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Chelsea defeat City | It’s good to be back

Yesterday was a game which could prove season defining, just like against Manchester United at home last season, Chelsea came back from a 1-0 deficit to rally and win 2-1 with a late Frank Lampard penalty. Mark Clattenburg was questioned by both sets of fans, City were rampant in the first twenty minutes and should have got a penalty as Jose Bosingwa appeared to trip up David Silva however the tide slowly turned in Chelsea’s favour.

Chelsea gained more possession and started to keep the ball much more efficiently, eventually it was a piece of trickery from Daniel Sturridge that proved vital, wrong footing Gael Clichy and crossing for Raul Meireles to provide a competent finish. From then on Chelsea looked the better side, eventually the pressure told as Clichy tripped up Ramires for his second bookable offence and the Chelsea pressure mounted, a Lescott handball resulted in a penalty and Lampard blasted home.

On balance, decisions went both sides way, Yaya Toure and Vincent Kompany could have been sent off, as could have Raul Meireles, however the key talking point is the David Silva non-penalty. All in all Chelsea deserved the victory and I’m going to look at the ways in which Chelsea ground out the result and the key performances throughout the team.

Via Guardian Chalkboards

The chalkboard above shows us how Jose Bosingwa and Ashley Cole were influential in the victory yesterday, both were high up the pitch and providing width in key areas. In a 4-3-3 formation, Sturridge and Mata both come inside frequently and the three of Ramires, Meireles and Romeu are normally quite central in position as shown by the next graphic where Romeu was the defensive midfielder and Ramires and Meireles were slightly more advanced. As such there is a responsibility for both Cole and Bosingwa to provide width, down the left this was especially key, a lot of Chelsea’s second half attacks were concentrated on the right of City’s defence. Bosingwa was good down the right hand side however both he and Sturridge took each other’s space and as a result the right hand side looked congested for periods during the second half, this probably one of the few negative’s in which was a very accomplished performance from both full backs.

Via WhoScored.com

The graphic above shows us exactly how Chelsea used this width to their advantage, Micah Richards was out for City and this proved key, he is the man who normally provides width for City and with the more reserved Pablo Zabaleta in the team, this proved vital, there was hardly any width on their right hand side. Chelsea took full advantage of this, both Ashley Cole and Jose Bosingwa were high up the pitch, providing the width, in fact, on average they were more advanced than City’s influential David Silva, whose threat was nullified by the excellent Oriol Romeu.

Via Guardian Chalkboards

Romeu was superb yet again, showing the type of quality that has now made him a first team regular, the graphic below shows that he was comfortable all over the pitch. When Ashley Cole and Bosingwa bombed on he had to cover both the right and left side of defence as shown, he was excellent in doing so, and completed an impressive 60 of 69 passes, a pass completion rate of 87%. The Spaniard has replaced John Obi Mikel as the defensive midfielder in the team and at the ripe age of 20, it’s a fantastic achievement. Defensive midfielders in today’s game are not only supposed to protect the back four they must also have the passing ability to start attacks, it was noticeable yesterday that the start of many attacks was through Romeu’s brilliant distribution.

These are just two areas in which Chelsea were dominant, Sturridge was excellent, Ramires was energetic and Drogba was an excellent target man.  Although there are areas in which to focus on, this was more of the old Chelsea, a performance on a team effort rather than sparkling individual performances, grinding a victory when it looked against all odds. Based on a reasonably solid defence, a fluid midfield and a potent attack, this should be the stepping stone for the season to come, just like United at home was last season. Chelsea, although written off by many, aren’t as bad as people, mostly the media, make them out to be.

Kieran Makwana
Kieran Makwana
My name is Kieran Makwana, currently studying Management at Lancaster University, I'm a lover of all things Chelsea Football Club, apart from Ron Gourlay. Follow me on Twitter - @BigMak92
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