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Branislav Ivanovic | Player Performance Analysis vs Leicester City

Title favorites Chelsea got their season off to a great start against Burnley with a 3-1 victory.  They looked to carry the momentum from that win into their second game against the other automatic promotion team, Leicester City.  After the first half was a struggle for the London side, the Blues came out with a different fire and energy in the second half to beat the newly promoted side comfortably.

Ivanovic PPPA

A big force in Chelsea’s impressive second half performance was Branislav Ivanovic.  The Serbian has been a consistent performer for the last few years for the Blues and was fantastic against Leicester.  The organisation from the Midlands side was impressive, but eventually the quality of players like Ivanovic, Costa, and Hazard showed to give Chelsea the comfortable victory.

Stats

The rampaging right-back completed 40 out of his 44 attempted passes and 15 of his 18 attempted passes in the final third.  Ivanovic created two chances and put in the cross for the first goal after a lovely turn inside the defender.  The Serb completed eight of his nine attempted clearances.  The imposing former centre-back won four of his six aerial duels, including one that forced Kasper Schmeichel into a smart save.

Playing Style

At home and the far superior team in terms of talent, Chelsea were set out to batter the goal of Kasper Schmeichel.  That didn’t exactly happen in the first half and Chelsea didn’t look at the races.  After a halftime talk from Jose Mourinho, a totally different Chelsea came out and they were attacking with menace.

Heat map courtesy of the Daily Mail's stats zone.
Heat map courtesy of the Daily Mail’s stats zone.

Ivanovic was rampaging down the right hand side all day, spending as much time in the opponent’s half of the pitch as his own.  The big Serb played the role of a modern day full-back running up and down the touchline all day.  He both defended and attacked well, but he was especially good in attack, creating chances and contributing to the build up. When the ball went down the left hand side, he offered an aerial presence to cross to at the far post.  The right-back also played some killer balls from the right hand side.  Ivanovic even showed a little bit of flair in the build up for the first goal with a beautiful turn inside the defender.

Flashpoint

Despite Chelsea being the more talented side, Leicester did a great job to stifle the Londoners in the first half and had some guilt edged opportunities to take the lead in the second half.  After David Nugent’s one on one, which Thibaut Courtois heroically saved, Chelsea needed to take the lead and take command of the match.

Less then 10 minutes after the aforementioned one on one, Chelsea did grab their lead.  Oscar started the move with a killer defence-splitting pass to Ivanovic.  The Serbian international then pulled off a bit of skill leaving the two defenders for dead, before he played a ball across the box to Diego Costa, but it took a deflection as the Serb played it.  Costa took a questionable touch off his chest, but was cool under pressure to get back to the ball and slot into a near empty net.

Chelsea continued their unbeaten start to the season thanks to a strong second half performance.  They should be beating these teams, especially at home, but it is something they struggled with last season and these performances can be a small reason for encouragement.  The performances from their stars is one thing, but Ivanovic deserves credit for playing well week in week out and playing especially well this weekend.

thejerseyfitz
thejerseyfitz
Follow me on twitter @The_Jersey_Fitz.
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