Hello friends at WAGNH. My name is Alister Profitt and, as you can see, my screen name is 'ChelseaRDM'. I've been longing to write a fanpost for a while, but a combination of issues has prevented me from doing so: I had college to deal with, Friends to hang out with, and little free time to concern myself with Chelsea's affairs.

In addition, it is my desire to write something that can rival the quality articles that I've been privileged to read in my time here (This is very much a limiting factor). I'm hoping to start a series of articles where I review the performances of our eleven players, using the famous '1-10' scale. The methodology I've employed follows:

As you'll notice, I've invented my own system, which tends to rate performances which are good fairly high (to avoid much criticism) and bad displays aren't punished with very low scores (Unless someone is Very Bad or worse). Please comment if you can improve this system. Without further ado, I'll commence my grading of the Chelsea players' performance against Swansea in the 1st leg of this semi-final tie.

• Turnbull: 5/10 – Turnbull has humongous shoes to fill, ever since the injury of the legendary Czech... Cech. Having to deal with Michu's presence throughout the majority of the fixture, his job was never going to be easy. It must have delighted him to see Chelsea dominating most of the match. However, a brace of errors from CB Ivanovic proved to be very costly. I felt the replacement Turnbull could have done better for the first, but it really wasn't his fault that Chelsea lost 2-0.
• Azpilicueta: 6/10 – Defensively, the diminitive Spaniard (apparently they're many of those in Soccer) was quite splendid. He didn't allow much of anything down the right side of the park. I'm quite disappointed with his offensive contribution, though, which was effectively non-existent.
• Cahill: 5/10 – I can't remember seeing much of him, but my attention was drawn to his wayward effort on goal in the first half. Pasztor said he was attempting to pick up Luiz's slack, and I'd have to agree. Despite losing 2-0, Chelsea's defensive unit cannot be blamed very much, and I didn't see anything from Cahill to exact any blame onto him.
• Ivanovic: 1/10 – The versatile defender had a real howler today. My wrecked emotional state doesn't permit me to describe his performance objectively, but it suffices to say that it was fucking bad. Fucking bad! He gifted two goals to Swansea on a night where Chelsea was clearly dominating. Fucking bad!
• Cole 4/10 – Cole wasn't very present throughout the fixture. I enjoyed his early interchanges with Hazard down the left, but his influence on the game was minimal from that point onward.
• Luiz 8/10 – Ahh, David. You've made your critics look foolish. WHY DID YOU MAKE ME LOOK FOOLISH?!? His performance tonight was the best of any Chelsea player, giving us a taste of what we could expect from a midfield featuring Fellaini. I loved his timing throughout this match in dispossessing Swansea players, and his passing was very good throughout. He almost released Oscar with a beautiful long-ball, the quality of which can be compared to the legendary Scholes.
• Ramires 6/10 – I thought Ramires was good tonight. His pace was once again on display as Chelsea was allowed to dominate the midfield battle. I was not in favour of substituting him off.
• Oscar 6/10 – I thought his contribution on the wing was great, and he almost released Mata with a lovely flick. He could not have done much better with the magnificent left-footed pass from Luiz, and he continues to surprise me with his aggressiveness, despite his physique resembling a small child. Above average.
• Mata 5/10 – He definitely wasn't bad during this match, but you'd be hard-pressed to make an argument against my rating: below average. Mata was the Hub of our team, and we dominated the match, but this match was definitely below his high standards.
• Hazard 7/10 – I quite enjoyed Hazard's mazy runs throughout the first half, but I'm quite disappointed that he decided to stop once Chelsea went down 1-0. Non-the-less, I've decided to give him a generous rating of 7 for the early promise he showed and his great awareness in the first 45.
• Torres 3/10 – Is Torres really better when he's on the bench? Perhaps not (But only because his sulking makes me feel down). Chelsea fans have gotten used to seeing Torres disappear and, as we've come to know, Torres doesn't like to disappoint. I might think of contracting him the next time I need an identity change, because he knows how to become anonymous. Only thing I can remember was his great cross early in the match.

Substitutes:

• Lampard (71') -/10 – I can't make a rating, unfortunately (My error not Lamps'). I can't remember him doing much, however.
• Ba (81') 7/10 – A menace from the moment he was introduced. His contribution to the match mimicked Hazard's early contributions. His headers in the box were really impressive and they really shouldn't have been good chances. They were though. He even put the ball in the net, before being correctly called for offside. I feel he was wronged when the referee gave him a yellow near the end of the 90, which shouldn't have been anything really. Very impressive cameo.
• Marin (83') 6/10 – His introduction saw Chelsea regain the energy they had 20 minutes into the match. His cross into Ba caught my eye, making very much out of little. I'll make a little exception* here and saw Marin was Above Average.

*6/10 is quite high for Marin, but I feel it's fair given his lack of match-fitness and lack of chemistry with the Chelsea players.

All in all, we can agree that this was a pretty good match with a messed up scoreline. Chelsea was unlucky not to reap the rewards of dominating Swansea. Please Rec if you like. Please criticise if you see fit; I want to get better and maybe as good as Graham and the guys – So you don't feel left out, I want to be as good as: Stephen, David, Kevin, Tim, Jack, Lamin and Devin. I think that's all of you. Peace out!