View From A Blue

Pantilimon - Retained his place ahead of Hart, and although the England ‘keeper will feature in the midweek Champions League encounter, it will be tough for Pellegrini to replace Pantilimon when Swansea visit. Again, this was a solid display, making a couple of low stops and generally commanding his area well - 7 Zabaleta - One of his best performances [...]

Pantilimon - It could have been Pantilimon, Hart or even Richard Wright in goal and the result wouldn’t have changed, such was Norwich’s non-existent attacking threat. Pantilimon made one save low down but was otherwise a spectator of our dominance - 6 Zabaleta - Able to park himself in Norwich’s half as we controlled possession and looked to break through, and [...]

Pantilimon - Much of the spotlight was on him to see how he would react to the possible availability of the goalkeeping berth and he responded impressively, saving crucially from Cissé in extra-time and producing an authoritative display, commanding his box with ease. I’m veering towards thinking he should start against Norwich at the weekend - 7.5 Richards - One [...]

Hart - Joe, Joe, Joe. Cost us the draw with a moment of madness, needlessly hurtling out of his area to clear the danger. Irrespective of whether he communicated loudly enough or not, there was no need for him to do anything other than stay in his six-yard box and collect Nastasic’s header. It was yet another error and we’ll [...]

Hart - One crucial save in the dying moments which protected the three points and he generally coped well on a pitch that made life difficult for him in terms of dealing with shots and passbacks - 7 Zabaleta - Struggled to make any real impression when bursting forward down the right but that will invariably happen due to Navas’s propensity to stick [...]