Matches, Premier League - Written by BlueChampion on Thursday, March 15, 2007 2:22 | 1,722 Views | 24 Comments | Add Comment
Man City 0-1 Chelsea: Lacklustre Win, But A Win Nevertheless!
Three points with as minimal effort as possible. We played poorly and Man City thoroughly deserved a draw for their spirited display. Unfortunately, we never looked like scoring whereas Man City was always dangerous when they had possession. If they had little more quality, we might have been finished off tonight. Chelsea did not play top gear football. They know that more matches are coming up. They had to keep themselves fit and they got to win with as little effort as possible, which they did with clinical precision.
For the whole of the first half we had just one shot on goal and they had 5 shots and this sums up the story. We did not attack at all. We did not set up any chances and in the final third we could not even string two passes. It appeared as if we knew that we had the three points in our pocket, even before the start of the match. On the other hand, Man City gave all they had, and only they looked like winning this match or interested in scoring goals.
Jose started with Maka in the midfield as it is Essien’s turn to be out injured. Essien suffered a knee injury in the Spurs match that ruled him out of this match. Too many players played very poorly tonight - Makelele, Geremi, Kalou, Robben & Ballack. Of them all, Ballack was the worst and did not hold, did not pass but did foul unnecessarily, did lose the possesssion - in short it was a nightmare. Kalou and Robben came very close to matching Ballack’s horror show. I do not expect too much from Ballack anymore and I know Kalou is on the learning curve. The maximum disappoint for me was Robben’s performance. Geremi is too limited and he does not offer too much variety. Diarra is way above Geremi. Makelele was off-colour, nothing special, not even some decent moments.
There are some who took the extra burden of making up for the poor performance of their colleagues - Lampard, Carvalho, Cole. Carvalho was superb with his typical interceptions. While Terry was limping quite often and Geremi not upto the mark, Carvalho had to step up to take the charge. Cole had a good game too and nullified the Man City attacks at an earlier stage. Most of the Man City attacks were from their left wing, which is a good testimony of Cole’s game tonight. Lampard was very much in the action. He was everywhere - in attack, in defence and in midfield. His penalty was one of the best taken penalties I’ve seen.
The points gap between Man Utd and Chelsea comes back to 6 points. In all probabilities, we should win our weekend home fixture against Sheff United while Man Utd host Bolton. For quite some time we have been waiting for Man Utd to drop points and they have been very resolute in their approach. This Saturday, it will be another test for the Reds. Frankly, I dont expect Bolton to beat Man Utd at the Old Trafford but surely they have the team to earn a draw atleast. We should expect another lacklustre three-point effort by Chelsea this weekend as we gear up for the big match at White Hart Lane on Monday.
24 Comments
1. Adonis
2. canco
Sorry to disagree, but i think maka had a good game in midfield, for Ballack nothing to say. On the whole im become tired of seeing lacklusture performances. we need to step up. Hope we can get our awesome best back.
3. Anonymous
Ballack was lost in the midfield. He made half hearted tackles, mis-passes, poor clearences…! Was expecting much more than this from the German Captian.
4. Adonis
I doubt Ballack will continue like this, if not this season, then next season we’re going to see the great, great player that deserves to play for such a great club.
He’s got to come good, this is what these amazing players do. And yes, his record does qualify him as an amazing player, even though he’s not yet fully adjusted to English football.
Be patient. It wasn’t just him, it was the whole team today. Don’t focus on one player. He’s shown a few signs in Champions League that he could play very well, and he will become better the more he plays.
Quite whining about him.
5. Manish
I couldnt’ see the match but reports are in line with what I have been observing and saying on this forum. I think our problem is lack of pace of our midfielders.A team can afford it if only one MF is slow but we have two imp MFs who really lack both pace and skills(Lampard and Ballack). It is midfield which controls game and it have to have skills and pace which Chelsea seriously lacks. Ballack’s contribution is known to all.Lampard is coming good by virtue of his piledriver strikes only.They are not making contribution in forms of splitting passes which MFs do in real sense . And thats the reason for Sheva’s performance also.He got that service from Kaka etc at Mlan and hence scored at will.But thats not the case in Chelsea where MFs are happy to score long range goals instead of moving the ball.
6. giridhar
The only thing good about yesterday was one more match and one more win. Atleast we should be having Essien and Mikel soon. None of Mid fileders could put a good pass. All of them were at fault including Robben, Dorgba and Kalu. We played entire second half in Chelsea’s half. Introduction of SWP had an effect yesterday since he got some pace… if not horrible.. and i dont think Ballack deserves a space in any review forget about a place in chelsea 11.
7. joeblue
Wat a bloody rotten performance …….Now believe u me guys if we win the league we will be one of the most undeserved of Champions , we dont deserve to win , look at Manu playing beautiful football and even being consistent , it will be a shame on england if their champions r good-for-nothings like us!!!!
we hav scraped games all season , last night i was up watching the game and it was the worst i had seen in my lifetime , if goal scoring was not a necessity to win , i doubt JM wld hav us score even 1!!!!!!!
no wonder Roman is bored with his style and wants him out , if i wld be the owner JM wld be already out , no matter how suceesful or rich we r , but we cannot buy beautiful football and JM wld never even want to!!!!! I pity Roman , how can he watch almost every game of ours??? Must be carrying a sleeping bag all the time , or maybe its his lookalike payed to wisthand the shit football we play!!!!!
8. joeblue
And BC dont dream abt Bolton gettin a draw at Trafford , Manu r not like us , remember they demolished an completely dismantled Bolton at the Reebok 4-0, whereas we were at it again crawling to the finish line 1-0!!!!!
9. Alex
why cant bolton draw at old trafford? you know joeblue, in football, there is thing called upset or surprise which means results that do not align with the form or the expectations.
10. chels
response to comment #2.
maka was not at his best. he didnt have a poor game but it was not a good game for him either. i feel that he is getting slower and slower for premiership
11. trueblue
may be the boys save their energy for the big match at white hart lane. at this stage of the season, as long as they get 3 points, it’s ok. there are other concerns like the injuries, fatigue, fixture congestion etc which determine how we play.
12. Emma
A match that Chelsea had to win, and that Man City couldn’t afford to lose. It was pretty even, though I thought it was great that Chelsea won and Man City lost, it was like killing two birds with one stone! (saving Charlton.) Joey Barton put in a great performance in midfield, Petr Cech made one terrific save towards the end, but that aside, it was a pretty insipid match. Man City had a commendable workmanly attitude, still working hard and creating chances after they went 0-1 down. Thankfully, their end product just wasn’t good enough. That penalty was a correct decision. Micah Richards made a sloppy tackle which could have been completely avoided and it tarnished his otherwise good performance – he’d prevented my lovely Dutchies Robben and Kalou from looking too dangerous before that - and that cost them the game. Kalou was right to go down, and Lampard gave a clinical finish.
Anyway, pretty dull match, like you said, no-one deserved to win, but if Man Utd got to beat Fulham, then I’d say Chelsea easily deserved this. Chelsea’s Premiership stays alive. Yippeee!!
Entertainment rating: 3/10 (I should have watch Celeb Fame Academy. Really.)
Chelsea’s performance: 6/10
Man of the Match: Ricardo Carvalho
13. RomanHoliday
I’m not giving excuses for anyone but as the guys said above CFC maybe conserving energy for congested fixtures coming thick and fast , also Maka is just back from a flu , JT had to go slowly too and JM I think knew that Man City didn’t have any bite in its attack so he probably didn’t have CFC go all out in this match. But of course that doesn’t excuse some guys for playing badly.
Anyway cheers for the win
14. RomanHoliday
Hey guys
One question for u all
If u were on the road to divorce , would u concentrate more on ur football team or ur future beau ?
15. Blues
thats an intelligent question RH. i know where you’re coming from. Roman’s recent absences and lack of interest, now stand explained.
16. joeblue
Well RomanHoliday if the team is CFC under Jose , then of course —-the future beau!!!!!!
17. joeblue
Hey Alex u keep waiting for upsets while i wait for us to play a better brand of football which is watchable at the least , to each his own!!!!!
18. Anonymous
I say
a stylish,heroic, classy move-filled ,
youngster-led ,quick passing ,brazilian tricks-full ,five-goal victory over Sheffield U this weekend for Chelsea .
I know it’s a bit of a tall order for CFC ,
but I’ll take a dull 1-0 win with no injuries if that’s not possible .
With a side-dish of Bolton drawing ManUre for dessert however yucky that sounds.
U know just to spice up the race a bit.
U know Scoles , Saha and another two are outta the game , so Bolton get at them OK.
Well the answer to my question above is : The owner is concentrating on a whole stablefull of beau’s probably.
Well if he’s feeling much better with his house ( and u know what ) in order , we can can all use our testosterone to cheer on our team and get on with the business of winning all that silverware without any petty squabbles .
19. RomanHoliday
Yo that was me in the last post
20. chels
what the feck only one valencia got suspended?!
21. chels
i mean only one valencia player got suspended
22. RomanHoliday
My prayers / wishes that some of SAF’s squad get injured for at least 2-3 games each are being answered. I just read in the Sun that Rio has a rib injury and might be out for 2 games.
23. Adonis
Don’t keep wishing for injuries. Just wish for us to have none. And great point about the Brazillian style, that was funny.
A win is a win, folks.
24. blue champion
RH is in his spirits! lol!
I watched most of this match, and I agree that it wasn’t the most exciting of matches, but we certainly preserved our energy.
| Quote This Comment | Add Comment | Go To Top | Back To Home | Gravatar | BC Shout | BBC Radio | Refresh |It’s good to win the race as slowly as you can. It’s certainly the smart thing to do.
I don’t mind if we keep preserving energy until we need it.