PLAYER OF THE WEEKEND ~ SkySports ANDRE SCHURRLE Cold-blooded was how Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho described Andre Schurrle after the Germany intnls 2nd-half hat-trick in Saturdays 3-1 win at rivals Fulham. The victory stretched the Blues lead at the top of the table to 4points over Liverpool&Arsenal with 10games to go,although 4th-placed Man City - 6points off the pace - have 2games in hand. Before the west London derby,Mourinho had complained about the fact his side had little time to recover from the their midweek Champions League assignment at Galatasaray,a match in which Schurrle had been withdrawn midway through the 2nd half. But after a lethargic opening period,Schurrle showed a deadly turn of pace for the 1st goal on 52mins,latching onto Eden Hazards perfect pass&out-sprinting Dan Burn before slotting past Maarten Stekelenburg. 13mins later,the Hazard-Schurrle combination worked again from 12 yards out,&only 3 more minutes were needed before the Germans 1st treble in English football was completed from a Fernando Torres pass,doubling his Premier League tally for the season. Schurrle showed his humility afterwards too,saying the praise should go to team-mate Hazard for his outstanding performance. SILENT TREATMENT WORKS FOR JOSE We can’t be sure of what Jose Mourinho did or didn’t say in the dressing room at Fulham but 1 thing is for certain: it worked. Jose claims he gave his players the silent treatment but Andre Schurrle said his manager had a few words. Its hard to see a Boss that would never say anything at half-time. There were plenty who would chuck things around — but its rarely quiet. Maybe he has just started a new trend? Whatever he did,it had the desired effect. THREE IS THE MAGIC NUMBER Andre Schurrle is the 3rd German to score a Premier League hat-trick after Fredi Bobic&Jurgen Klinsmann. There has been a lot of talk about Chelsea’s forwards this season but the club has always had good goalscoring midfielders. Frank Lampard has done it for years,Eden Hazard gets his share&Andre Schurrle could join them. He seemed a bit out of the frame,so I was slightly surprised by his hat-trick,but credit to Mourinho for playing him there. Schurrle is so fast&used that pace to get in behind the Fulham defence. He linked up well with Hazard,no more so than for his 1st goal,as the graphic below shows.
Posted on: Mon, 03 Mar 2014 23:52:21 +0000
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