Cech- Cannot blame him for anything at all, made some great saves, the only player who looked as though he had any real spirit for the game. Once the game hit about 50-60 minutes, he knew it was all over as he was the only one who could see every player infront of him playing so poorly.. Although he did not physically wear blue, he was worthy of the chelsea shirt today and has been in most situations throughout the year. Ivanovic- Everything was brilliant for this man last year when we were scoring goals for fun and the other 10 players were all playing well around him...as soon as others in the side slump, he simply cannot step up to the mark. Constantly committing to tackles (hence his 11 bookings this year), a complete lack of pace, tactical awareness and compusure if he manges to win the ball. Terry- Always try and look for positives in JT, not sure if its because of my anger of today or simply because im struggling to find any but after the horrificly defended first goal, which as a captain should not let happen between him and his partnering central defender( i even know this as a sunday league player), he seemed to hobble around, and look 'old'. Rooney, Hernandez, Park and a 37 year old Giggs made him look like a fool throughout, jumping in at tackles and by the 50-60th minute completely giving up on any real defensive duties, with lacklusture clearances, jogging back into position and not leading the line when off the ball, fair play to alex who covered him many a time to stop us being torn apart. David Luiz- Yes, 37 seconds, poor defending error, 1-0 down...i could only praise the man after that happened! a complete bollocking from Ancelotti who felt he had to blame someone other than himself for the lack of motivation by saying it was all Luiz's fault. For a young player, new to the league to still play with his head held high after that gave me a sense of pride and true chels in the man. It also seems he is the only player in the squad(because of being a new arrival) who is not focused on 'slow attacking', the constant passes back, not taking on a man, and holding up the ball, does not yet apply to this man and hope it never does, he made a fair few runs and took on more players than malouda etc. did within the first half. Carlo then using a subsitute to take off a centre back because of a petty argument was not Luiz's fault and a pathetic decision that meant we could only choose from one of Anelka/Nando rather than having the threat of bringing both on. In my eyes in the 45 minutes he played, he played with faith and deserved that blue shirt on his back. Ashley Cole- Two words...Antonio Valencia...Ash had a tough test ahead of him in this one, with Valencia on form and as pacy as ever, he had to be at his best and show true fight...He didn't. Whether Valencia was good or not, Ash has the ability to step up and match him/better him if he plays the way he has done in past games for us. Within 20 minutes he lost all confidence in getting the better of Valencia and kept crumbling as the game went on..The moment where he tried to dribble his way out of 4 red shirts and end up giving the ball away for Rooney to narrowly be denied by Alex was appauling from him. Frank Lampard- Same goes with lamps as went with JT. Both Chelsea Legends in there time at the club, but today just looked 'old', lacked pace, lacked creativity, lacked vision and lacked the leadership and confidence frank usually gives to the other players around him. A glimpse of the man we know and love when he scored a trademark lampard 'right place,right time' goal. But simply not enough, just can't see him impacting next year with the poor acceleration and timing he has been lumbered with age this year. Jon Mikel Obi- I've tried and tried to keep faith that Mikel will come good at some point, and to be fair in about 5 games this year hes been 'above average' and that was more than i expected. But today was the typical useless clumsy Mikel that makes me wonder why on earth we would even consider involving him in the squad anymore! i know ramires may not have been 100% fit but should have definitly taken the risk of starting him rather than wasting our time with the joke that was Mikel. Michael Essien- The solid 'train', creative complete midfield player is now one of the biggest shadows of a player i've seen for a long time at Chels! He looks uninterested, unconfident and in general just poor all round. Has not been the same as he was for the first 3-4 weeks of the league season, he felt a 'new signing' and then managed to loose all ability/confidence after that point of praise. Cannot get my head around why its happened to him but it has, and simply when he went down with a suspected injury a few weeks back, i was almost happy that he was out for his own sake and ours because he had just lost all impact that he used to make on the pitch! Florent Malouda- Flo has seemed to caught the 'Anelka virus' of constantly holding up the ball, running backwards and using so many backheels and overlaps that he beats himself instead of beating the opposition! To be fair to him he made about 2-3 good runs that ended in some kind of attempt /half chance. But for the player he was last year/start of this year, to now, is just unbelievable...it clearly brings that point up of where was the motivation coming from for the likes of him and essien....Ray Wilkins was all impact in the dressing room and it seems Carlo just isn't. Didier Drogba- For someone who has won us so many things, scored so many vital goals etc..i cannot belive that its come to me disliking a Chelsea 'super-striker', his egotistical, smug epression he plays with makes me cringe. He was awful today and has been for a long time (bar a few great goals), if this man played without this arrogant ego maybe he would find his form again and stop being smug about the player he was and find a way of bringing that back! Salomon Kalou- Scored what at the time was a massive goal for us at the bridge last saturday, and hardly celebrated(due to his anger of being used as a sub after being involved in the 'back to form side' in weeks before. Then today he is given that chance to prove why he should start...and well i think every blue out there knows he didn't..if this man learnt how to finish in situations such as the header saved by VDS and even hitting the target when receiving the ball around 17-18 yards out, we could have a chelsea star, but instead he over-runs when taking on a man, shows no confidence infront of goal when under any sort of pressure and looks nothing like a man who should be playing at this level. Subs Alex- A real lack of match practice since his injury and knew he had to perform to some standard to make sure they did not score anymore today. He done his job aswell as anyone could, Fair play to him, what more can a Centre-Back with low fitness really do?! Was a silly decision from Carlo to use his sub like this as mentioned before but Alex done his job well, looked like the only player who maintained his form of the 09/10 season. Ramires- 'The Blue Kenyan' seems to get quite a bit of a bad press from many of our fans rather than other clubs, took him a few months but he adapted to the league and is now a vital player in the squad...why he was not played the whole game at the risk of slight match fitness is beyond my belief. One of the only men who really showed determination to earn anything back for us, and without him on that pitch i doubt we would have made any convincing attacks in the second half. Fernando Torres- All i can say for El Nino in this one is...i genuinely felt sorry for him when he came on...the game was dead no matter how much we dreamt of a fightback...yet he came on and done what he could when he got the chance in an impossible game to make impact. Also, how easy was it for commentators, fans etc. to criticise him in the short time he spent on the pitch...he was equal to/slightly better than the average player performances in the squad today, So its hard to say he deserved to be wearing the blue of the chels but at the same time what more could he have done in all honesty!? (However, all i can think is that chance hammered wide of the near post HAD to be on target for a man worth that money! most of us average footballers out there would have hit the target from there..all i thought in my head when looking back at that was..Danny Sturridge would have hit that target! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bottom line, to go into the biggest game of the season and only 3-4 players who really look like they want it is pathetic... In my opinion we have become the most predicatable attacking side, so slow on the attack, lack of ideas, vision, creativity and loss of real faith on/off the pitch! My man of the match for the game would have gone too the fans who tried to give the players some support from the stands! I could go on forever with this rant after witnessing those 94 minutes, but i'll leave it for the rest of you to join me in anger or try and save me from tearing my hair out over such a pathetic 'fight' of a game!
