Closed Aston Villa 1-2 Chelsea

[zolayes 14,489]

Match Ratings IMO:

Courtois - 5 - A few uncharacteristic wobbles from the big man. Hopefully he'll be a bit more solid under the high ball when bumped around by opponents because people will try it a lot now.

Ivanovic - 6 - Great finish for the goal, caught ball watching at the corner we conceded from. Typical Ivanovic display. No idea what to think about him sometimes...

Terry - 6 - Solid performance from CLL.

Cahill - 6 - Decent performance from Cahill. Made one good interception and didn't back off anywhere near as much as usual. Still prefer Zouma though.

Azpilicueta - 4 - Pretty poor performance from Dave today, hopefully picks himself up as he's been poor the last 2 games.

Matic - 7 - Typically great performance from him. Nothing gets past the Spider.

Ramires - 6 - Lots of running, lots of energy, solid display.

Hazard - 8 - Stunning finish for the goal. Great play around the pitch and so hard to get the ball off of.

Oscar - 2 - The only reason this isn't a 1 is because he didn't give away a penalty or score an own goal. Woeful performance. His passing stats would be a nightmare to look at.

Willian - 9 - Quite possibly his best performance in a Chelsea shirt. Great energy, great play and much, much better. Evidently taken the signing of Cuadrado personally.

Drogba - 3 - Poor from the Drog. No presence, poor passing, shouldn't be ahead of Remy ever again.

Remy (sub) - 6 - Was good after he came on, worked very well with Cuadrado which is a big positive.

Mikel (sub) - 4 - Poor passing towards the end but we've come to expect that from him.

Cuadrado (sub) - 5 - Didn't have much time but showed glimpses of greatness. Did more in 10mins than Oscar and Drogba did in a combined 130mins.

quite good ratings IMO

[LAB 1,030]

Third kit is brilliant

[Thendo 1,088]

Jose Mourinho heaps praise on "very good" officials after Chelsea's 2-1 win over Aston Villa

Waiting for the FA to fine him for that lol.

[BlueLyon 9,359]

7 points difference?

[xPetrCechx 13,546]

[Alabama 1,992]

I don't care about our performance once we ve gotten d 3points m clamouring for...fuck we can't playbeautifully throughout d whole season....anoda huge boast city dropped points...ITS PARTY TIME...

[Chelsea Buzz 487]

Shaky performance at times, especially first twenty minutes of second half. But Remy was a must sub for Drogba and slowly took back the match. I thought Courtois was shaky at times too.

Willian was after it all game. Willian MotM!

We will be okay when everyone is back. Need Costa.

Tough place for us to get 3 points, so let's take them and get ready for the Toffees!

What awesome results in the end! Gained 2 more and 7 clear!

Come on you Chelsea!

[Toli 977]

looking at our squad, selling De Bruyne was a HUGE mistake. He would be perfect in Oscars position. Dont know how Mourinho couldnt rate him at all. One of the biggest mistakes in recent Chelsea transfer history. Our build-up and our creativity is really awful. at times we play like some mid-table club. we cant be so overdependent on Fabregas. Mou has to find solutions. Hazard and Cesc cant carry the team on their own the whole season. and Mous negative approach is also really appaling Instead of scoring the 3rd and sealing the game he brings in Mikel for Oscar and we just hoof the ball away...

Still happy with the points though and 7 points clear of City

[Starman60 1,343]

Have to say I thought David Meyler played very well for us today

On a serious note, Villa Park has always been a tough spot for us to eke out a victory and today was no different. But it was a great victory and we are now 7 points clear. 6 points in our next two games versus Everton and Burnley and we are on the home straight.

[supporter 3,088]

Perfect weekend for us.

+ 7

Today was a complex match to understand it. The most common situation was that we had raised a more offensive tactic attacked over our rival in the first half. But Jose has made a conservative approach, but thinking coldly, has been a pragmatic approach considering that we have injured Fabregas and Filipe Luis, besides the sanction of Diego Costa.

We got along a couple of giving physical symptoms of tiredness months, and today, thanks to Jose approach, we have not run almost anything, was the ball which has run. We made a very quick goal, which has allowed us to play more relaxed. We have slowed down the rhythm of the match, taking full control of the match.

Maybe for the show playing in this way can be difficult to understand, but pragmatically this type of approach like today are those that allow you to celebrate trophies at the end of the season.

Today, again, I think again that Kurt Zouma (The Wall) has to be our starting eleven ALWAYS .. Sure the eleven plays in our home against Everton.

"My Ramires is back", yes! Ramires is back !. This is a great news for us. Rather than put Mikel Ramires. Ramires is back, and he will be crucial for us (these players are the player who wins the trophies).

The big news of today has been Cuadrado. Have been only 12 minutes, but he has had a spectacular performance: very dynamic, with well-defined defensive concepts, offering at all times, helping to widen the pitch and tracing intelligent diagonals multiplying our attacking options, besides having finally a puree winger who can also go down to help defend acting as false Right-back defensively. That and his great stride which makes him look like a gazelle give it a fresh air to our team. Cuadrado is a player with an ability to unbalance spectacular. This guy will do big things with us.

1. Normal Situations (today).

Ramires Matic

Cuadrado Oscar Hazard

I \

I \ Remy

2. Offensive situations (today).

Mikel Matic

Ramires Hazard

Cuadrado Remy

Thanks to @manpe for correcting my mistake.

3. Defensive situations (today).

Ivanovic John Terry © Cahill

Cuadrado Azpilicueta

Juan Cuadrado “The Gazelle”

The approach of Jose today may be a preamble of the approach we are going to do in the Parc des Princes against PSG in the Champions League. Strong back and waiting for our chance.

Regarding the stumble of Pellegrino`s City (+7!), I think another good news is that from now on players like Nathan Ake and Ruben Loftus-Cheek going to have to play more minutes because now we can take more risks without fear. Perfectly Ruben Loftus-Cheek can play in place of Matic or Ramires and Nathan Ake may play perfectly in place of Ramires. From now on they can begin to have many more minutes, especially in matches at The Bridge.

I think this will be our system of rotation of our young players.

Ramires Matic

Ake / Loftus-Cheek Loftus-Cheek

Our journey to the trophy keep going and we continue paddling options in 3 trophies (Premier League, League Cup and Champions League).

Step by step, game by game, WE continue paddling together!

Chelsea! Chelsea! Chelsea!

Regards to ALL.

Edited February 7, 2015 by supporter

[Hamilton 2,118]

Loved it how fast Eden and Juan found eachother in only 12 mins!

[DanishBlue 426]

Supporter - you are the best thing that has happpened to this forum.

I'm still over the top with our win and 7 point lead. That's it, I'm going out for beers!

[manpe 10,855]

1. Normal Situations (today). Ramires Matic Cuadrado Oscar Hazard I \ I \ Remy 2. Offensive situations (today). Matic Ramires Oscar Hazard Cuadrado Remy

Except in both of those line-ups Oscar wasn't present, Cuadrado was the last sub hence Mikel was already in the team.

[Chelsea Legend 11 4,062]

looking at our squad, selling De Bruyne was a HUGE mistake. He would be perfect in Oscars position. Dont know how Mourinho couldnt rate him at all. One of the biggest mistakes in recent Chelsea transfer history. Our build-up and our creativity is really awful. at times we play like some mid-table club. we cant be so overdependent on Fabregas. Mou has to find solutions. Hazard and Cesc cant carry the team on their own the whole season. and Mous negative approach is also really appaling Instead of scoring the 3rd and sealing the game he brings in Mikel for Oscar and we just hoof the ball away...

Still happy with the points though and 7 points clear of City

Oscar was woeful going forward today, he's played a hell of a lot of football the past couple weeks. Having said that he still works hard for the team...

Still waiting for the day Chelsea supporters start to understand that its not about the players skill level, its about how they fit into our system! DeBruyne was always a good player about to get better, he didn't work well within our team. Good to see he's doing well though.

[edetarod 2,155]

do you by any chance live in a gumdrop house on lollipop lane?

[Johnny Kills 164]

Oscar was woeful going forward today, he's played a hell of a lot of football the past couple weeks. Having said that he still works hard for the team...

Still waiting for the day Chelsea supporters start to understand that its not about the players skill level, its about how they fit into our system! DeBruyne was always a good player about to get better, he didn't work well within our team. Good to see he's doing well though.

How is it beneficial to the team for our #10 to be sooooo inconsistent? He's played WAY too many games in his career to still be having these problems. KDB didn't work well within our team because Mourinho decided to be stubborn and make him and Mata wingers.

[supporter 3,088]

do you by any chance live in a gumdrop house on lollipop lane?

[Chelsea Legend 11 4,062]

How is it beneficial to the team for our #10 to be sooooo inconsistent? He's played WAY too many games in his career to still be having these problems. KDB didn't work well within our team because Mourinho decided to be stubborn and make him and Mata wingers.

When have you ever seen KDB win 5 tackles 3 interceptions and score a goal?