Chelsea played a second goalless draw this week, unable to defeat Manchester United at Old Trafford.
There was very little action of the note, with Cesar Azpilicueta yelling for a penalty in the first half after being held back by Harry Maguire arguably the game’s biggest talking point.
While Chelsea supporters can take a point and a clean sheet of the match, they got virtually no entertainment value. The Blues now rank sixth in the Premier League table.
– Dawson: Man United, Chelsea show why they won’t compete
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Positive
There were some lovely passing patterns from the Blues in the points, as they developed from behind. They also looked strong defensively, as Man United rarely bothered them, although that was partly due to how calm the attackers in red were. Frank Lampard seems determined to get clean sheets and he got one here.
Negative
Chelsea, and United to be fair, were very cautious for long periods of the game. The Blues were able to dominate the ball in stages, but they did little to turn that into a real attacking threat. Considering the nature of the match, the set pieces could have been a real game changer, but Chelsea often wasted theirs.
Manager rating out of 10
6 – Lampard appears to have made some progress in dealing with Chelsea’s defensive fragility. For the moment, though, that comes at the expense of their attacking threat, which won’t be very encouraging considering the costly transfers Kai Havertz and Timo Werner were on the field.
Player ratings (1-10; 10 = best, players submitted after 70 minutes get no rating)
GK Edouard Mendy, 7 years old – He made an atrocious pass that nearly resulted in an own goal, but was confident with his hands and made a brilliant save at the end.
DF Cesar Azpilicueta, 7 – It seems that the role of right-back suits the Spaniard, as he looked comfortable at all times, although it helped him how poor United was.
DF Thiago Silva, 8 – He’s definitely growing in his role in the Chelsea defense and looked comfortable for most of the game.
DF Kurt Zouma, 7 years old – He seemed dominant at all times, especially when the ball was in the air.
MF Reece James, 8 – Daniel James did absolutely nothing and the defensive solidity of Chelsea’s right-back definitely played a role in that. His cross at the hour mark was arguably the greatest display of quality in the entire game.
MF Jorginho, 6 – The Italian was clean with the ball, but did not show the creativity necessary to get Chelsea onto the field.
MF N’Golo Kante, 7 – He seemed very alert at all times, kept the ball running well and made a few attempts to get Chelsea to advance.
MF Ben Chilwell, 7 – It was a fairly quiet game going forward for the England international, but he seemed confident enough on defense.
DEL Kai Havertz, 4 – He really failed to bring his teammates into the game or create great opportunities at all. It was booked for pushing Fred back.
DEL Timo Werner, 5 – He worked hard and even backed down, but was ultimately quite easy for United’s defenders to handle.
FW Christian Pulisic, 6 – The USMNT star was probably Chelsea’s biggest threat, but even he didn’t threaten David De Gea’s goal much.
Substitutes
FW Tammy Abraham, N / R – He replaced Werner in the 72nd minute and didn’t see much of the ball.
MF Mason Assembly, N / R – He came in for Havertz in the 72nd minute and injected a little extra energy into Chelsea’s game, but not enough to change the pedestrian pace of the game.
MF Hakim Ziyech, N / A – He replaced Pulisic in the 81st minute and did not take the opportunity to show his quality.
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