Chelsea got away with poor performance as it welcomed West Ham United to Stamford Bridge in a crucial game. Thomas Tuchel tried to rotate and gave Trevoh Chalobah a start, but it was obvious Chalobah had not played a game of football in a while. The defenders were the best performers, but the forwards were painfully underwhelming. It took a triple substitution in the 76′ for things to begin to look even a little bit lively from the home side. Poor decision-making and slow, lethargic passing was the theme of the day. Nevertheless, a win is a win.
Here’s how The Pride of London believes the players performed individually:
Edouard Mendy (Goalkeeper): 7.5/10
Edouard Mendy was superb. He allowed every shot on target to score against Arsenal, but against West Ham, he saved every shot on target. Mendy recorded another well-deserved clean sheet. His distribution was also superb.
Cesar Azpilicueta (Right centerback): 7/10
Cesar Azpilicueta made some potentially costly errors in the early stages of the match but he generally did well otherwise. It’s important to note that, had Chelsea played against more dangerous opponents, those mistakes would have cost the Blues. Azpilicueta picked up in the second half though as he won four out of his six duels. He also had the joint-highest number of long balls completed in the team, and by far the highest proportion of long balls completed.
Thiago Silva (Centerback): 7.5/10
Thiago Silva was solid as usual. He made more defensive actions than his two centerback partners. He was solid on the ball, helping Chelsea recycle possession and play out quite frequently. Silva even made a superb run through the midfield and took a shot that everyone hoped would go in for several reasons.
Trevoh Chalobah (Left centerback): 7/10
Chalobah nearly dribbled his way into trouble. Chelsea was only saved by a sluggish West Ham attack. He lost most of his duels, but not an overwhelming majority. Chalobah had an overall good game, despite looking iffy early on as he attempted to shake off the rust.
Ruben Loftus-Cheek (Right wingback): 7/10
Ruben Loftus-Cheek wasn’t great at right wingback on Sunday. He played the role like he was playing central midfield. He didn’t overlap, thereby creating no width, which defeated the very purpose of the wingback role and system. His tendency to cut inside whenever he had the ball meant that he often dribbled into the central areas of the pitch only to make a square pass. His performance was not bad, he just didn’t play the role the right way, which is not his fault as he’s not a wingback. Hell, many wingbacks don’t play the role the right way.
Jorginho (Central midfielder): 7/10
I’ve mentioned that Jorginho’s penalty technique is risky and ends up having no power. His penalty routine relies on the goalkeeper losing the battle of wills and moving before he (Jorginho) strikes the ball. Jorginho’s hop means he can’t get that much power on the ball in his penalties. Goalkeepers including Jordan Pickford, Alisson Becker, Ederson and Yann Sommer have all saved his penalties after standing their ground and waiting for the ball to be struck.
“Oh yeah? Well if it’s that easy why don’t all goalkeepers just stand then? huh?!!” this is because keepers aren’t trained to wait for the ball to be struck before diving, as this would leave them at a disadvantage in nine scenarios out of 10. Jorginho’s penalty technique is popular enough though that you can expect even more of his penalties to be saved if he continues that hopping routine. Overall, Jorginho didn’t have a bad game though. In fact, he was quite good.
N’Golo Kante (Central midfielder): 7/10
N’Golo Kante was better than he has been in his last few games. He won most of his duels and his passing was very good. His decision-making was often questionable though.
Marcos Alonso (Left wingback): 7.5/10
Marcos Alonso had a solid game. Capped off with his pinpoint cross to the perfect spot in the area where Christian Pulisic was standing, unmarked, waiting for the ball.
Kai Havertz (Right forward): 5/10
The best way to sum up Kai Havertz’s performance is to point out that he had more defensive actions (four) than shots, dribbles completed and chances created combined (three). The German international has been one of the Blues’ better players this season, this was not one of those matches though. Havertz—along with the rest of the attack—was pretty poor.
Mason Mount (Right winger): 4/10
Mason Mount’s poor decision-making over the years is well documented. This means that he gets some leeway as he’s expected to make some relatively brain-dead decisions on the ball in every game. On Sunday though, it was through the roof. He took six shots and not a single one was on target because at no time was shooting the right option. Three of his shots were blocked and the other half were off target.
Mount had several chances to make very simple actions that would have impacted play much more. Instead, he opted to either hold on to the ball for several seconds too long or take a shot that made even less sense. Yes, in a match where nothing seems to be happening, the temptation to take shots from anywhere is strong. However, these players have been playing at the top level for far too long to not be able to make glaring passes that would get the ball into more dangerous areas. Mount had the task of leading the attack, he did the opposite against David Moyes’ side, whatever the opposite of leading the attack is.
Timo Werner (Left forward): 5/10
It’s easy to see why Timo Werner was not effective against West Ham. Chelsea’s ball movement was so slow that the Blues never had any hope of dragging any opponent out of position. Add to this the fact that the Hammers left no space for any forward to exploit. That being said, Werner had opportunities to impact the game and didn’t. He also dribbled into traffic several times.
Romelu Lukaku (Striker): 7/10
Romelu Lukaku was very good against West Ham. He pressed very well and he was willing to track back in crucial moments in the game. The Belgian made a priceless contribution to the game by winning a penalty late on, and in the process, getting one of West Ham’s few fit centerbacks sent off. Unfortunately, the penalty did not result in Chelsea taking the lead, but that part was out of his control as he was not the designated penalty taker.
Hakim Ziyech (Right wingback): 6/10
Hakim Ziyech helped a few times to link up play and tried a few crosses. He came on for Loftus-Cheek, effectively playing as a right wingback for the duration of his say on the pitch.
Christian Pulisic (Left winger): 8/10
Many fans had very strong words after reading this piece because they didn’t agree that Pulisic’s dribbling wasn’t that great. One of the main points made in that piece was that the American was much better at getting into goal scoring positions, whether starting or coming on from the bench. Disagree? No player has converted more big chances than Pulisic for Chelsea this season. Altogether, Pulisic has been on the end of 10 big chances this season, only Havertz has been presented with more.
Thomas Tuchel (Manager): 6/10
Thomas Tuchel nearly dropped the ball on this one. He insisted on playing Mount—who he knew was tired. Admittedly, the forwards he has been selecting have been in form, but he did a poor job of rotating them. His substitutes came way too late on Sunday, especially because those on the pitch were more or less stinking up the place. Mount was on the pitch for way too long, and so was Werner. None of the starting front three played well. Chelsea needed to force the issue, and while it was good Tuchel brought on all three subs at the same time, if he had started making substitutions much earlier, he wouldn’t have needed to bring three substitutes at once.
What rating would you give each of the players? Let us know in the comments or on Twitter!