EPL News: Chelsea’s performance analysis vs. West Bromwich Albion - Part 4
An hour gone and Chelsea had dominated profusely leaving the score board at 3-0. They continued this in the rest of the game with superb defending, stealing and relentless attacks.
The story went on as Chelsea produced another marvel in the 62nd minute, as a spectacular team goal blew away the Baggies’ defence. Cole passed superbly to Lampard who made no mistake in netting the ball; score 4-0.
Immediately after the goal Benayoun replaced Lampard in the 64th minute. Ancelotti, of course did not want his star to be injured for the rest of the season. He wanted Benayoun to get more experience so that he can use him more efficiently in the future.
The impressive fact about the former Liverpool player Benayoun is that he can play on either side of the field along with centring as a midfielder. The newcomer at Stamford Bridge, Ramires will be quite a phenomenon to watch, and Benayoun with his unique ability will help determine Ancelotti a position for him.
The West Brom players seemed a bit unmotivated, as poor examples of dribbling were witnessed throughout the match. Their plays in the midfield were pathetic, and if they would have shown stronger support for their forwards, the score-line would have been different.
For Chelsea this was yet another moment, where they shone bright after winning the EPL title last season. Along the way they produced a record number of goals (103). They look in good shape to break that record this season and Ancelotti has already claimed that the Blues are planning to do so.
Six minutes past the hour; Bednar and Dorrans were replaced by Cox and Miller but nothing stopped the man of the hour Drogba who completed his hat-trick seconds after the replacement.
He pulled a screamer in the 67th minute that got deflected on its way into the post. However, power made the ball invisible from keeper’s vision. Last season Drogba got the Golden Boot award for scoring most goals in EPL which tallied to 37. With that the score board relayed a thrashing of 5-0.
His hat trick complete, Ancelotti decided it was time to rest his star and substituted Salomon Kalou for him in the 69th minute. Even after that Chelsea continued to have majority of the possession and continued to make plays.
The Chelsea flanks were accomplishing an excellent job, as they ran upwards and downwards on the wings for defending and attacking both. The blues were indeed teaching West Brom how to complete passes from their own bases to theirs.
One such lesson was shown in the 76th minute when Malouda made a spectacular run and passed the ball to his country man Anelka but he missed it. In the 77th minute a similar run was made but this time it was Benayoun and it was Kalou who was unable to take advantage of it.
In the 79th minute John Terry was successful in awarding Chelsea with a free kick but Malouda who took it was unable to score. Malouda although hammering striker, he still has to impress with his free kicks to his fans.
Soon after that Albion lost the ball again because of poor passing and the statistics showed that Chelsea had the possession of the ball near to 65%. Near the end Thomas was brought and replaced by Giles Barnes.
5 minutes to go and Brunt made a good effort but Alex heads it away for a corner. Brunt regained it again in the 87th but fired it wide. A minute later Miller got a chance and he passed it to Cox who just missed. This was the first real mistake made by Chelsea defenders in the game, mainly because they were lazy at covering up.
In the 90th minute Anelka assisted Malouda with a beautiful pass and Malouda finished with finesse, bringing the score line to 6-0 which was kept that way after 2 minutes of injury time. Malouda’s performance in the match was spectacular and it can be said for sure that he will wear the Blue jersey with the regular this time.
In the end Chelsea showed that they had full capability to defend their title this season.
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