Rich Godden rates the players after an epic Champions League quarter final first leg with Arsenal...
Player Ratings: Arsenal (h)
By Rich Godden
Updated Friday, 26th March 2004
Wayne Bridge- Great performance by Bridgey. Got forward well, used possesion well for the most part and his defending was also excellent, with Freddie Ljungberg hardly getting a look in. 8
John Terry- Yet another great performance by JT. Unless he makes a mistake or scores a goal, I don't think I'm going to bother doing a description for him as he is almost always amongst our top performers. 8
Marcel Desailly- Needlessly sent off for two silly bookings late on- before that, we all saw why Marcel Desailly should not be written off yet. Has lost a bit of his pace, but he reads the game so well that once he is in his rythm, it's hard to get past him! 8
William Gallas- Got forward well on the right hand side, but defensively you could see that he was getting far too central. Found himself too central temporarily whilst Ashely Cole crossed for Pires to head home. 7
Claude Makelele- Kept Vieira quiet. Enough said! 8
Scott Parker- Poor in possesion, but ran his heart out! Tackled strongly, put himself about and, for the most part, did his job superbly. 7
Frank Lampard- By far his best performance for Chelsea against Arsenal. Unlike in the previous encounters this season, he looked confident against Vieira and co. As a result, our team performance was so much better! 8
Damien Duff- Saw a lot of the ball but didn't really get a chance to show what he can do- every time he was near the ball, he had to deal with a swarm of red shirts. Good effort from Duffer though. 7
Adrian Mutu- Seemed a bit off the pace, but was still a major threat to Arsenal. Linked up well with Eidur, but Mutu has set such high standards for himself that this performance was just a tad disappointing. 7
Eidur Gudjohnsen- Great performance by our form striker! People will argue his goal was all down to Lehmann's fault, but the finish from Eidur was out of this world. Lesser players would have snatched at it- our Eidur tucked it home with the kind of elegance we have come to expect from him! 8
Subs
Joe Cole- Replaced Scott Parker in the second half and, whilst he showed a few glimpses of magic, he never looked like turning the game. 6
Hernan Crespo- Came on for Mutu, but didn't get enough touches of the ball to make any sort of impact. N/A
Mario Melchiot- Replaced Gudjohnsen after Desailly went off late on. N/A
