Ruddy's sterling performance kept out the likes of Torres throughout
Saturday 21st January 2012
Norwich City 0
Chelsea 0
Carrow Road
Spurned chances made sure Chelsea didn’t come away with three points from Carrow Road, after a battling Norwich side kept their first league clean sheet this season.
By Connor Whitmore (see poll at bottom)
The importance of maintaining squad players through the years of success and failure has risen over previous decades.
One should observe Sir Alex Ferguson, who has built title-winning sides in effortless succession at Manchester United to supplement to the expansive careers of Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes.
An extreme juxtaposition was present, however, at Carrow Road on early Saturday afternoon, where viewers would have bore witness to two completely different forms of team-building.
At one end of the spectrum, there was Chelsea: a team that’s been fuelled by Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich’s funds since 2003. Although they’ve sold, the squad’s formidability has been maintained. Players like Petr Cech, John Terry, Frank Lampard and Didier Drogba have turned into club legends.
At their peak from 2004-06 under Jose Mourinho, the influx of European talent, which showcased the best of players such as Ricardo Carvalho and Arjen Robben, added to this fearful spine.
As the antithesis you had Norwich, whose momentous turnaround from a 1-7 League 1 home drubbing against Colchester in August 2009 has seen them grab consecutive promotions under the influence of up-and-coming Scottish manager Paul Lambert.
The Canaries have kept four players – Zak Whitbread, Russell Martin, Wes Hoolahan and Grant Holt – since the start of their divisional climb, thriving on cheap buys from the lower leagues. They spent roughly twelve times less than Chelsea in 2011 alone.
Lambert’s eleven showed no signs of being overawed despite the clear difference in monetary worth. A collective resoluteness was displayed where – despite the odd defence-tearing pass from Juan Mata – they stood incredibly firm. Whitbread and Daniel Ayala further established their partnership in the middle of defence, and John Ruddy’s man-of-the-match award spoke volumes in his surge for an England call-up.
Norwich had kept a clean sheet for the first time this season, but there was no keeping away from the fact that Chelsea did also. It seemed dispiriting for the new on-watching arrival Gary Cahill: this was one of David Luiz’s better days.
However it was another exhausting day for Chelsea. Chances went begging for Mata and Florent Malouda, whilst long shots from Ramires and Raul Meireles didn’t trouble Ruddy enough.
Villas-Boas was correct post-match: his side had “given everything”. They looked physically shattered. There was one player, however, who was mentally enervated.
Fernando Torres came into this contest having not scored in 13 hours of football, and did nothing to rectify the alarming stat. One exquisite shot with the outside of his right boot was expertly saved by Ruddy, but two clear-cut second half attempts went off-target.
The opportunities were perfectly made for him by Mata and Bosingwa, and so Torres looked extremely out of place.
Where Villas-Boas said at the beginning of the week, “He’s doing tremendously well for the team”, he seemed to contradict himself in the dug-out by lambasting the Spaniard’s derisory efforts.
Chelsea’s expensive squad does have the potential to challenge at the top.
Maybe it’s just not right for Torres.
Even Villas-Boas - despite his encouragement for Torres earlier in the week - seemed bemused by the striker's performance
Man of the Match: John Ruddy
The aspiring English goalkeeper produced save after save to display his now renowned consistency. Could be worthy of a call from England manager Fabio Capello soon.
Villain of the Match: Fernando Torres
Yet another game went by, and yet still we feel sorry for the striker, who should ultimately be blaming himself. Praise went to Norwich striker Grant Holt at the end of the game, yet he didn’t do too much more than Torres. What a burden the huge transfer fee brings.
