Chelsea vs. Norwich – Match Analysis

The dust has settled on Saturday’s game, it is now time to look back and analyse …                                                                                                                                                                                                  

Summary                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         

It was Chelsea’s second home win of the season in a highly competitive match, the Blues won the match 3-1 with goals from Bosingwa, Lampard and the newly signed Juan Mata. Romelu Lukaku also made his debut for the Blues, but Didier Drogba was rushed to the hospital after colliding with Norwich keeper Ruddy.                                                                                                                                                                              

Strengths and Improvements from the last game                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          

Juan Mata looked sharp on the ball and could provide much needed passes that would create chances for Fernando Torres.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     

After watching the West Brom match, it was noticeable that our defenders had a lot of possession of the ball, which slowed down the tempo of the game down. In this match the team’s tempo was much quicker, which led to the team creating more chances.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

Weaknesses                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             

Even though the speed of the play improved since the last match, I do think we still need to up the tempo a bit more and get more quick passes going. Our manager, Andre Villas Boas has said that he wants our side to play attacking football.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    

In the match, when Juan Mata was running with the ball, it was clear that his speed was faster than the team and often he had to look around and pause in order to for the rest of the team to catch-up so he could make the correct pass.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

I think the tempo is an important part of our game because we have got two top class strikers that need the passes in order to score goals.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

Our defenders attacking down both flanks and getting the crosses in, but at times struggled to get back into their positions. This was noticeable in Norwich’s equalizer, when there was only Lampard, Terry and Ivanovic at the back plus Hilario was left in no-man’s land trying to clear the ball.                                                                                                                                                                                                           

Overall, the Blues got the all important three points and have a 100% home record. There won’t be any Premier League football this week due to international duty, hopefully Drogba rests and recovers from his injury.

                                                                                                                                                                     

Chelsea’s next match is on 10th September away to Sunderland, the Blues are fourth in the league table with seven points whilst Sunderland are 13th, with two points and having scored just once.                                                                                                                                                                             

by Chesea4girls’ Zoya Sami