The venue's Mestalla. The opposition is Valencia. The competition is UEFA Champions League.
Valencia is the only difficult opposition to Chelsea in Group E according to several critics. Well, Valencia have had a wonderful start to the season. They started their season with 3 straight wins, before drawing with Barcelona and losing at Sevilla.The currently sit at 7th spot in the league table. Well, we can say that their La Liga season has ended already. We all know what's going to happen soon. Barcelona and Real Madrid are thrashing opponents, backed by Messi and Ronaldo respectively, who are scoring at will. That's the nature of the Spanish League, or 'La Liga' as they call it. But still, this has been a considerable good start to the season for our Spanish opponents.
Here's a look at their performance in the matches they have played this season:
in La Liga vs Racing Santander 4-3 (W)
in La Liga vs Athlético Madrid 1-0 (W)
in La Liga vs Racing Genk 0-0 (D)
in UEFA CL vs Sporting Gijon 0-1 (W)
in La Liga vs Barcelona 2-2 (D)
in La Liga vs Sevilla 1-0 (L)
Well, Valencia had a good start to the season, winning their first 3 matches before losing to Sevilla. Almost the same as Chelsea.
In UEFA Champions League though, they won their only match against Sporting Gijon, a relatively weaker side according to many. Here's a look at the stats of the match:
So, Valencia dominated possession but their opponents had more goal attempts, though both got equal number of shots on target. And the number of Valencian players booked shows that they surely play a rough game, or maybe not.
Well, let's look at the goal scoring form of Valencia. Valencia has scored 8 goals in all competitions this season, and also given 6. This means that they have scored approximately 1.3 goals per match, and given one each. On the other hand Chelsea has played 8 matches this season, scoring 14 goals giving 7, meaning 1.7 goals scored per match and 0.8 given per match. So Chelsea surely has a upper hand on that.
Let's see the different aspects of Valencian football this season:
1) The Attack
Also, the 14 Chelsea goals have come from 11 different players, with 3 players (Ramires, Torres and Mata) scoring 2 goals each. But, many of Valencia's goals have come from a single player, namely Roberto Soldado. He has scored 5 goals of the 7 scored by his team (1 was own goal). Here's a break down of the matches he's played this season:
So he's played 450 minutes (approx) and scored 5 goals, including a hat-trick in the opening game of the season. Though he hasn't scored in the last two games, he is surely a force to be reckoned with for Chelsea, who have not been very accurate in the defense this year. Chelsea need to stop Roberto from scoring if they want to come back with 3 points and keep their 100% win record in the Champions League.
Here's a look at their performance in the matches they have played this season:
in La Liga vs Racing Santander 4-3 (W)
in La Liga vs Athlético Madrid 1-0 (W)
in La Liga vs Racing Genk 0-0 (D)
in UEFA CL vs Sporting Gijon 0-1 (W)
in La Liga vs Barcelona 2-2 (D)
in La Liga vs Sevilla 1-0 (L)
Well, Valencia had a good start to the season, winning their first 3 matches before losing to Sevilla. Almost the same as Chelsea.
In UEFA Champions League though, they won their only match against Sporting Gijon, a relatively weaker side according to many. Here's a look at the stats of the match:
So, Valencia dominated possession but their opponents had more goal attempts, though both got equal number of shots on target. And the number of Valencian players booked shows that they surely play a rough game, or maybe not.
Well, let's look at the goal scoring form of Valencia. Valencia has scored 8 goals in all competitions this season, and also given 6. This means that they have scored approximately 1.3 goals per match, and given one each. On the other hand Chelsea has played 8 matches this season, scoring 14 goals giving 7, meaning 1.7 goals scored per match and 0.8 given per match. So Chelsea surely has a upper hand on that.
Let's see the different aspects of Valencian football this season:
1) The Attack
Also, the 14 Chelsea goals have come from 11 different players, with 3 players (Ramires, Torres and Mata) scoring 2 goals each. But, many of Valencia's goals have come from a single player, namely Roberto Soldado. He has scored 5 goals of the 7 scored by his team (1 was own goal). Here's a break down of the matches he's played this season:
| Roberto soldado : (2011-12) | |||||||||||||
| Date | Team | Opponent | Competition | Result | Appearance | G | A | SH | SG | FC | FS | YC | RC |
| 24/09 2011 | Valencia | A- Sevilla | La Liga | L 1-0 | On 70 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 21/09 2011 | Valencia | H-Barcelona | La Liga | D 2-2 | Started | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 17/09 2011 | Valencia | A-Sporting | La Liga | W 0-1 | Off 68 min | 1 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 13/09 2011 | Valencia | A- Genk | UEFA CL | D 0-0 | Started | 0 | 0 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 10/09 2011 | Valencia | H-Atlético | La Liga | W 1-0 | Started | 1 | 0 | 5 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| 27/08 2011 | Valencia | H- Racing | La Liga | W 4-3 | Started | 3 | 0 | 9 | 5 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 2011/12 Season Totals | Starts: 5 • Sub: 1 | 5 | 0 | 26 | 12 | 7 | 2 | 2 | 0 | ||||
| G: Goals, A: Assists, SH: Shots, SG: Shots on goal, YC: Yellow Cards, RC: Red Cards, FC: Fouls Commited, FS: Fouls Suffered |
Except Roberto, no other player has looked really good this season.
But Chelsea defense can put up a good performance to get a second clean sheet in the Champions League. David Luiz is likely to start and there's no surety over anyone else, including Terry. So that is what a person calls quality talent for the manager to select from.
2) The Defense
In the defense, Valencia hasn't been really impressive. Conceding 6 goals in as many games isn't really a good defensive performance, but the break down of data shows a different thing.
Valencia conceded 5 of the 6 goals against 2 opponents: Barcelona (2) and Racing Santander (3). They conceded the one goal left against Sevilla last weekend. So, the Valencian keeper, Vicente Guaita Panadero, has kept 2 clean sheets in La Liga. In the UEFA CL match, Diego Alves was used as the keeper in which he kept a clean sheet. So, it's 3 clean sheets in 6 for Valencia. Chelsea has also kept 3 clean sheets, though they have come from 3 different keepers.
Here's a look at the two Valencian keepers:
Vicente Guaita Panadero Diego Alves
Games : 5 1
Saves : 18 2
Clean Sheets : 2 1
So, Vicente is going to be tough to beat if he plays. But though Diego hasn't played many games this season, he is the No.1 keeper for the side and has a lot of experience behind him.
So, it's going to be a tough game for the Chelsea strikers. But Chelsea has a variety in their striking options. Torres, Anelka, Drogba, Sturridge, Lukaku, Mata, Malouda and I don't know who else. Torres is most probably going to play as he's going to miss the next 3 Premier League games. And Drogba will most probably start from the bench. But then, you never know!!
3) The Manager
Unai Emery is the current manager of Valencia, and has been since 2008. In this period, he has won 54 of the 110 games and has a win % of 49.09% (wow!). Excellent win % in a league in which 2 clubs dominate. He is just 39 and it is going to be a youthful game as far as the managers and concerned.
Here's a look at the formation he's going to use most probably:
Formation: 4-2-3-1
Line-up: Diego; Miguel, Rami, Ruiz, Mathieu; Banega, Tino; Pablo, Canales, Piatti; Soldado.
Tactics: Medium defensive line, all round pressure, positional changes from the wingers, 3 way attacks, mixed passing.
Quite an attacking formation, especially with the 3 attacking mid-fielders. But still, Chelsea have very experienced defenders and can easily see off the threat.
Fact: The sum of the 2 managers' ages comes out to be 72 (39+33), just three years more than the age of Sir Alex Ferguson (69). WOW!!! LOL!! :D
Juan Mata
The Champions League group E this season has many homecomings. First it was Ballack and now it is Mata.
Juan Mata makes a come back to the ground where he played for 4 seasons. Juan made a remarkable 174 appearances and scored 46 magnificent goals. It will be home coming for Mata surely. He played a crucial part in the rise of Valencia as a club and will now be in the opposition team. Though there have been several rumors that Mata will not travel to his old club, still it would be really nice to see the reception he may receive at Mestalla. Let's hope he plays!!
So that was it. Chelsea vs Valencia is set to be a great game and a really exciting game. Looking forward to it!!!! Let's hope Chelsea wins. And I will also write the match review!
