Chelsea 8-0 Aston Villa – Highlights, Match Report & Player Ratings
Chelsea lined-up in a 4-2-3-1 formation. Their last match was over two-weeks ago and they made two changes two the team that beat Sunderland. Frank Lampard came in for Ramires and Oriol Romeu was replaced by Cesar Azpilicueta. Petr Cech (GK) 7 Had very Little to do but made one excellent save at a time where Villa could have made a comeback. Cesar Azpilicueta (RB) 7 Provided the opening goal with an excellent cross and worked hard throughout the match to help pin back Villas defence. Branislav Ivanovic (CB) 6 His goal was almost a tap-in and apart from that was rarely involved in the game. Gary Cahill (CB) 6 Seemed to be up against Benteke most of the time Villa were going forward and like most defenders struggled to deal with his physicality. However, defended well mostly and set-up Ivanovics goal. Ashley Cole (LB) 6 Was rarely involved in attack or defence as the game wasnt played in his area much. Still got forward to support the attack at time though. David Luiz (CM) 8 Almost ran the midfield and scored an excellent free-kick. A very good performance. Frank Lampard (CM) 7 Almost took a back-seat to Luiz but scored an excellent goal before going off for Ramires after 61 minutes. Victor Moses (LW) 6 Had a good few moments on the ball but his shooting and crossing was quite poor as Guzan denied him a number of times. Juan Mata (AM) 7 Played well to help establish Chelseas dominant lead but most of the goals didnt involve him. Off 72. Eden Hazard (RW) 7 Was relatively quiet up until the last 25 minutes where he seemed to tear Villas defence to shreds and scored an excellent goal. Fernando Torres (ST) 8 His movement was exceptional and created so much space for others to move into. His header was exceptional as well. Off 66 Subs: Ramires (CM) 8 - On 61. He scored two good goals after coming on as a sub and the match almost looked to easy for him at times. Oscar (AM) 8 On 66. Came on and helped run rings around the opposition for the last 25 minutes where Chelsea scored four goals. He won a penalty and scored it and he was also instrumental in several of the other goals. Lucas Piazon (ST) 7 On 72. Got 20 minutes for his Premier League debut and they will possibly be the easiest 20 minutes of his career. He almost immediately got an assists and also won a penalty which he missed. Apart from that it would have been a dream debut. Aston Villa played a 5-3-2 formation and named an unchanged line-up to the side that defeated Liverpool 3-1. Brad Guzan (GK) 7 Could have done better for a few of the goals but also made a few excellent saves - including a penalty. Hard to fault him as had the rest of the team played as well they would definitely not have been beaten so badly. Matt Lowton (RB) - 5 Like most of the defence struggled but hard to pin too many individual mistakes on him. At times he was up against three players on the wing and no player could be expected to play well in those situations. Chris Herd (CB) 3 Possibly the only player that had a bad individual performance. Gave away one of the penalties and in general looked out his depth against a team of this quality. Hes not a natural centre-back though, so its understandable why he didnt play well. Ciaran Clark (CB) 5 Wasnt awful considering the circumstances and the young captain tried to drive his team on but there wasnt much opportunity for him to change the result considering how other played. Nathan Baker (CB) 4 Not a great performance but he wasnt quite as bad as Herd. Like the other defenders it was a difficult situation and none of them should be blamed to badly. Eric Lichaj (LB) - 4 Not a natural left-back and like Herd looked uncomfortable. Wasnt playing that well and was subbed off after 56 minutes for Bennett. Brett Holman (CM) - 6 Provided his usual industry but with the forwards and defenders plying so badly there wasnt much he could do to change the game. Off 80 Ashley Westwood (CM) - 5 Was slightly deeper than the other two central midfielders. Couldnt really pick-up any of the Chelsea forwards as they all moved about so much, struggled to get in the game going forwards. Replaced by Ireland after 56 minutes. Barry Bannan (CM) 5 Looked comfortable on the ball but there wasnt much he could have done to make his team better in defence or attack considering the way they played. Andreas Weimann (ST) 5 Didnt get much of the ball but had a chance to make it 4-1 after half-time and didnt take it. Christian Benteke (ST) 4 Seemed almost constantly offside, which made things even more difficult for a several pressurised Villa defence and midfield. When he wasnt offside he seemed to use his strength well but didnt have many opportunites. Subs: Joe Bennett (LB) 5 On 56. Was an improvement on Lichaj but couldnt have done much to change the course of the match. Stephen Ireland (CM) 6 On 56. Did well in midfield but a lot of the time the Villa attack werent on the same wavelength as him. Jordan Bowery (ST) 5 On 80. The young forward didnt have much time to affect the game as the ball was almost solely in Villas have for the last 10 minutes. MATCH HIGHLIGHTS OF THE GAME CAN BE FOUND HERE