Chelsea walked away from the Vitality Stadium with a point and a clean sheet against Bournemouth. A goalless draw against the Cherries, considering the circumstances, leaves a bad taste in the mouths of the Blues faithful, and rightly so. On a day when Mauricio Pochettino’s created just one clear-cut chance in 90 minutes of football played, here is how the Pride of London rates the players’, eh, non-performance.
Robert Sanchez: 9/10
Sanchez has gotten a near-perfect score because he rose above the criticism, and came out on top in all four shots he faced, including the only big chance Bournemouth created.
Malo Gusto: 5/10
Gusto wasn’t great, but was definitely better than some of his teammates. His dribbling was OK, but his usage of the ball was poor. He went 0/3 for crosses, and as such recorded 19 possession losses, which wouldn’t have been necessarily bad if Gusto had not left the match with 0 chances created. He did win 6/11 ground duels and 2/2 tackles.
Thiago Silva: 6/10
Silva did not do anything particularly wrong, but the fact that he only made two defensive actions and contested two duels suggests he was not in a position to do many things right either. His passing was impeccable though.
Axel Disasi: 7/10
Disasi has continued to come under a lot of fire, yet there’s a lot to suggest he is actually being hung out to dry. Against West Ham United, the former Monaco defender ran across the backline – several times – to cover for Silva, and sometimes for Levi Colwill. This suggests that he’s playing some kind of babysitter role for CFC’s defense. Against Bournemouth today, he made four clearances and blocked four shots, accounting for 50% of the clearances made by the Blues’ backline and 80% of the shots blocked by the away side’s defenders.
Levi Colwill: 4/10
Colwill was not good. He was positionally poor, and again, he was careless on the ball. No one on the pitch recorded more possession losses than Colwill, and as a defender, that is abysmal. Pochettino is hanging this kid out to dry. It is punitive at this point.
Lesley Ugochukwu: 5/10
Ugochukwu had a mixed bag. He won a fair amount of his duels and his passing was generally good. He won 0/3 tackles though, which is outright unacceptable.
Conor Gallagher: 6.5/10
Gallagher is as high as a 6.5 for creating Chelsea’s only big chance of the game. If you think that rating is low, it’s because Gallagher – Blues’ captain for the day – was quite poor at the Vitality Stadium. The away side’s No. 23 won just 2/9 duels he contested, including 1/7 ground duels. In the process he came out second best in the only tackle he went in for.
Enzo Fernandez: 3/10
Fernandez continues to produce numbers that show he’s a central midfielder, not an attacking midfielder. A central midfielder being an extremely good passer does not automatically become an attacker in a central midfielder’s body.
Raheem Sterling: 7.5/10
Sterling, like the capital side this season in general, did everything right except shooting. The Englishman won four fouls while getting past his opposite number 3/6 times. He also created three chances and won 7/13 duels he contested. Unfortunately, the former Manchester City forward took four shots, including a big chance, and did not make the goalkeeper work even once.
Mykhailo Mudryk: 7/10
Mudryk started the game well and trailed off somewhat. He created two good chances.
Nicolas Jackson: 5/10
Nothing to say about Jackson. 3/11 duels won is not good, and his shooting was not a good look.
Cole Palmer: 7/10
Chelsea needed goals and they turned to Palmer for the second game in a row. It’s silly because the kid is 21 years old and it seems we’re to pretend that it’s normal that after spending 872m, there was a need to burn another 40m on a fringe player with (now) 21 Premier League games to his name. That said, Palmer was one of the better players for west London side today. He had a shot on target, won 3/3 ground duels, and 2/2 tackles.
Ben Chilwell: 5/10
Chilwell did nothing but put one decent cross in. He gets a rating because he was on the pitch for up to 10 minutes. The Blues’ vice captain actually tried to get involved when he had the opportunity.
Ian Maatsen: N/A
He did even less than Chilwell, as he lost all the duels he contested.
Mauricio Pochettino: 2/10
Simple. Levi Colwill is not a left back.