THREE Chelsea Players Who Should Lose Their Place After West Ham Draw
Thursday, January 30, 2014 at 11:30 AM 
Chelsea had the chance to go top of the Premier League last night if Manchester City dropped points, but it was a sour night at the office for Jose Mourinho as he watched his side held at home against West Ham. The game finished 0-0 despite Chelsea having 39 shots, but there were a few who didn't carry their weight during the tie. Here are three players who I think should should lose their place in the side for their trip to the Etihad next week.
1) Samuel Eto'o
The Cameroonian did score, but it was ruled out because of a dispute regarding a mix up with the West Ham goalkeeper's free kick. Away from that, he failed to inspire and did not step up to the mark as the spearhead of the attack.
He had four shots but hit the target just once, lost all three of his take ons and found no luck at all with the Hammers defence. For me he needs to be dropped.
2) John Obi Mikel
The Blues midfielder was quiet last night but you could argue that he did his job while he was on the pitch. The reason I would suggest he is dropped though is because he offers nothing going forward, and it felt as though he was taking up a space on the pitch.
Another reason is that he failed to dominate the middle of the pitch - he was strong with his distribution but failed with 4/6 of his headed duels and his marking from corners was appalling. I would give his place to Matic.
3) Willian
With so many attacking options now at the club, Chelsea forwards need to perform to their best every game to keep their place. Unfortunately for the winger he struggled to really make an impact from the wide areas. While Hazard, Oscar and even Ramires tested the Hammers defence consistently, the Brazilian fell flat on most occassions.
Reader Comments (6)
Not sure why jose started mikel?......
Lampard is so good against those east hammer heads ,and mikel is a sub player to keep the score.
Jose can cry about them playing 11 players in the box but in the end it was his tactics that were wrong.
mikel alot of times had to shoot something he can't do but if Lampard was there he would have forced a rebound or something.
You suggested dropping Eto & Willian which i absolutely support owing to their performance last night. But I won't give in to the fact that Mikel be dropped because he was among the top performer of the night despite the fact he was subbed way to early.Mikel won most of his tackles,several interceptions,contributed well to the attack through his vision and quick service; he even took some nice but unlucky shots. Changing him for Matic made no sense at all considering that CFC needed to score as he was way more an attacking threat than Matic was. A comment stated that Mikel was shooting and that it would be best if Lampard was the one there; what happened to the time he came on,none of his shot came through. What are you saying, so when CFC doesn't score it's because of Mikel right whose main duty is to score, so LAME......
laughable!!! Mikel was the cause of the draw? what happened when Lampard and Matic came in? WFC used the same tactics CFC used against Barce fc and bayern fc. simple! tell your coach to find more tactics to defect teams like that.
All the 3 guys are BLAck
Willian? But he's Mourinho's replace for Juan Mata .......
Are you suggesting Mourinho is a moron?
Are you suggesting he is a poor devil that do stupidities?
Are you suggesting that he have other non saint motives for selecting players?
If the answer is yes. you are not alone. Thousands agree with you.
I love Jose and the man walks on water as far as I am concerned. He dropped a huge clanger last night though as he and everyone knew before the game just how Alerdyce and a very poor West Ham side would approach the game. Jose should have started with a back line of 3 and only one defensive midfielder (which should have been Matic and NOT Mikel). Those 4 players would have still been more than enough to shackle Andy Carrol. In a 4 1 4 2 formation Chelsea would have had a far better chance of getting an early goal with 2 strikers and a 4th attacking midfielder. That would have put The Hammers on the back foot certainly until the second half with them wanting to try and keep the score down in the first half. At half time and with them needing to come out we could have then reverted to a back 4 and 2 DM players and just hit them on the break. This was 2 points dropped through the wrong tactics. West Ham tried to play this way against Man City and STILL got hammered. The big difference was that Man City (as usual) threw the kitchen sink at them from the kick off. This type of tactical mistake this season is the main reason why Chelsea will not win the title this term.