Chelsea played out a second goalless draw this week, failing to break down Man United at Old Trafford.
There was very little action of note, with Cesar Azpilicueta's shout for a first-half penalty after being held by Harry Maguire arguably the biggest talking point of the game.
While Chelsea supporters can take a point and clean sheet from the match, they got pretty much no entertainment value whatsoever. The Blues now sit sixth in the Premier League table.
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Positives
There were some lovely passing patterns from the Blues at points, as they played out from the back. They also looked strong defensively, being troubled very few times by Man United -- though that was partly due to how quiet the attackers in red were. Frank Lampard seems determined to get clean sheets and he got one here.
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Negatives
Chelsea -- and United in fairness -- looked very cautious for large periods of the game. The Blues were able to dominate the ball at stages but did very little to turn that into any real attacking threat. Considering the match's nature, set pieces could have been a real game changer, but Chelsea were often wasteful with theirs.
Manager rating out of 10
6 -- Lampard seems to have gone some way towards dealing with Chelsea's defensive fragility. However, at the moment, that is coming at the expense of their attacking threat -- which won't be very encouraging considering expensive signings Kai Havertz and Timo Werner were on the pitch.
Player ratings (1-10; 10 = best, players introduced after 70 minutes get no rating)
GK Edouard Mendy, 7 -- Made an atrocious pass that almost resulted in an own goal, but was confident with his hands and made a brilliant save at the end.
DF Cesar Azpilicueta, 7 -- It looks like the right-centre-back role suits the Spaniard as he looked comfortable throughout -- though he was helped by how poor United were.
DF Thiago Silva, 8 -- He is definitely growing into his role in Chelsea's defence and looked comfortable for the majority of the game.
DF Kurt Zouma, 7 -- Looked dominant throughout, especially when the ball was in the air.
Thiago Silva was immense at the centre of Chelsea's defence and continues to look a real bargain as a free transfer. Getty
MF Reece James, 8 -- Daniel James did absolutely nothing and the Chelsea right-back's defensive solidity definitely played a role in that. His cross on the hour mark was arguably the biggest showing of quality in the entire game.
MF Jorginho, 6 -- The Italian was neat on the ball, but failed to show the creativity needed to get Chelsea up the pitch.
MF N'Golo Kante, 7 -- Looked very alert throughout, kept the ball ticking over well and made some attempts to get Chelsea going forward.
MF Ben Chilwell, 7 -- It was a pretty quiet game going forward for the England international, but he looked confident enough defensively.
FW Kai Havertz, 4 -- He didn't really manage to bring his teammates into the game or create any big chances at all. Was booked for pulling Fred back.
FW Timo Werner, 5 -- Worked hard and even tracked back, but was ultimately pretty easy for the United defenders to deal with.
FW Christian Pulisic, 6 -- The USMNT star was probably Chelsea's biggest threat, but even he didn't threaten David De Gea's goal much.
Substitutes
FW Tammy Abraham, N/R -- Replaced Werner in the 72nd minute and didn't see too much of the ball.
MF Mason Mount, N/R -- Came on for Havertz in the 72nd minute and injected a bit of added energy into Chelsea's play -- but not enough to change the pedestrian pace of the game.
MF Hakim Ziyech, N/R -- Replaced Pulisic in the 81st minute and didn't take his chance to show his quality.
Source: espn.co.uk