Arsenal and Liverpool have only obtained 1 point COMBINED from their last 3 matches. Chelsea are pulling away from them just by not playing terrible.
Chelsea – Norwich Stats Recap
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Many Chelsea fans thought the 0-0 draw against Norwich today was not a great result – while it certainly wasn’t ideal, Norwich has been playing well lately…
Norwich has lost only 1 of their last 9 matches and are 9th in the Premier League. A draw away isn’t as terrible as some fans may think.
The result today spoke more of the effort by Norwich, who played well defensively, and also Chelsea’s continued and consistent lack of finishing off scoring chances…
Norwich get their 1st clean sheet of the season against Chelsea, who have scored only 3 goals in their last 3 PL matches. Not enough goals.
Spurs and Arsenal beat Norwich at their place, Chelsea draw. Today was arguably the best result for Norwich all season.
Chelsea today against Norwich: 20 shots (6 on target), 85% (467/551) passing, 4 successful crosses (out of 39 attempts, yikes), 15 tackles.
This is a match teams “equal” to Chelsea are winning and clearly a team Chelsea should be putting goals in against, yet Chelsea had only 6 shots on target.
However outside of Juan Mata who has been fantastic this season and Frank Lampard (who went off injured in the first half), the rest of the Chelsea attacked continues its up-and-down season…
Mata today against Norwich: 5 shots (led the team), 81% (51/63) passing, 3 chances created, 3 successful crosses (10 attempted), 2 take-ons.
Outside of Mata, Chelsea completed only 1 of TWENTY NINE crosses today. Speaks volumes about the long passing and lack of aggressiveness.
1 for 29 on crosses – it’s simply not good enough. Leading the charge was Jose Bosingwa who continues to not only receive criticism for his defensive work rate but also his offensive contribution…
Bosingwa today against Norwich: 1 shot, 78% (42/54) passing, 2 chances created, 3 take-ons, 0 completed crosses (8 attempted), 4 tackles.
0 for 8 on crosses is not helping his cause. A great comment on Twitter pointed out what I’ve been saying for awhile now, it’s as if teams almost want Bosingwa to have the ball because of his poor decision making and defensive work rate.
Gary Cahill to Chelsea – How I Squashed the Rumors
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Gary Cahill wasn’t always destined to be a Chelsea player – with Arsenal hot on his tail only a few months earlier, the deal fell through hours before the transfer window shut – and Arsenal settled on Per Mertesacker instead. As Cahill remained a Bolton player for the first half of the season, the team struggled dramatically, hovering around the bottom half of the table. With Bolton trying to scrape together player and avoid relegation and Cahill’s contract set to expire at the end of the season, it seems inevitable Gary would be moved somewhere during the January transfer window.
Gary Cahill will be wearing blue this January
Rumors of Cahill to Chelsea really started to pick up steam when Alex was removed from training with the first-team by Andre Villas-Boas for allegedly speaking to other clubs. The delinquency of Alex coupled with injuries and suspensions to David Luiz and Branislav Ivanovic meant players such as Jose Bosingwa were forced to play alongside John Terry in the center of defense, which given Bosingwa’s defending ability (or lack thereof) is certainly far from ideal.
Here is a timeline recapping the entire Gary Cahill to Chelsea transfer saga:
December 30th – It’s announced Bolton and Chelsea agreed to a fee for the transfer of Cahill to Chelsea, confirmed by Bolton manager Owen Coyle.
December 31st – AVB confirms the fee has been agreed upon but Chelsea and Cahill’s agent were “miles apart” from reaching a deal.
January 6th – Cahill was rested for Bolton’s FA Cup third-round trip to Macclesfield, which would have cup-tied him, sparking serious rumors the deal to Chelsea was close.