View From A Blue

Pantilimon - Sunderland pinched an early goal – one that Pantilimon was helpless to prevent – and then sat back to resolutely defend their gains. As such, they offered very little in attack and even when they were pushing for an equaliser in the second half, they barely tested the giant Romanian - 6 Zabaleta - With Sunderland content to defend narrowly [...]

Hart - One excellent full-length stop to deny Charlie Adam in the first-half but after that, his biggest issue was keeping warm - 6 Zabaleta - Barely tested defensively and that meant his main impact came in trying to offer an element of width on the right as we searched for the breakthrough. Much of our play, however, was focused more centrally [...]

Hart - It took half an hour before Barcelona had a shot and that sailed far away from danger. Indeed, for all their elegant possession, they struggled to fashion too many chances and Hart wasn’t as busy as many expected. Some have blamed him for the second goal but that’s harsh in the extreme. One negative [...]

Pantilimon - One iffy moment of handling in the first half but after that, such was Chelsea’s limited attacking threat, he wasn’t called into action. No shots to save and just the odd cross to pick out of the air with ease – 6 Zabaleta - Hazard tormented him a couple of weeks ago but that the Belgian [...]

Hart - Norwich posed the occasional threat when they broke forward but Hart wasn’t forced into too many saves. His stop to prevent Bassong’s header in the first half was a highlight and his command of the box and quick distribution were good to see – 6 Zabaleta - Given the odd slip by both Redmond and Pilkington but [...]