Fulham 1 – 3 Chelsea – Saturday 1st March
Given the lack of rest Chelsea had gained since returning from Istanbul on Thursday morning they will be more than happy to have got the win without having to exert themselves too much. On the negative side, that is now the second game in a row with a slack goal conceded from a set piece.
Ratings:
Petr Cech 6 – Another awkward moment dealing with a corner, but in his defence his fellow defenders looked very static as well.
Branislav Ivanovic 6 – Slightly awkward first ten minutes dealing with Kasami but other than that, untroubled for the remainder of the game.
Gary Cahill 7, John Terry 7 – Their partnership is on another level these days. Only an early Clint Dempsey header wide with no one picking him up blotted their copy book. Darren Bent never had a sniff.
Cesar Azpilicueta 6 – Very similar display to Ivanovic, except his awkward moments came in the last ten minutes. Decent otherwise.
Ramires 6 – Ramires marginally improved on his midweek display and showed more of his usual bursts of his box to box style with Matic sitting behind him, but lacked that bit of cleverness to release teammates.
Nemanja Matic 7 – Another assured display, Matic was asked to sit deeper than usual. Shielded his back four well and kept play moving with simple passes.
Andre Schurrle 9 – Came to life in the second half with a performance full of endless and clever running (from deep after a give and go for his first goal, along the line for his second and opportunistically to complete his hat trick) that brought him three goals with good finishing with both feet.
Oscar 7 – Encouraging return from the Brazilian who did not quite capture his form but still showed off his range of passing with clever prompts here and there.
Eden Hazard 9 – Chelsea’s best forward-minded player in the first half, had an electric spell in the second when he ran Fulham ragged from all angles and played Schurrle in for his first two goals with quality assists.
Fernando Torres 7 – Should have had a goal in the first half when twice well placed, but a solid all round display was rounded off with a nice assist for Schurrle’s hat trick.
Substitutes:
John Mikel Obi 5 – Made two notable mental errors, once incorrectly attempting to let the ball out of play when it did not and the second playing the ball out to the flank when no one was there.
Demba Ba -, David Luiz – Neither Ba nor Luiz played the requisite 10 minutes to record a rating. One thing to note that is that when Ba came on he initially played on the right flank with Schurrle at centre forward.
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Good rating