Match ratings! Sunderland!

[Pauly]

Ello ello! An interesting setup today:

..........................Cech........................

Boswinga....Ivanovic...Terry.........Cole

...........................................................

.......................Mereiles.......................

...........................................................

.............Ramires.........Lamps..............

............................................................

Sturridge................................Mata......

..........................Nico............................

Cech: 6.5- Not much to do, loses some points for that flap at the corner!

Cole: 7.5- Epic energy up the left, up and down the length of the pitch all day. Perfect left back really

Terry: 7- Struggled a little in the air defensively today! Perhaps a victim of his own aggression for the sunderland goal. If it were Jose he'd have had Huth on in defensive midfield before long today :> With Romeu/Mikel there it shouldn't be necessary for him to attack those balls as much. Super goal on the angle though!

Ivanovic: 7- Not much to do as JT really had the only work to do in defence. Some decent signs that Ivanovic isn't scared to move forward with the ball from center back- will be useful at home when sides part the bus.

Boswigna: 6- I really thought JB had a shocker today (by his usual standards!). Not to blame for the goal but he seemed very panicky on the ball.

Mereiles: 6.5- Decent for what he did, though to be honest I'm a little disappointed to see him in this role in front of the defence. He went from being totally anonymous to on fire under Dalglish when he started pulling the strings and moving well in between midfield and attack for them. Did what was asked of him today.

''

Ramires: 8- Great energy from Ramires off the ball. Runs into the box were great, on the ball he was good and won the midfield battle physically.

Lamps: 7- Good to see some of "the lamps of old"! 4 or 5 good deep runs into the box. Who believed he'd lost his legs anyway!? Truth is, we will probably see '5 well timed deep runs a game rather than the box to box' lamps of the past, but if he does what he did today this early in the season, he'll have a fine season.

Mata: 8.5- exactly what Chelsea needed. More than anything, his movement off the ball is great. Every player should move like that. Always an option short, always on the move, Guus Hiddink is rubbing his belly in delight and AVB gains 10 points for pushing through this fantastic transfer.

Sturridge: 8- great technique for the goal to get his body in front of Brown's first and foremost, then worrying about scoring. I'd love to see him up front. Thought he would go up front when malouda came on actually!

Anelka: 6.5- Not great. A bit lazy, and only really looked good once for me when cole overlapped and he played him through. Really needs to have a partner up or something- isn't a one up front guy anymore.

Good performance, good building block. AVB seemed to be encouraging them to play more directly, to speed up the game, which can only be good as the previous "style" (if you can call it that) had totally stagnated). If we can get more players moving like Cole and Mata, and get Ramires and Lamps to keep those deep runs but offer short movement too, we'll be great.

P!

[Lane]

lamps did better than meireles? weve mustve watched a different match

[nonotnowjim]

Have to say these ratings are not very reflective of the game as i saw it.

Meireles as a 6.5? really? did you see the ball he put through for Dannys goal? How many times did you see him lose the ball? yet only a 6.5 AND less than lamps?

Danny as an 8? really? he was on the periphery for the majority of the game, rarely got stuck in and other than the goal (and the ball crossed in shortly before JT scored) he did very very little.

Lamps as a 7? he did little of any note and i cant agree that he had a decent game. worse display of our midfielders today by a long shot.

[Belgian_SW6_Lover]

It was a really good building block,till the subs been made.After that it was more and more the struggling soccer that we played last season.

Ok,you can judge on 20 minutes of play...But with torres coming in as striker it was the same story like before...running nowhere,and most negative(my thoughts)..He was upset about is starting at the bench(his face and countenance was not good,unrespectfull)

On the pitch he was 2 times showing his discontent,very clear!Thats not what a team like us needed on this moment,not after 70minutes of good teamwork.

I think torres become a little bit frustrated

We will be on top class very soon I think!

[BlueDay]

Love this lineup! The pace and flair that we have been craving for these past 4 years and finally lets Kalou and Malouda know that their places are not guaranteed!

[coombsie]

Cech 6

Ivanovic 6

Bosingwa 6

Terry 6

Cole 7

Ramires 7

Lampard 6

Meireles 7

Mata 8

Sturridge 7

Anelka 5

Edited September 11, 2011 by coombsie

[coombsie]

Mata looked a class apart, superb movement especially when he did not have the ball, the epitomy of pass and move. Studge looked very much at home, Ramires as usual, worked his socks off and the back four looked very strong.

[Ben]

Cech 6

Ivanovic 6

Bosingwa 6

Terry 6

Cole 7

Ramires 7

Lampard 6

Meireles 7

Mata 8

Sturridge 7

Anelka 5

Torres 0.5

[coombsie]

Ben, I think the .5 was a bit generous !!

[Spiller86]

Cech 6.5 - Must have been incredibly annoyed at the defence to lose his cleansheet in the manner he did. Nothing he could do about it. Had a flap which stops him from getting a 7

Bosingwa 6.5 - Got a little bit more support from Danny and Mata in front of him which helped immeasurably. But the old defensive frailty showed itself for the goal, where he was frankly away with the pixies and picking up no one.

Ivan 6.5 - Handled Bendtner reasonably well, but I still feel he is better suited to the right.

JT 8 - A Striker's finish, on top his normal excellent shift. Marshalled the defence superbly, with several imposing headers in the last 10 when everyone else was thinking about the birds they were going to pull back in London that evening.

Ash 8 - Was constantly an outlet on the left in the build up and never looked like getting caught out on the counter as he did against Norwich. MOTM for me.

Meireles 7.5 - Adapted well into the more restrained role and showed Mikel what was required from a DM with the ball. Nice ball for Danny to work his magic with. Perhaps a little bit listless during the last 10.

Ramires 7 - Got less touches than normal with Meireles looking to distribute a bit more directly than Mikel normally does, but solid. Ramires is almost always a 7.

Lampard 6.5 - If we excluded the last 15 minutes this would be a 7+. Looked much more comfortable with a more movement orientated front three that allowed him more passing options. That said after the subs, he became a bit blase with the ball and gave it away a bit too often, including before the Sunderland goal if I remember correctly.

Mata 8 - Showed us what he is made of, with smart movement and layoffs. Makes you wonder how we even contemplated paying 10m more for Pastore. Nice little freekick to go with his excellent corner delivery, something we've lacked for some time. It was no surprise that all the impetus went out of our game, when he was substituted.

Sturridge 8 - Was on the periphery a bit at times, but burst into the game with a nice goal and virtually an assist for JT's goal. Hard to argue with that.

Anelka 7 - Didn't appear to do much but his movement off the ball in the centre added to our buildup play a great deal. Pressed well in defence as well. Could perhaps have beaten Mignolet to make us a little more comfortable.

Malouda 6 - Spice really went out of the game when he came on. Nothing special, nothing terrible.

Romeu 6 - Token appearance, looked keen to make an impression and was tidy if not spectacular.

Torres 6 - Difficult to be too harsh on him, the team had lost focus by the time he came on and I think he responded to that. Not sure what he was doing at the finish.

AVB 7.5 - Brave selection, and it paid off. If the first half is anything to go by we are starting to come together nicely. Can't really be blamed for lack of focus towards the finish.

[bcarroll]

Cech 6

Ivanovic 6

Bosingwa 6

Terry 6

Cole 7

Ramires 7

Lampard 6

Meireles 8

Mata 8

Sturridge 7

Anelka 7

[Myles_91]

Apart from Lampard and Bosingwa I thought the team played well. Ivanovic and Anelka were okay, the rest were superb.