Norwich vs Chelsea : A case for Romeu ?

Oriol Romeu was a relatively unknown entity when Chelsea bought him from Barcelona, with a buyback clause(or not). But ever since getting decent game time he has shown his ability to be defensively solid. I was surprised to see him benched against Norwich. We had our worst game , not withstanding the one point that was taken.

Ramires and Meireles joined Lampard in midfield. All three of them had a forgettable game, not to mention malouda who came in for lampard , earlier than expected as lampard limped off with an injury. I hope we dont play Ramires Meireles next time because i felt we were letting norwich attack so much. Now i am not much of an expert but on watching the highlights here are somethings i would like to point out.

Ramires and Meireles were frequently being caught out of position. I think alongside romeu , Meireles might be a good option. Ramires was a liability last night and if it wasn't norwich we would have surely had our backsides whipped. I know Rami has the pace to beat players in the midfield but maybe last night was an offgame for the whole team.

http://postimage.org/image/vyu53gadt/

I dont know whom to blame in this pic. But i randomly circled out Mata. As the ball comes into norwich's no.4 Mata is nowhere. I am not sure whether the wide player should have been allowed to cross. As the cross came in , it was a li'l iffy as Bosingwa did his best impression of a 4 year old girl. We were lucky as norwich failed to capitalise.

Attack 2 :

http://postimage.org/image/czo1jb72z/

This is a more clearer example of what i meant about the positioning of meireles and ramires. As the ball goes into the norwich player ,circled in yellow, notice the position of Ramires, circled blue, he is trying to close him down. Unfortunately for him , the norwich attacker has options and he passes it back. This puts ramires off balance as shown in the next image.

http://postimage.org/image/555svjxc3/

Meireles then tries to cover for Ramires, leaving space out in midfield.

http://postimage.org/image/nxupnr6at/

Now both meireles and ramires are out of position. The Norwich attacker fails to capitalise and scuffs a tame shot which is saved by cech.

http://postimage.org/image/7rpwq8dxz/

i am not sure how romeu would have fared but i am sure he wouldn't be barging in like Rami.