Player Ratings: Chelsea 6 Arsenal 0 Saturday 22nd March

By Ross Mooring

There’s no two ways to put this: Chelsea annihilated Arsenal. It was a proper old school thrashing meted out in the modern way of verve and ruthlessness in attack combined with relaxed play and possession at the back. Arsenal were so shocked by the home team’s complete superiority that they kept their heads down and passed the ball about at 4, 5 and 6-0 when the game called for more direct play, or at least a tasty challenge or two.

Arsenal, their supporters and Arsene Wenger were utterly shellshocked.

There’s really not much to add other than to say Chelsea shot themselves into a 3-0 lead inside 17 minutes thanks to a breathtaking left-footed bender from Samuel Eto’o (who unfortunately hobbled off soon after), a precision finish from the edge of the area from Andre Schurrle and a calmly taken penalty from Eden Hazard after one Arsenal player or another was sent off for handball. In truth, it was a shame not to see Chelsea take it to a full strength Arsenal side, but I’ll take the hilarity and bragging rights any day of the week.

Ratings:

Petr Cech 8

Even though it was the only thing Cech had to do, his outstanding and crucial save from Oliver Giroud in the first couple of minutes ultimately changed the course of the game.

Branislav Ivanovic 6, Gary Cahill 6, John Terry 6

Brana was up and down the right flank without producing much. All three had very little to do in defence, bar planning their Saturday nights out.

Cesar Azpilicueta 7

Same as above, bar one or two excellently flighted forward passes. Between he and Hazard it’s hard to think of a better left sided partnership in Europe, even if they are both right footed.

Nemanja Matic 8

An understated performance from Matic, who performed his defensive duties without much difficulty and assisted two of the goals. All while seemingly just wandering around the centre circle.

David Luiz 7

It’s difficult to know how much Luiz would have been tested against an Arsenal team that didn’t roll over so easily (is there such a thing these days?) but the Brazilian played well breaking up play in midfield and got forward once or twice too.

Andre Schurrle 9

Schurrle came very close to a Man of the Match award with a thunderous first half display which saw him charge down the right wing and run at the Arsenal defence on numerous occasions, assisting the first before finishing with unerring precision for the second. Was certainly the match-winner given his opening contributions.

Oscar 9 – Man of the Match

It’s great to see the Brazilian number 10/11* (*delete depending on preference) back to something like his best; setting the tempo when pressing the opposition, orchestrating attacks and getting on the end of chances. Two goals and his general play in the centre of the park was a joy to watch.

Eden Hazard 8

Happy to see his attacking colleagues take the game to Arsenal, Hazard was in his comfort zone, played well and tucked away his penalty nicely.

Samuel Eto’o 8

Scored a peach with his weaker left foot, curling a lofted effort into the far side of the goal, then strained something and got substituted, all inside ten minutes.

Substitutes:

Fernando Torres 8

It remains to be seen if  Fernando can continue his current run of being effective without slipping in an anonymous performance, but his assist for the fourth and all round general play was a positive against good quality defenders.

Mo Salah 7

A heart in mouth moment reminiscent of his debut when in on goal with an aeon of time to score, but the Egyptian finished well after timing his run to perfection as Arsenal’s back four melted.

John Mikel Obi  6

Nothing to say on Obi’s performance

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