Feel free to merge with the post match thread. I just thought I'd be bold and try'n have my own thread :)
Ratings based on 5 being average
Ederson - 7/10 Very good. Mentally and physically sharp. Rushing out, he's the best I've seen. Distribution was on point all game. Proved solid when tested.
Delph - 8/10 Great performance. Positionally outstanding. One of the bigger credits to our best defensive performance of the season. Key tackles and interceptions in abundance as well as sweeping up scraps and recycling. Chose his moments well to attack and looked great in tight spots. A revitalised player in the full back role, showing potential to hit another level.
The Otter - 6/10 Good stuff. Positionally sound. Always had good defensive access behind our pressing midfield to sweep up and transition with dominance.
Stones - 6/10 Much the same as Otamendi, but added extra with solid passing into the right side our shape, short and medium.
Walker - 7/10 Very good performance. Positional intelligence and discipline made him key in the defensive set up. Covered less ground than usual and still managed to be equally as effective, showing a slightly different side to his game. Veteran defending in our third when called upon.
Fernandinho - 7/10 Very good, verging on great. Perhaps the most protected man on the pitch and he took great advantage from the freedom to do his job. Committed, well timed pressing movements. Complimented the full back support and attacking shape, splitting lanes to force play into the hungry full backs when needed, and feeding the ball into our overload areas. Tackles (and fouls) on point.
Silva - 8/10 Fucking great. Like Delph, verging on a 9 rating. An instrumental part of a front 4 that ran the chelsea rear guard ragged. His pressing and cover shadowing was the best on the pitch. Was always an option to play through and never gave anyone a seconds rest with quick, choice passing. Ran the game, along with Kev, with a cerebral and technical masterclass.
Kev - 9/10 Epic MOTM performance. The linchpin, the pivot, the heart. He is the new Ya Ya. An upgrade in terms of what's required in this system. Gabbing all game, organising the shape. Up and down. Potent passing all over the pitch, speeding up play from deep and creating chances from up top. Endless, unwasted movement. The goal was not only an important, big-game goal but it came after a straight hour of missed opportunities... a piece of magic that was all Kev, from the precision pass into Jesus, to the Roland Deschain bullet running at full pelt.
Sane - 6/10 Good performance. Great pressing. Imposed his dribbling reasonably well on a thick chelsea defense. Linked up well with Delph and Silva. Made life hell for that rear guard.
Jesus - 7/10 Great. Pressing was amazing, particularly in conjunction with silva and sterling. Fantastic teamwork as the spearhead of our shape. Showed his ridiculous technique and fervour at every opportunity, but his manhandling of the chelsea sea around him was the true beauty.
Sterling - 7/10 Great stuff. Positional work starting from the flank was on point. Pressing was great. Pace and intelligence had him almost occupying two positions like an electron. Created consistent access in the rightside halfspace and linked up and dribbled well when approaching the last third.
Ratings perhaps look a little harsher than it should without the decimal points but aside from Kevin's slightly outstanding contribution, this was very much a team performance.
9/10 Epic team performance. Epic victory for the kind of football that should be striven for. The team shape really split into two halves, for me. Well... two halves and Kevin.
The front four worked that chelsea rear guard like a fucking reindeer on Xmas eve. On the ball, off the ball, defending or attacking, such was the positional and dynamic nightmare reigned down, that chelsea - by way of their defense and team's defensive mindedness - were rooted in their own half. This left the back 6 with room to be heavily exploited and bloody hell did Pep have drilled for this one. Instead of the full backs using their freedom to double up on the flanks, they worked inside the half back positions aside the no.6 and created numerical superiority in the middle of the park, which was used to give the no.8s freedom to manipulated the park without necessarily occupying the middle. Chelsea were vastly outnumbered all the way up to their box, attacking threats almost completely isolated... something which amplified after morata was injured.
Between our two squadrons was Kevin, providing the main pivot to the play, moving the entire vertical length of the play (I'd say 'box to box' but the football rarely ventured to ours.) His incisive and deliberate passing aswell as space finding was the equilibrium that patched over any potentially delicate moments in our shape as the ball moved forward.
Fluid shape shifting and link up play aside... it's still rather difficult to say whether it was the back squadron or front squadron who set into motion the perpetual machine of dominant football front-to-back. Both ends of our shape were executed in cohesion and the result was a chelsea team who could not have enough defenders on the pitch. Chelsea were forced to do what they do better than anyone, which is defend small spaces in their third, but their slide into this habit led us to literally make camp in the middle third launch attacks at our leisure with shapes organised to snuff out counter attacks before they can start. Each time chelsea won the ball, they were bullied into looking for escape... and each time they managed to escaped, it was into a game set of city shirts... counterpressing at its finest.
Chelsea were certainly not at their best. They started to look tired before the hour mark. But that immediate defensive mindedness and our rear guard shapes would make a nightmare for anyone. Once their wingbacks were imprisoned, their midfield were lambs to the slaughter, having to deal with mounting forces in the middle, whilst containing the two best no.8s in the country who ghosted and built play from the halfspace at leisure. No help from the centre backs who had deal with the dynamic threat of the three young stormtroopers amidst them. Conte didn't do them any favours with his valiant but failed risk of playing without a striker to snatch back some yards. The tactical change only saw his team lose more yards overall. A moment of magic was the difference in scoreline but for anyone watching, this was a one-sided affair.
Huge result on so many levels, most importantly, for me, "can we go on the road and impose our game on other rivals?"
.......................I reckon so :)
Ratings based on 5 being average
Ederson - 7/10 Very good. Mentally and physically sharp. Rushing out, he's the best I've seen. Distribution was on point all game. Proved solid when tested.
Delph - 8/10 Great performance. Positionally outstanding. One of the bigger credits to our best defensive performance of the season. Key tackles and interceptions in abundance as well as sweeping up scraps and recycling. Chose his moments well to attack and looked great in tight spots. A revitalised player in the full back role, showing potential to hit another level.
The Otter - 6/10 Good stuff. Positionally sound. Always had good defensive access behind our pressing midfield to sweep up and transition with dominance.
Stones - 6/10 Much the same as Otamendi, but added extra with solid passing into the right side our shape, short and medium.
Walker - 7/10 Very good performance. Positional intelligence and discipline made him key in the defensive set up. Covered less ground than usual and still managed to be equally as effective, showing a slightly different side to his game. Veteran defending in our third when called upon.
Fernandinho - 7/10 Very good, verging on great. Perhaps the most protected man on the pitch and he took great advantage from the freedom to do his job. Committed, well timed pressing movements. Complimented the full back support and attacking shape, splitting lanes to force play into the hungry full backs when needed, and feeding the ball into our overload areas. Tackles (and fouls) on point.
Silva - 8/10 Fucking great. Like Delph, verging on a 9 rating. An instrumental part of a front 4 that ran the chelsea rear guard ragged. His pressing and cover shadowing was the best on the pitch. Was always an option to play through and never gave anyone a seconds rest with quick, choice passing. Ran the game, along with Kev, with a cerebral and technical masterclass.
Kev - 9/10 Epic MOTM performance. The linchpin, the pivot, the heart. He is the new Ya Ya. An upgrade in terms of what's required in this system. Gabbing all game, organising the shape. Up and down. Potent passing all over the pitch, speeding up play from deep and creating chances from up top. Endless, unwasted movement. The goal was not only an important, big-game goal but it came after a straight hour of missed opportunities... a piece of magic that was all Kev, from the precision pass into Jesus, to the Roland Deschain bullet running at full pelt.
Sane - 6/10 Good performance. Great pressing. Imposed his dribbling reasonably well on a thick chelsea defense. Linked up well with Delph and Silva. Made life hell for that rear guard.
Jesus - 7/10 Great. Pressing was amazing, particularly in conjunction with silva and sterling. Fantastic teamwork as the spearhead of our shape. Showed his ridiculous technique and fervour at every opportunity, but his manhandling of the chelsea sea around him was the true beauty.
Sterling - 7/10 Great stuff. Positional work starting from the flank was on point. Pressing was great. Pace and intelligence had him almost occupying two positions like an electron. Created consistent access in the rightside halfspace and linked up and dribbled well when approaching the last third.
Ratings perhaps look a little harsher than it should without the decimal points but aside from Kevin's slightly outstanding contribution, this was very much a team performance.
9/10 Epic team performance. Epic victory for the kind of football that should be striven for. The team shape really split into two halves, for me. Well... two halves and Kevin.
The front four worked that chelsea rear guard like a fucking reindeer on Xmas eve. On the ball, off the ball, defending or attacking, such was the positional and dynamic nightmare reigned down, that chelsea - by way of their defense and team's defensive mindedness - were rooted in their own half. This left the back 6 with room to be heavily exploited and bloody hell did Pep have drilled for this one. Instead of the full backs using their freedom to double up on the flanks, they worked inside the half back positions aside the no.6 and created numerical superiority in the middle of the park, which was used to give the no.8s freedom to manipulated the park without necessarily occupying the middle. Chelsea were vastly outnumbered all the way up to their box, attacking threats almost completely isolated... something which amplified after morata was injured.
Between our two squadrons was Kevin, providing the main pivot to the play, moving the entire vertical length of the play (I'd say 'box to box' but the football rarely ventured to ours.) His incisive and deliberate passing aswell as space finding was the equilibrium that patched over any potentially delicate moments in our shape as the ball moved forward.
Fluid shape shifting and link up play aside... it's still rather difficult to say whether it was the back squadron or front squadron who set into motion the perpetual machine of dominant football front-to-back. Both ends of our shape were executed in cohesion and the result was a chelsea team who could not have enough defenders on the pitch. Chelsea were forced to do what they do better than anyone, which is defend small spaces in their third, but their slide into this habit led us to literally make camp in the middle third launch attacks at our leisure with shapes organised to snuff out counter attacks before they can start. Each time chelsea won the ball, they were bullied into looking for escape... and each time they managed to escaped, it was into a game set of city shirts... counterpressing at its finest.
Chelsea were certainly not at their best. They started to look tired before the hour mark. But that immediate defensive mindedness and our rear guard shapes would make a nightmare for anyone. Once their wingbacks were imprisoned, their midfield were lambs to the slaughter, having to deal with mounting forces in the middle, whilst containing the two best no.8s in the country who ghosted and built play from the halfspace at leisure. No help from the centre backs who had deal with the dynamic threat of the three young stormtroopers amidst them. Conte didn't do them any favours with his valiant but failed risk of playing without a striker to snatch back some yards. The tactical change only saw his team lose more yards overall. A moment of magic was the difference in scoreline but for anyone watching, this was a one-sided affair.
Huge result on so many levels, most importantly, for me, "can we go on the road and impose our game on other rivals?"
.......................I reckon so :)