Swansea vs Chelsea - Pre match.

Swansea City vs Chelsea pre match briefing :

The only place outside England where Liverpool will play this season, Liberty Stadium, sees Swansea take on Chelsea in what will be an encounter that most people believe will be a low scoring one.

Chelsea have conceded just 1 goal in their last 5 games, none in their last 4. In the process however, Chelsea’s scoring record has not been very impressive apart from the 4-0 win over Pompey.

Chelsea’s last 5 games’ results read :

1.  QPR                  0-1 Chelsea

2.  Norwich             0-0 Chelsea

3.  Chelsea             1-0 Sunderland

4.  Chelsea             4-0 Portsmouth

5.  Wolverhampton   1-2 Chelsea

The stats look impressive, Chelsea have won 4 of their last 5 games, but the real story is something completely different. Lack of creativity and as a result, lack of goals up front will hurt Chelsea.

Injuries for Chelsea :

1.  Ramires.

2.  Lampard

3.  Mikel.

The absence of Ramires and Lampard will surely be felt for Chelsea who’s midfield department is already struggling to create genuine chances in the final third for their strikers.

Mata and Sturridge have had average games offlate.

Torres has been really impressive in the past few games, his touches and movement has been great, but the goals just aren’t coming. Do we blame him for that? Or the fact that the midfield isn’t doing enough to provide good final balls?

Interesting, yet worrying stat : Torres didn’t attempt a single shot in the 90 minutes he played against QPR!

Meanwhile,

Possible Lineup :

-------------------Cech---------------------

---Ivanovic----JT--------Luiz----------Cole-----

------------------Romeu---------------------

-------Meireles-------------Essien--------------

-Sturridge--------------------------------Mata—

-----------------Torres------------------------

Problem area?

1.  Center Back – Luiz, he’s one player who will be excellent the entire match but will make one or two silly errors that will cost Chelsea.

2.  Midfield trio – Romeu does his job well, but the fact that Essien is a similar defensive minded player and that Meireles isn’t the kind of player who can provide that final killer pass is a worry for Chelsea.

Verdict? Swansea 0-0 Chelsea. 

Match Report : Norwich 0-0 Chelsea

Chelsea squandered their chances, Norwich didn’t create any as a resilient Norwich held Chelsea to a 0-0 draw at Carrow road. Norwich kept their first clean sheet of the season while Chelsea failed to score a goal for just the 3^rd time in the league this season.

Chelsea’s high line and as a result, a sloppy defence, and Norwich’s brilliant counter attacks made most people think of this game to be a high scoring one, but it wasn’t to be.

The first 10 minutes of the game saw very little action with neither side being able to control proceedings. Chelsea’s attack lacked creativity in the final 3^rd and Norwich’s counter attacks were quite easily dealt with by Chelsea.

Chelsea’s first chance came as a result of Torres’ shot from the outside of his foot in the 27^th minute which was saved well by City’s goalkeeper Ruddy.

In the 34^th minute, Lampard was forced off the field after sustaining a calf injury only to be replaced by Florent Malouda 3 minutes later. Chelsea’s playing style didn’t change as they maintained their 4-3-2-1 formation with Malouda and Mata switching positions occasionally.

Norwich created their first half chance in the 36^th minute when Surman’s pass found Johnson who’s resulting shot was saved by Cech.

Chelsea’s best bit of attack came in the 40^th minute as Malouda cut inside brilliantly from the left and his resulting pass found Mata who’s shot was saved well by Ruddy.

Neither manager made changes after a goalless, yet interesting first half as Chelsea failed to score any goals after creating a few decent chances and immediately after the 2^nd half got underway, Bosingwa’s lethargy almost cost Chelsea a goal.

Chelsea continued piling misery on themselves with sloppy passes inside their own half. Luckily for them, Norwich didn’t capitalize on any.

Things didn’t change much after the break, but Chelsea wasted their best chance in the game at the hour mark when Bosingwa’s low cross found Torres in a dangerous position who shot the ball wide of the post. Torres, who had a bright game, should have converted the golden opportunity awarded to him.

 A minute later, Ruddy made a brilliant save when Sturridge found Mata who shot at the near post.

Chelsea kept piling on pressure but none yielded any results. Two changes from Andre Villas Boas saw Torres and Meireles make way for young Lukaku and Michael Essien.

Lukaku’s powerful Drogba esque run into the Norwich penalty area in the 80^th minute was fruitless as the Norwich defenders cleared the ball well at the crucial moment.  

With time running out, Chelsea missed their last real chance of the game as Mata spun inside the box and his resulting low shot led to a good save from Ruddy whose deflection hit the post and went out.

Soon the final whistle blew, and the Norwich supporters, with their anti Terry chants (which was of course countered well with ‘1 England Captain’ by the travelling Chelsea supporters) celebrated as though they had won the match.

A point earned for the Canaries and surely, two points dropped by Chelsea.

-     Abhishek Easwaran