Match Analysis : Chelsea VS Norwich City

Carrow Road was the next destination for Chelsea who were hanging on to the 4th place of the EPL and a win would have strongly pushed them to that last Champions League place with four of the top 5 teams engaging in mouthwatering Super Sunday clashes.

Both teams put out attacking formations with Chelsea opting for Sturridge in place of Romeu and Norwich playing with two strikers, Holt and Morrison with the latter being in super hot form in the Premier League. If we take into account the amount of goals, Norwich have scored 41% of them through headers signifying their aerial prowess and predictaby, the Chelsea centre backs had their work out for the evening with Gary Cahill looming in the sidelines to pounce on any mistake.

Torres VS Morison

The first half started with Chelsea keeping decent possession but still missing that creativity in the middle of the field. Holt had the best chance of the half but his left foot effort just went wide of the post. Lampard was replaced due to a calf injury in the 37th minute with Malouda, which made him the most used substitute for Chelsea this season (13). Juan Mata had the best chance for Chelsea late in the first half but dragged his right foot effort over the bar.

Malouda with the ball

The secnd half promised to bring goals as Norwich had previously failed to keep a clean sheet in their last 21 games in the top league. Fernando Torres was again guilty of wasting a glorious chance, toe-poking a ball without even hitting the target from a decent position. The cutting edge was missing from the 50 million pound striker and he was hardly seen in the box when the Chelsea wingers whipped the ball in. He was substituted with Lukaku, getting a rare game under his belt and started with a promising run for the centre line but the final pass was wayward. Mata also came close with some efforts but Ruddy was up to the task the whole evening, seeing off most of the Chelsea strikers’ shots. Chelsea had 11 corner kicks to their name but were very miserable throughout the match in distribution of the ball in the final third of the pitch and the draw virtually ended any chance of getting a top 3 finish this season for them.

Trivia – Mark Clattenburg didn’t give a single free kick in the whole of the 1st half.