Rating the Chelsea Players in the Capital One Cup Semifinal First Leg

Chelsea welcomed Swansea City to Stamford Bridge for their midweek Capital One Cup semifinal first-leg tie.

The Blues spent much of the game on the attack, and by halftime they had had 12 shots on goal. Only two of those shots were on target, and they were made to pay for their wastefulness when Swansea's bargain striker, Michu, capitalised on a Branislav Ivanovic error to send the visitors 1-0 up after 45 minutes.

It was more of the same in the second half as Chelsea pressed for the equaliser, but they were denied time and again by an excellent Gerhard Tremmel in the Swansea goal. The killer blow came in injury time, when another mistake by Ivanovic saw Danny Graham skip past Ross Turnbull to make it 2-0 before substitute Demba Ba put the ball in the net, only to be ruled offside.

This result gives Chelsea a huge task in the second leg at the Liberty Stadium if they want to reach their second cup final of the season.

Here are my player ratings for the Chelsea team. I start each player on 5/10 and points are awarded or deducted for positive and negative contributions.

Ross Turnbull

5/10

Chelsea's second-choice 'keeper was not at fault for either goal, and he had very little else to do as Swansea opted to absorb the Chelsea pressure. He did make a couple of saves in the first half but was only able to watch as Branislav Ivanovic gifted the ball to Michu for the first and Danny Graham for the second.

Cesar Azpilicueta

7/10

Azpilicueta is beginning to settle in as the regular right-back in the Chelsea side, and he made some very good runs in attack. The first half saw him shoot just wide of the post, and he put in some decent crosses that Fernando Torres failed to reach.

Gary Cahill

6/10

Cahill was alone in providing stability at the back, as well as making his trademark attacks from set pieces. He fizzed a header over the bar but never really looked threatening from open play. Despite the scoreline, Cahill had a good game.

Branislav Ivanovic

4/10

After his misplaced pass let Michu through for the first goal, Ivanovic worked very hard to atone. He had two shots at goal that went wide of the post before completely mistiming a pass to Ross Turnbull to gift Swansea their second goal in the 92nd minute. A nightmare for the defender, but even the greatest players have a bad day now and again.

Ashley Cole

5/10

Cole had an average game against Swansea, having little to do defensively. He played a part in some promising Chelsea attacks, but he was quiet throughout the rest of the game.

Ramires

5.5/10

Ramires was another Chelsea player who had an off game. Whilst his tackling has improved since last season, his penchant for giving the ball away too easily leaves Chelsea exposed. When he fails to balance that with his surging forward runs, he offers little value. He was substituted with 20 minutes to play and replaced with Frank Lampard.

David Luiz

6.5/10

Luiz had a very good game, was focused and managed to strike a happy balance between the attacking and defending sides to his game. He still managed to shoot well over the bar on several occasions, but he worked very well as the link in the middle of the park.

Oscar

5.5/10

Oscar is the least consistent of the Three Amigos, with flashes of brilliance interspersed by long periods off the ball. He does most of his work in his movement but when he comes up against a defence as organised as Swansea City, he has little effect. With Victor Moses on duty with Nigeria in the African Cup of Nations, Oscar will need to step up as he regains his place in the starting 11. 

He was substituted in the 83rd minute for Marko Marin.

Juan Mata

6/10

Juan Mata was the centre of Chelsea's attack, and he worked hard with Eden Hazard to break Swansea down through the middle. However, he missed his chances when they came, and despite creating several half chances for Fernando Torres to latch onto, he was unsuccessful.

Eden Hazard

5,5/10

Hazard worked hard and created chances in the first half but was frustrated when his passes turned to nothing. His link-up play with Mata in particular was wonderful, but he seemed to withdraw in the second half. He will need to be on form for the second leg as he has become vital to Chelsea's attack.

Fernando Torres

2/10

It took Rafa Benitez 81 minutes to remember that the club had just bought a striker, making this slow, disinterested, demotivated, passionless excuse for a goal scorer redundant. You would think that the arrival for a competitor for his job turning up and scoring two goals on his debut would spur him on, but you'd be forgetting that we are talking about Fernando Torres.

There was no movement from the striker, and he touched the ball 12 times in the entire time he was on the pitch.

Substitutes

Frank Lampard: 6/10

Lampard replaced Ramires with 20 minutes remaining and did very little, aside from a lovely flick-on to Demba Ba. The Senegalese substitute put the ball in the back of the net, but the effort was ruled out for offside.

Demba Ba: 7/10

After his astonishing debut against Southampton, Ba was relegated to the bench and he had to wait until 81 minutes had been played to make his first appearance in blue at Stamford Bridge. He was booked for diving after being felled by Swansea 'keeper Tremmel and was unlucky to have his goal ruled offside. Maybe the score would have been different if he had started.

Marko Marin: 5/10

Marin came on in the 83rd minute, which did not give him enough time to have any real impact. He found Demba Ba in the box with a lovely cross, but Ba could only steer it just over the bar.