HalfSpaces Player Grades: Chelsea vs Manchester City (5/25/20)

Chelsea vs Man City was quite an enjoyable viewing experience. It isn’t just because I’m an American soccer fan that enjoyed watching Pulisic play well either. Watching City move the ball around so smoothly that a team as good as Chelsea had trouble touching it was impressive. In turn, Chelsea limiting the excellent City team to very few chances from that possession and creating their own inspires trust in Lampard. Of course…watching Christian looking like the most dangerous player on a field with De Bruyne, Sterling, Silva, Willian, etc. was pretty enjoyable. 🤓

If you haven’t read one of these USMNT (+/-) Player Grades articles before click here for an explanation of the system.

Grades

How to Interpret the Numbers

15+	Excellent game
9-14	Played well to very well
5-8	Solid
0-4	Not great, Bob
Below 0	Listening to my kids argue 😑

*The Adjusted Total uses the Elo ratings to take into account opponent and competition factors.*

MOTM (tie) – Andreas Christensen and Christian Pulisic (+12)

Andreas Christensen

Let’s start with the Danish defender. Christensen was excellent throughout the match. I’m still a little doubtful that he should have been allowed to continue after that possible (?) concussion in the second half, but I’ll leave that one for Twellman to deal with. As far as performance goes, he was basically flawless. I’m sure his coaches will find moments in this game that he can improve upon, but I didn’t have him down for a single negative event. He wasn’t a transcendent passer, but he wasn’t just bumping it to Ruediger or playing safe passes to Kante either. There were a couple passes that got him points imo, but really it was an all round performance from the center back. He was excellent in the air, very awake to runners, intercepted entry passes…basically everything you want from a central defender.

Christian Pulisic

CP was the most dangerous Chelsea player and probably the most dangerous player on the field. I remember thinking about 20 minutes into the game that if Chelsea were going to score, Pulisic was going to be the reason. He wasn’t influential throughout the whole game, but he had bursts here and there of positive play (as you can see from the chart below showing his grade over the course of the game).

The way he was able to dribble, draw defenders, and make runs into the box was a problem for Manchester City. If his defensive grade had been higher (it came out to 0 with one positive and one negative event) this score could have pushed into the higher levels of performances I’ve graded.

https://twitter.com/watke_/status/1276262484823945222?s=20

Other Positive Performances

As you’d expect in a game where Chelsea beat one of the five or ten best teams in the world, most players played pretty well. There were several players at either +5 or +6 (Ruediger, Barkley, Mount, Willian, Azpilicueta).

Willian had a couple real nice moments in the second half, but also had a couple negatives (lost balls 24′, 47′, silly foul 35′) that kept his grade from pushing into the really good range. It’s easy to see why Lampard likes him though.

Ruediger was good defensively as Christensen’s partner, but wasn’t as involved (five events to Christensesn’s 12). I’m not sure if that’s due to the flow of the game or if that’s just the way their partnership works.

Barkley was a little better upon rewatch than I thought watching the first time as a fan. He wasn’t great during build up, but when Chelsea was in transition he had the highest grade (+5 to Pulic’s +6) after Pulisic. A couple more points in possession or on the defensive side of the ball would have pushed his grade into a higher tier.

Mount is a player I don’t particularly care for. I don’t think his vision or passing ability is good enough for a team of Chelsea’s pedigree. That being said, it’s pretty easy to see why Lampard rates him. He runs all game, presses well, and he earned five points from defensive actions by my reckoning. If you add those points to Barkley’s score then he’d have been up there with Christensen/Pulisic.

Azpilicueta was defensively solid all game long. When you’re matched up with Raheem Sterling that’s a nice thing to be able to say. Other than hitting the post off the break after a corner, Sterling did very little. The quiet offensive performance is fine if that’s the trade off.

Room to Improve

Ngolo Kante (-4)

I’m not entirely positive this grade is fair, but it’s what the events added up to. He had a couple bad fouls (including the one De Bruyne score the FK from) and gave the ball away too easily (very dangerous TO in the 64′). He was constantly between the lines in front of the center backs though. It’s certainly possible that there were many balls that City didn’t even attempt because of Kante’s presence. On the balance of what I saw though…Ngolo has had better games.

Kepa Arrizabalaga (-2)

Kepa had basically nothing to do, but still managed to make one enormous mistake. He nearly gave the ball away to City for a goal in the 15th minute, but Ruediger bailed him out. He made one decent save and his distribution was nothing to write home about. I’m generally more positive about him than the majority of fans, but this wasn’t great.

Marcos Alonso (-2)

Alonso’s grade boils down to him having a tough time with Mahrez. I don’t know if City was targeting Alonso or if that’s how it worked out over the course of the match, but he had a couple good moments in the attack and a whole bunch of defensive negatives trying to deal with Mahrez. No shame in that, but Chelsea looking for an upgrade in the position makes sense.

I’m looking forward to watching a whole lot more Chelsea down the stretch here and will watch with interest as Ziyech and Werner get integrated over the offseason (which will be like three weeks long?). No idea if I’ll grade more games or not, but if Pulisic keeps playing this well it’ll certainly be tempting.

If you enjoyed this and would like to be informed of future articles type your email address in the box and you’ll be notified of each new post. Also, feel free to follow me on Twitter @blharreld 🤓