I’m gonna sound rude. The first one hour is the worst Chelsea has played, since we lost at Anfield. Allright, it is a superb scoreline for an away match, but until 60 minutes, we were second best to a team which is fighting for Premiership survival. Things did turn upside down after we scored a very scrappy third goal, but still this is not a performance I would be proud of. With this kind of performance, we could have beaten only a team as low in confidence as West Ham.

If you want to know which were all the players who played like crap in the first half, here it is – Cech, Diarra, Terry, Carvalho, Bridge, Mikel, Lampard, Kalou & Drogba. You’re right, only two names are missing – Essien, because he played superbly and SWP, because he scored twice goddamnit! It was a terrible display of football from Chelsea in the first half

where you could’ve seen all possible fundamental errors that can be made on the pitch. Cech making errors was a real sign of how bad things were. Our 3-month long clean sheet streak in the league came to an end and I can’t complain. They thoroughly deserved their goal and we thoroughly deserved to concede too. After all, it was Carlitos who scored. I was quite happy with a 2-1 scoreline at the end of the half.

West Ham played with a lot of passion and determination in the first half. In that process, they played a very physical game, made several tackles, lot of them mistimed and collected 5 yellow cards. Why Collins did not get booked for kicking Drogba on his face is something I dont understand. Tevez was always a menace but what helped us was that he was not too selfish. Many times, instead of going for the goal himself, he was spreading it out, only for the hammers to make a mess of it. Still, they had 6 shots on goal to our 1 in the first half. Even if they had scored twice in the first half, I would not have called it against the run of play.

Once again, Jose persisted with Lampard and Drogba and also brought in SWP, Kalou, Diarra and Bridge. Lampard was not at his best and that was most evidently clear on the pitch. Poor passes, bad touches, pointless set pieces – he was shockingly bad. His only positive contribution in this match was his assist to Drogba. Has anyone realised that for the last few matches, Lampard has not been trying long range shots. I’m not sure if it is a fatigue thing or tactical change. If Lampard, in particular, was rested, not only it would have helped him but also we could have played better tonight. When your crucial midfielder is tired and makes a meal of everything, it surely has a huge impact on the game. If Jose wants Lampard and Drogba to play against West Ham, then I dont think they’ll ever be rested for any match until the end of the season.

SWP’s first goal:

[video]http://www.dailymotion.com/swf/38pIijOwisPc8clwv[/video]

What about SWP? His volatile form for Chelsea continues. Tonight it was the brighter side. Both the goals scored by him were pure gold. First one was a very clever move and a great finish and the second one was his brilliant presence of mind and accuracy. SWP does not get too many shots on goal, but whenever he does get, he has a very impressive conversion ratio. It is a shame that he does not produce such performances more often. I would still not put him on the starting eleven yet if Joe Cole and Sheva are available.

Like everyone, SWP pays tribute to the Chelsea determination:

It is only normal the more games you play the better you get and it is starting to come through as I wanted. We knew what we had to do. We are behind United and we have to win every game to put them under pressure. It was another bridge to cross and the determination is unbelievable.

[video]http://www.dailymotion.com/swf/zGbtVENcNJYziclBJ[/video]

If there was one player who was faultless all 90 minutes, it was Michael Essien. This is what he can provide if he is played in the midfield. Despite all the nonsense going around him, I dont remember him making even one single mistake. Mikel was very poor when compared to his excellent showings of the last couple of months.

Once we scored the third goal, West Ham hung their heads and the rest of the match was purely of academic interest. The last half hour we controlled and dominated the play and we were very much helped by a dejected West Ham that had surrendered to defeat. Didier Drogba had enough time to score his 31st goal of the season, which was as good as the other 30 goals. Tonight’s Drogba goal actually symbolises his attitude.

[video]http://www.dailymotion.com/swf/4z4mVaLA6ZxQFclKE[/video]

Once again, under pressure, we have cut down the gap. Smiles were back on the faces – especially it was nice to see Jose and Roman looking so relieved and happy. After many months, we have scored four in a match. Now we have one more important away match against Newcastle this weekend. If we come out with three points from that match, I expect us to win all the other matches.

{democracy:33}