Chelsea 4-1 Cardiff City: Hits and Flops from the game

#4 Flop - Mateo Kovacic (Chelsea)

Kovacic picked up a minor knock and never looked like hitting top gear

The Croatian has almost effortlessly walked into the starting lineup at Chelsea since his arrival from Real Madrid earlier in the summer but Kovacic struggled to make an impact against Cardiff. The midfielder could have done better than the two shots he mustered while going one-on-one against Etheridge in the first half but credit to the goalkeeper, who was equal to the task and pulled the rabbit out of the hat with two massive blocks.

In all honesty, Kovacic did not hit top gear and was far from his usual self of menacing tenacity and guile in the middle of the park. It almost seemed like he did not recover at all from the 6-0 drubbing at the hands of Spain during the international break and picked up a knock that rubbed salt into his wounds.

Kovacic tried to shake it off and carry on with it when he came out in the second half but soon he was unable to keep going before eventually getting replaced by Ross Barkley shortly after the restart, to cap off a disappointing outing.