Villains to Heroes

9 points clear having played 3 extra games. The pressure was all on City, Arsenal and Liverpool…yet in typical Chelsea style we take some of that pressure away and heap it on ourselves. Glorious unpredictability or was this always just around the corner?

Losing to Villa is undoubtedly an unexpected blow to our chances in the league. Of course, we’re still in the hunt. We lead the table by 4 points. However, in a weekend where City were triumphant in true “Champion” style and Liverpool and Arsenal dispatched potentially tricky opponents, it has closed up the gap and leaves us with no margin for error.

I think we all felt this could be a tricky fixture. I certainly did. While Villa doesn’t brim with quality what they do have is endeavor and youth in abundance.

In regards of the team, I felt we had the right set up. We had the right players on the pitch to give us energy over the pitch. We definitely had the right qualities to break them down. Arguably, it is our best eleven. And to be completely honest, we didn’t actually play that badly…so what went wrong?

Before we go into the obvious officiating decisions, which are hard to avoid when analyzing the game, we have to look at ourselves. While I felt we weren’t terrible, what we didn’t do is really cause Villa much harm.

For me, our downside was that we played our game in front of Villa and therefore just made it easy for them to organize themselves. Possession was fine. We kept the ball quite well and moved it around the pitch, but everything was played in front of their lines. We very rarely slipped the ball between lines and into channels to stretch Villa, which makes it very easy to defend against. I’d much rather defend what I can see as opposed to what’s going on behind me and fortunately for Villa, they never had to worry about that.

I also felt we never exploited Villa’s main weaknesses. I’ve watched Villa a few times this season and for me the two weaknesses they have is one on one defending and set pieces. Because we played everything in front of Villa, the likes of Hazard never had an opportunity to get a one on one because when he got the ball, he had 2 players set up in front of him.

With set pieces, Villa defends zonally. The poor delivery of set pieces never gave us an opportunity to exploit that. Finally, realistically we have to look at just one statistic, which are 2 attempts on target. Not good enough.

Despite, what I feel is a fair criticism that we looked toothless going forward, we never looked as if we were going to concede either. I guess this probably segues nicely into Mr. Chris Foy.

I don’t like blaming referees for outcomes of our games and technically I’m not for this result but we cannot deny that his wrong decisions did have a significant impact upon the game.

The goal Matic had ruled out for an apparent handball, in my opinion, was incorrect. The ball bounces up unexpectedly and hits the upper part of his chest and arm. The arm is by his side and doesn’t make a genuine attempt to control the ball. I think what’s worse is that he initially awarded the goal and took it away. Influenced by the players in my view. If that goal stood its an entirely different game.

This applies with the Willian sending off too. The first foul, I felt was a harsh yellow but understandable if he had repeatedly offended (he hadn’t). The second one is quite frankly embarrassing; it wasn’t a cynical foul and he hardly made any contact. This clearly changed the game because Villa was clever after that. Extra man in midfield comes on and we just get overrun in the middle of the pitch (ultimately we conceded the goal in that manner).

Villa they could easily have had Vlaar sent off for a professional foul when Ramires burst through. And talking of Ramires, I have no arguments with that sending off. Not a nasty person, Ramires, but that was a poor challenge.

The referee’s decisions of course made a difference on the game but at the same time we had 75 minutes with 11 men on the pitch to make a difference and we didn’t. We just need to get on with it and bounce back.

Bouncing back…which we did in a fantastic manor this evening against an extremely poor Galatasaray outfit.

I said the last time we played Galatasaray in Turkey that they were easily one of the poorest sides I’ve seen us face in Europe. It’s probably safe to say they were even worse this evening.

Having said that, we were fantastic in every aspect. Individually, collectively, tactically and disciplined we were completely professional.

The team was always going to be interesting with Matic being cup-tied and Fernando Torres having a shocker against Villa. Frank Lampard came in with Ramires and Eto’o replaced Torres. You’ve got to say it couldn’t have gone any better.

Our game plan was similar to the first leg. We needed to get behind the back four as quickly as we could and win the midfield battle. It’s fair to say, it was handed to us.

The striker debate at Chelsea is an interesting one. Who is the main man; Torres or Eto’o? Both offer different things. Torres is great when we need to go direct because he can run at defenders and win aerially…but what Eto’o gives us is a very clever link to get Oscar and Hazard into games. Eto’o, for someone that isn’t hugely built, does hold the ball well because his first touch is usually good. He gives that opportunity for players to run beyond him, which is great for the likes of Hazard, as he’ll isolate defenders one on one.

Our first goal was great football between the 3 mentioned and it was a real shame we didn’t add further gloss to the scoreline because they really strung some fantastic movements together.

Bit ironic really that if we had played the same as we did this evening against Villa we would have won the game comfortably. We tested the keeper 11 times and threatened from set pieces.

Special mention to Frank Lampard, who I felt was excellent tonight. Been a while since we’ve seen Frank run a game, but tonight he completely controlled that game at his pace. When we needed to slow it down or speed it up, he picked the passes to order to contribute that. He also made Sneijder disappear (yes, he did play). Vital 60 yard raking ball to Oscar to win the corner for the 2^nd goal too.

That performance was exactly what we needed after the Villa game. We never had to break out of 2^nd gear and rarely broke a sweat. Regardless of how poor the opposition was, it is a huge confidence boost winning easily. Perfectly timed for the visit of Arsenal.

I don’t want to say the Arsenal game is make or break…but it probably is. At this stage, with how tight it is at the top, this is virtually a 6 pointer.
We’re going to be missing Ramires and Willian but they will be without Ozil, Wilshire, Ramsey and Walcott. Having watched their recent game against Tottenham, I feel that if we can’t beat them at home then we don’t deserve the title.

Arsenal always has the same weakness and that’s the space they give teams because they want to go forward. We’ve practically got the defensive side of our game sorted to deal with them going forward and our danger men will have large amounts of space to operate in. Hazard, Oscar and Schurrle will be able to run at defenders and the game will probably suit Torres to go at them. Eto’o may have something to say about that. Matic and Luiz/Lampard can bully Arsenal, just like recent years and I expect us to win comfortably.

If we beat Arsenal, we reapply pressure to City, who in the next 3 games after Fulham face United, Liverpool and Arsenal all away. This is our opportunity to strike.

Nobody will go the rest of the season without dropping points and with City being the biggest challengers (in my opinion) they have more games to play and more opportunity to drop points.

If we beat Arsenal, top the league and quarterfinals of Europe’s elite isn’t such a bad week is it?

It’s just getting interesting.

UTC

By Liam Hawkes
(@LiamHawkes2)