Huddersfield Town managed to secure Premier League safety with one game to spare after an important 1-1 draw away at the former Champions, Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.

The Terriers were resilient throughout a difficult game of football for David Wagner’s side and made their chance count when Laurent Depoitre got the better of Willy Caballero to go ahead before Marcos Alonso equalised for the home side.

Antonio Conte’s men will feel it was a chance missed as they look to peg Liverpool back to fourth spot, but with this result, it makes the win against the Reds almost irrelevant with the Blues now needing Liverpool to slip up at home to Brighton and Hove Albion on Sunday.

It was the second shock in a week, as David Wagner’s side have now picked up two points away to two of the big six, Manchester City, of course, the first one on Sunday.

Here is how the Town players were rated in one of the most important matches of the season.

Lossl key in the result for the Terriers

Jonas Lossl (9) – In a match which looked very difficult for Huddersfield Town, Lossl kept his team in the game on countless occasions. Despite conceding to a bizarre Marcos Alonso goal, with quick reaction stops especially from Thomas Christiansen and Alvaro Morata in the final ten minutes.

Tommy Smith (8) - The captain was replaced by Florent Hadergjonaj, late on in the match, after a stunning display, using his leadership and know-how, dealing with a strong Chelsea outfit who had 22 shots throughout the match, to achieve the result.

Christopher Schindler (7) - He did well alongside 'Zanka' producing a solid display in front of Lossl in key parts of a very important game for the Terriers.

Mathias Jorgensen (6) – The defender was unfortunately at fault for the equalising goal for Chelsea with his disastrous clearance hitting Alonso square in the face who then scored to make it 1-1. After his mistake, he was involved with some excellent defending by the Terriers to keep the point.

Terence Kongolo (8) – If there is one thing that David Wagner takes from tonight’s game, then it is that Kongolo should be kept at the club on a permanent basis, the defender’s stunning show at the back brought over fifteen clearances, some more important than others!

Being clinical does it for Town

Chris Löwe  (6) – An average game for the German. With no real mistakes from Löwe, and nothing much created, he can be satisfied with the performance from himself against a tough Chelsea side who were pilling on the pressure right to the very end.

Aaron Mooy (8) - The Australian made sure that Town’s stay in the Premier League would last for at least two seasons with the superb assist for Depoitre’s goal to open the scoring at Stamford Bridge. Contender for the Man of the Match, Mooy also did a lot of tracking back for his team especially in the second half.

Jonathan Hogg (7) – The fan’s favourite put in an impressive display, he knew what was needed to be done and did that in excellent fashion, whether that was taking one for the team and not pulling out of a tackle or putting the ball into row z!

Phillip Billing  (5) – Billing was not able to make an impact on the game really and struggled to find a rhythm for the majority of the game and then went down with cramp towards the end of the second half, possibly the Manchester City game catching up with him. Although he did have the only other shot from a Huddersfield Town perspective which went just shy of the bottom right.

Rajiv Van La Parra (4) – He just could not grow into the match, whether he was just not up to the test or it was not the right type of game for him and was replaced by Alex Pritchard after 53 minutes.

Laurent Depoitre (8) – The Belgian striker definitely deserved his goal and covered an enormous amount of ground and got a lot of credit for doing so. For the actual goal, he had little right to get on the end of the ball from Mooy, and even if it looked a foul on Caballero, he finished the move off in style!

Substitutes

Alex Pritchard (6) – A bright spark after coming on and brought some life to his position which lacked from Van La Parra. (for Rajiv Van La Parra. 53)

Florent Hadergjonaj (7) – He continued what Löwe had done, and had his fair share of clearances including an acrobatic one to get the ball away from danger when Chelsea had a period of pressure in the last third of the game. (for Chris Löwe min. 62).

Scott Malone (N/A) - (for Tommy Smith, min. 85).

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About the author
Aidan Jones
Trainee Sports Journalist at The University of Huddersfield.