PlayBeautiful

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

It’s official. Chelsea have been knocked out of the Capital One Cup. Here are some of my post-match thoughts on Swansea vs. Chelsea in the 2nd leg of the semi-final.

The Good
The starting XI looked promising. With Ba given a start along with Mata, Hazard, and Oscar, it looked like we could do business at Liberty Stadium. I was expecting a comeback for us because I like to be optimistic. Sure the Swans got 2 goals to nil at the Bridge, but if we brought our fighting spirit we could achieve the impossible. Right?

The Bad
That comeback never came. We just couldn't put the ball in the net. With the Swansea defense keeping us at bay, it was hard for us to create chances and use the space effectively. It was frustrating to see our midfield losing sight of the ball in both halves of the game. Too many times I saw Swansea players creeping in our half in the counter attack. Disappointing to see that the match ended in a 0-0 draw and we didn't score against Swansea once in the semi-final.

The Ugly
The major talking point was Hazard vs. the ball boy. A bad talking point that I don’t want to get into, but this whole situation got blown out of proportion. All I have to say is that the ball boy was wrong for time-wasting and Hazard was wrong for handling it the way he did. High intensity games can make players do stupid things, but I don’t think Hazard’s intention was malicious. If anything he should have notified an official if the ball boy wasn't doing his job properly. Hazard and the kid have apologized to each other, so let’s leave it that. Unfortunately, Hazard got a red card, but he will serve his ban accordingly.

Overall
The “Hazard kicking the ball boy” incident has overshadowed a poor Chelsea performance. I’m not sure what was going on in Rafa’s head when he was making the calls. We were weak from a tactical standpoint. In the 68th minute, Rafa substituted David Luiz for Ivanovic. Why was this the first substitution and coming this late? I failed to understand. In the 81st minute, it was Torres on for Oscar. This was right after Hazard’s red card in the 80th minute, so we were pretty shaken up. Again, this substitution was made too late when the game was as good as gone for us. Last substitution was Ryan Bertrand on for Ashley Cole in the 86th minute. A left back in for a left back? Was he trying to give Bertrand more playing time because at this point he must have realized we couldn’t be rescued. This is what Benitez said post-match (via @chelseafc): “We were playing with 10 players, had problems and needed to score three goals. We couldn’t. That’s the main thing.” Isn't it his job to figure out the problems? Take a bow Rafa, take a bow…

Written by: Goral Patel

Follow me on Twitter: @goralpatel 

Image via alesiaaa - Tumblr