his teammates, so the ball circulated in the middle of the pitch for the longest time, but, he did get an assist for the consolation goal. He played a beautiful, first-time cross to Callum Hudson-Odoi to tap in, which was great. That was also it though, the rating would’ve been less if it wasn’t for the assist.
Hakim Ziyech (right winger): 4.5/10
I really like Hakim Ziyech, he’s one of my favourite players in football, so naturally I was glad to see him back into the starting XI. Much like Mount though, he was also invisible for large portions during the game. He started off somewhat decently, putting good (sometimes great) crosses into the box, but then even that stopped happening as the game went on. He had that one really great cross to Pulisic (which could’ve been received by Timo Werner as well, more on that later). Apart from that, quiet night from Ziyech.
Timo Werner (Striker): 3/10
I don’t know what to say that would make this performance sound better than it actually was. He started off OK with a couple of good link ups inside the box. Then he flipped the switch; it was the same Werner that we’ve been seeing in the past few weeks. No confidence, no intensity, little to no movement, nothing.
That cross from Ziyech I was talking about? Werner was on the edge of the box, for some reason. A confident Werner would’ve made a run towards the goal beforehand and probably would’ve had a chance to score because it would’ve been a near-perfect ball for him. There wasn’t a single time that I said, “oh, that was actually a great run by Werner.” It’s so hard to watch him play the way he’s playing, and it’s almost annoying. We know he can do so much better, he has done so much better in the past, he needs to work hard to get back on track.
Christian Pulisic (Left winger): 6/10
Out of the 11 that started, Pulisic was probably the best player for the Blues. He was explosive, dribbling past City players at will. He had that one chance, though, where he took a couple of extra touches that narrowed his angle a little bit and prevented him from taking the shot. Otherwise, he was the most lively player on the pitch for Chelsea. The problem once again was, he didn’t see the ball that much. It was because of City’s dominance, but yes, Pulisic had a decent game.
Callum Hudson-Odoi (right winger): 6/10
Hudson-Odoi has been good in the minutes he has played in the past couple of weeks, and I think he deserved a start over Ziyech today, which he didn’t get. Anyway, he was a breath of fresh air into the metaphorical dead body that was Chelsea’s attack. He was one of the very, very few players that was actually willing to try stuff out and do something about the game. It was too late, but he did even manage to get on the scoresheet. More of this from the young man, please. Extra rating for the run and the goal.
What rating would you give to each of the players? Let us know in the comments or on Twitter.