Once Chelsea went down to 10 men in yesterday’s game against Brighton, it was clear that this was going to have to be a defensive stand. We had the lead but almost an hour left to play, and every member of our back 4 knew they were going to have to step up. Luckily for us they did.
A look at the defensive stats listed on WhoScored shows just what we’re talking about.
Team selection issues had forced Mauricio Pochettino into picking 4 central defenders as his back line, and that actually paid off as we had to do so much box defending. The numbers were great all the way along – Levi Colwill had 1 tackle, 2 interceptions and 4 clearances. Thiago Silva 2 tackles, 1 interception and TEN clearances, Benoit Badiashile 1 tackle, 1 interception and 8 clearances, and Axel Disasi 3 tackles, 1 interception and 5 clearances.
All of them stepped up and made our box impenetrable, and they deserved all the celebrating and back slapping they had at full time.
