Three points, still lots to improve!

Chelsea huffed and puffed towards what should have been a convincing home win. Once again a scrappy second half performance from Chelsea but despite all this, we got three points and leaves a lot to worry. In the first half Chelsea was completely dominant and in particular Sheva and Drogba. There was yet another strong message from Drogba that said that he would very well challenge and deserve a place on merit. Drogba’s third goal of the season was not lucky as you might think in the first instance. He was there when it mattered and he had the presence of mind to put it through. Having said this, he showed that he needs lot more composure on front of the goal, when he missed a sitter, later in the second half.

Boulahrouz had a very good game and he looks a very promising first teamer. Ashley Cole made his debut and didn’t do anything special except letting Rommedahl cut through inside dangerously a couple of times. Whereas Bridge was again brimming with his new-found confidence and there was this brilliant run by him beating three Charltoners and a smart pass to Sheva in front of the box which was later wasted by Lampard. Carvalho put all his bad form behind and put across a fantastic header that gave Chelsea the lead. Today, for the first time since he joined us, I thought Ballack made his presence felt.

Someone has to tell Lampard that this is not World Cup and he can be back to form. He missed a couple of chances which could have been buried with better concentration. Kalou was very mediocre during his short stay and he was lucky to get a penalty for something which didn’t look like a foul. I was waiting for Sheva or Ballack to take the penalty. Against Blackburn, Lampard was fortunate to score the penalty. Here again, one more poor penalty shoot by Lampard and this time around he wasn’t quite lucky.

The Chelsea defence was looking very scrappy in the last quarter. The Bent-Hasselbaink duo were a constant threat, more towards the end, even as the Chelsea players were just waiting for the whistle just as they did against Middlesbrough. Jose Mourinho surely needs to hammer this thing into the minds of the players, that the match is not over until the final whistle. There was so much indecisiveness to Chelsea’s game that in fact gave some kind of hope for Charlton.

Man Utd marches on. 4 wins out of 4. Though it was only a 1-0 win, Man Utd was easily the better of the teams. As I had said earlier, no need to worry about their streak as even the most die-hard Man Utd fan knows that they cannot sustain this for long. Great day indeed for Man Utd fans. They saw the ‘mighty’ Liverpool shot down by Everton 3-0. That was the surprise of the day considering that the Freak Lamppost was among the goals. Everton had their nervous moments as Liverpool was constantly attacking the Everton goal. To see Liverpool floored by a 3-0 margin was really sweet.

And, Arsenal dropping points in Emigrants Stadium was not a surprise. They should consider themselves lucky to come off with a point. Now that the gunnerboys have seen all their signings failing together, they have to be convinced that they play poor football. Arsene Wenger looked hopeless once again. Henry scored the penalty. Goodness they didn’t try pass a couple of times before he hit the penalty (once they have tried that too - Henry/Pires). Looks like the only sure way for Arsenal to find the net is through a penalty. Not sure what Henry had to say, after the match. Before their first match of the season, he was saying that he is only 50% match fit or whatever. Before this home match, he scored for France and must have been decently fit. Another off-colour performance today. The worst disappointment of the day was that Gallas could not keep his promise of scoring an own goal. We’ll wait for that to happen. It was embarrassing for the Gooners not have broken the defence of 10-man Boro. Not sure they really want to play the champions league next year!

Atleast we won. But Jose! please sort this out! We cannot afford to walk around with closed eyes in the last quarter of every match. Whereas the first half really showed what we can expect from Chelsea in this season. Let’s kill off Werder Bremen.

[tags] Chelsea, Premiership, Arsenal, Manchester United, Liverpool, Drogba [/tags]