Chelsea 1-0 Stoke - Match Report

Post Match Analysis

They may have left it late, and given us fans a scare, but eventually, Chelsea grabbed those vital 3 points in what proved to be a very hard-fought match against challenging opponents Stoke City, and who would have guessed that Ashley Cole would be the man on target to save Chelsea from a fourth consecutive game without a win in all competitions, and regain our now relatively comfortable hold at the top of the premier League.

Chelsea started the game extremely fast and in quite a similar fashion in which they did against Juventus, with four corners and two efforts on target within the first 15 minutes. Roberto Di-Matteo most probably ordered for the team to grab an early goal so they could continue the rest of the game fairly comfortably. Chelsea very nearly did get an early goal, especially when Juan Mata played a delicate chipped through ball into Fernando Torres, only for Torres to control but then miss-hit the ball on the second, most important, touch and Asmir Begovic collected. The first 25 minutes were mainly dominated by Chelsea, however Stoke also had a couple of chances; their first which Johnathan Walters headed against the crossbar from a free-kick, and their second from Peter Crouch attempting to emulate his heroics against Manchester City from last season with a similar shot turn and volley at goal, this time steering off target. The lateral stages of the first-half were somewhat frustrating and irritating, as Chelsea kept bombing forward, getting into the final third but then not doing anything constructive with the ball. A reason for this being that Stoke had about 8 men behind the ball whenever we attacked and closed us down very well, giving us no space and time to pick out a pass or have a shot on goal. Another reason being that having Hazard, Mata and Oscar (all central play-makers) on the pitch at the same time, we lacked width and were trying to play central, which failed every time.

RDM must have picked up on this, as after his team talk we came out in the second half playing with more width and created more opportunities, also taking more efforts at goal. Oscar was booked for diving in the area (a little harsh) after a good spell of possession, and straight after Juan Mata had a good shot at goal which went just wide. Play again died down as it did in the first half around the hour mark, and we found ourselves lacking width and no end product. Fans were calling for Victor Moses to come on to give us some width and also some physicality, which comes in handy against a team like Stoke. He eventually came on for Eden Hazard, who had a fairly quiet afternoon, and his introduction immediately boosted our performance and style of play. Chelsea began to have many more attempts on target, including a particularly testing one from Oscar, which demanded a good full-stretched save from Begovic. Moments later Juan Mata had an appealing sight at goal on his favoured left foot, but as he was about to shoot Ryan Shawcross intercepted with his long right leg. Moses created even more chances, and five minutes later, after completing a tremendous dribble he played a low cross in towards Fernando Torres who unfortunately could only managed a weak deflected effort on goal. Chance after chance was wasted by Chelsea, and as the game progressed into the 80th minute, it seemed as though it would finish a 0-0, but we kept attacking and persisted to get that winner, and in the 86th minute Mata fed a lovely ball through to the unlikely Ashley Cole, and he kept his cool and chipped the ball over Begovic to win the game for the Blues.

Our performance overall was similar to the one against Juventus; keep good possession of the ball, play some nice passes but create no end product in the final third. Leaving out Terry and Lampard was an interesting line-up from RDM, but Chelsea coped well and replaced them with confident players. Defensively, without John Terry we looked good, keeping an incredible fourth clean sheet out of a possible five in the Premier League this season. Ashley Cole and David Luiz both had good, solid performances, and Ivanovic looked dangerous going forward and into the box, he had a few penalty claims. At the centre of midfield, despite his abusive comments he received on twitter, Obi-Mikel had a good game and battled well, however his partner Ramires, playing in my opinion his best position, had an even better performance and looked comfortable. The attacking trio of Hazard-Mata-Oscar brought some beautiful passing and moving and link-up play, but also a lack of width and physicality, and despite Mata, not enough service into Torres. When Moses came on he brought all three and changed the shape of the game. Oscar and Mata both looked sharp at goal and Oscar produced a beautiful turn on Robert Huth early on in the game that is sure to make Soccer AM's 'showboat'. Fernando Torres had a quiet game again and besides Mata playing him through in the first half, never looked attentive on goal and lacked contribution towards the game. The game was a very stressful one, but the result was a huge relief but now we sit comfortably on top of the table no matter what the scores of Arsenal vs Man City and United vs Liverpool are!

Up The Chels!

L. Urso-Baiarda