Newcastle and Genoa both lost at home for the first time this season. Dortmund’s run of four straight wins came to an end as their top of the table clash at MGladbach ended in a draw and allowed Bayern Munich to sneak back to the Bundesliga summit. WhoScored’s usual Monday look at those significant streaks that have come to an end around Europe’s top five leagues sees us focus on a couple of top four head to heads and a comfortable win for the defending Serie A champions…
Chelsea Give Newcastle the Blues - Match Centre
Alan Pardew’s side had been undefeated in the first six fixtures in front of their own support, drawing against the likes of Arsenal and Tottenham, but were brushed aside by Chelsea. Newcastle’s defensive solidity had previously seen them concede 13.7 shots per home game but the visitors registered 22 efforts, with an injury to skipper Fabricio Coloccini just before the half hour mark proving pivotal.
Tim Krul was the home side’s standout performer, making 6 saves, with a stop from a Frank Lampard penalty amongst them. Daniel Sturridge was the most impressive attacking player on show, firing 8 shots, with 4 on target, and 1 finding the net - Sturridge also produced 2 key passes and 2 successful dribbles on his way to a WhoScored man of the match award for a 9.29 rating. Demba Ba was something of a disappointment for Pardew’s side- he had 6 shots, with only 1 on target in the 3-0 loss.
A hard-fought contest saw Chelsea make 27 tackles to Newcastle’s 26 - given Andre Villas-Boas’ side usually make just 18.6 tackles per away game, the increase in challenges was heavily significant. Oriol Romeu - in his first away start of the season - was the most impressive, with 7 tackles and 2 interceptions in front of his back-four; he also made the most passes of any Chelsea player (44), with a 91% accuracy illustrating his coolness in possession. Yohan Cabaye also made 7 tackles for the home side, though a crucial error led to a penalty for the visitors; luckily for the Frenchman, Lampard missed the aforementioned spot-kick.
Newcastle may have had the most of the possession with 53% but it was Juan Mata who proved the most creative player on show - the Spaniard made 4 key passes and picked up an assist as Chelsea leapfrogged their hosts into fourth.
Milan Cruise at Genoa - Match Centre
Genoa had dropped just 2 points at home all season prior to Friday’s clash with Milan but their fixtures in front of their own fans have been particularly kind up until now. While the defending champions made no mistake in ending their hosts’ unbeaten run at the Stadio Luigi Ferraris, there’s no question the match swung in Milan’s favour after the sending off of Kakha Kahladze.
A second yellow card saw the centre-half dismissed after conceding a penalty with the scoreline goalless on fifty-four minutes - Zlatan Ibrahimovic stepped up to fire the away side ahead and Milan never looked back from this point on. Ibrahimovic was the WhoScored man of the match, with 6 shots and 2 key passes in addition to his goal earning the Swede a rating of 8.8, while Alberto Aquilani was Milan’s main creator, making 5 key passes over the ninety minutes.
Milan’s right-back Ignazio Abate produced an eye-catching display at both ends of the pitch - he made the most tackles (5) of any player in addition to 3 interceptions and, going forward, made the most successful dribbles (2) for the visitors, with 3 key passes also thrown in.
Genoa don’t tend to dominate home matches possession-wise; on average, they have 46.7% but Milan were in complete control in a one-sided affair, with 73% of the play. Massimo Allegri’s side average 14.2 shots away but upped this to 18 at Genoa, with the host side producing just 8 efforts - only Miguel Veloso (2) had any efforts on target for the hosts. The fact that centre forward Lucas Pratto was joint-top for tackles (4) for Genoa was indicative of how the game developed, with their unbeaten home record fizzling out meekly in the end.
Borussias Share the Spoils - Match Centre
Dortmund were handed a huge boost as Marco Reus missed out for MGladbach due to a toe injury, but the champions failed to take advantage and had to settle for a 1-1 draw. The hosts won the battle for possession, with 54% of play and as a result, had 13 shots to Dortmund’s 11.
Juan Arango was MGladbach’s main creative force with 4 key passes but failed to grab an assist - the winger also produced 3 successful dribbles and 3 accurate crosses from the left, tormenting Dortmund throughout. Mario Gotze picked up an assist for the visitors, but overall, his display was somewhat below par. He attempted 10 crosses, with only 2 successful and managed just a single shot on target, in addition to 2 key passes.
Mike Hanke and Patrick Herrmann proved particularly wasteful in front of goal - they had 3 and 4 shots respectively for MGladbach, with a single shot on target between them, although Hanke did eventually find the net, equalising Robert Lewondowski’s opener with eighteen minutes remaining.
Dortmund demonstrated a greater willingness to battle, with 24 tackles to 21. Mats Hummels was the stand-out player in this respect, with 5 tackles and 2 interceptions in the heart of defence, with Felipe Santana making 4 and 4 respectively alongside him - a performance mirrored by home centre half Martin Stranzl.
The battle for possession saw central midfielders make the most passes for both sides - Ilkay Gundogan (62) for Dortmund and Roman Neustadter (58) for MGladbach, though only the latter created any goalscoring chances with his distribution, with a single key pass. Although Bayern’s 4-1 win over Werder Bremen allowed them to regain the lead by a point, both Borussia sides will be happy with the draw, in an evenly-contested encounter that kept both their recent impressive runs intact.
