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.
23 Responses - Add your comment!
woow now is 45′ , I can not believe SWP scored twice, oh my god,
)
4-1 now
WAHOOOO
I watched the game here in Copenhagen. Chelsea is really a team to watch. They are really purposeful. I have followed them all season and I cannot see any team as purposeful as they are. It looks like every match they play is a cup final. If they have been able to stand up til this time, I grease their elbow. Every tem wants to upset them but they are a mouthful to all and sundry. Chelsea is a great team
That’s right Pino! Chelsea is a great team. I still wait for the day when we will play to our potential. Probably, we will beat Man Utd 5-0 then!
I am going to disagree with your opinion again, BC (it’s becoming an inherent quality of mine now!) but I don’t think we played at all badly in the first half, especially not to the degree of Anfield which is the worst game we’ve played all season with Villa away second.
We played with purpose and looked menacing going forward. I noticed Bridge was under a lot of pressure in the first half and thought he might be the one being subbed, despite his sublime across for SWP’s second, but yet again TSO makes a great tactical decision with Ferreira. There was no more trouble down that side for the rest of the night.
SWP’s goals were absolute quality. Lampard made a vital contribution to both the second half goals with the untouchable free kick (his best in a while, I noted) and the chip to Drogba. He is still providing when we need him to most. Mikel impressed me yet again.
This was a solid performance, as we clinically dispatched of West Ham, but the flair has become more evident over the past few games as well, especially with Joey Cole’s return and with SWP hitting form. Everything is coming into place just at the right time, and even Robben’s back in a few weeks!
Dare I believe we’ll have a fit team for the start of May when we have the three consecutive games of Liverpool away, Arsenal away and United at home?! Whatever we end up, things continue to look extremely bright indeed.
YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!! I couldn’t watch this game, but I’m so relieved! What was our roster, BC? Ballack and Sheva were rested instead of Drogba and Lampard? How strange!
Hi BC, I’ve done the review again at chelseabog.com and I have to say I couldn’t disagree more. I thought we were class tonight. Gary McAllister, Andy Gray and Jamie Redknapp agreed. I thought Frank played well, especially when considering the crap he took all night from the Pikey Boys. Didier was a hndful but I agree, i think he could do with a rest, but where can that happen. All he needs to think is that he just has 8 more games potentially, then with 4 trophies maybe he can go on the piss all summer and rest plenty before pre-season. I would have rested the players earlier in the year when we had a spell of 8 days with no game. Sorry ate, but I give that performance 9/10, especially when you think of how hard Sundays game was. They deserve more credit for winning 4-1 against a team fighting for its life, 3 days after an energy sapping game aginst Blackburn.
I think Chelsea have done a very professional job there, I’m happy as long as we win.
Beautiful to watch thats what ill call 2days performance. Especially how we came back from the equaliser, i think lampard was good although to be fair he needs a rest, mikel was fantastic he was everywhere, and swp was for me the man of the match great goals. My only concern is JT, he’s been alittle suspect. Hopefully we can have 4 trophies in the bag – go on boys
the best chelsea
Why do u think Jose didn’t go to the press-room after the match ?
And I think ManCity and Everton have the balls between them to take a few points off ManUre.And who do they play this weekend?
And BC when is the CL final ?
And that former Manure Roy Keane saying his team could take on Chelsea !
Pure shit from an arrogant upstart.
Well I hope they get promoted and then let’s see them face us. And I won’t forget those words of his. I hope that we stuff his words right down that offensive gullet and out of his ass.
Tony and the disagreeing lot!
While everyone seems to have a common opinion which is different than mine, I thought I certainly need to explain further on my view of Chelsea\’s performance last night.
4-1 is a great result in the backdrop of the facts such as (i) it was an away game (ii) Chelsea were tired (iii) West Ham was relatively fitter, atleast on paper.
When I see most of the players scoring more than 7/10 in ChelseaBlog.com, I\’m truly surprised. I was screaming at every ball lost by us, every interception of our passes, poor touches resulting in balls conceded etc. Certainly, until the 60th our game was not of high quality. There was this schoolboy error by Lampard in the first half which nearly cost us a goal. Against any other team, that would have been a sure goal. Had it resulted in a goal, probably, we would have rated him low in this match, wouldn\’t we?
Our performance was solid, clinical, professional – after we got the scrappy third goal. Most of it was also because, West Ham completely surrendered and lost their heart which made it possible for us to run around without losing the ball. I value our performance of the first hour than the later half hour. It is the first hour of the match where we have not been good enough all season.
As regards resting of players, what we would hate to see is Lampard or Drogba not being at their best for any of the three possible encounters with Man Utd next month. That is exactly we should try to avoid at any cost.
Now I have added a player rater in the above post. Under the rater, you can see the benchmarks too and then compare the rating with the explanation. For your convenience, I\’ve given below the player ratings as per Chelseablog and BlueChampions. We seem to differ on Terry, Lampard, Mikel and Cech.
* Petr Cech – Chelseablog score 7/10 – BlueChampions score 6/10
* Michael Essien – Chelseablog score 8.5/10 – BlueChampions score 9/10
* Ricardo Carvalho – Chelseablog score 8.5/10 – BlueChampions score 7/10
* Wayne Bridge: Chelseablog score 7/10 – BlueChampions score 7/10
* John Terry: Chelseablog score 8/10 – BlueChampions score 6/10
* Frank Lampard: Chelseablog score 8.5/10 – BlueChampions score 6/10
* Didier Drogba: Chelseablog score 8/10 – BlueChampions score 7/10
* Lassana Diarra: Chelseablog score 6/10 – BlueChampions score 5/10
* Salomon Kalou: Chelseablog score 8/10 – BlueChampions score 7/10
* Shaun Wright-Phillips: Chelseablog score 9/10 – BlueChampions score 8/10
* John Obi Mikel: Chelseablog score 8.5/10 – BlueChampions score 6.5/10
* Joe Cole (Sub): Chelseablog score 7/10 – BlueChampions score 6/10
* Michael Ballack (Sub): Chelseablog score 7/10 – BlueChampions score 6/10
* Paulo Ferreira (Sub): Chelseablog score 7/10 – BlueChampions score 7/10
It\’s all for you to discuss and decide.
Romanholiday – The Champions League final is on 23rd of May. Adnriy wants us to proceed and meet Milan in the final. I dont really care if it is Man Utd or Milan as long as we make it to the final. In the champions league single leg final, it’s who does better that night, wins the trophy.
we played rubbish and my nerves were calmed only when we scored the 3 goal!!!!
BC why cant we also hav rating polls for player performances????? And u seem to hav given our team some good ratings , heres mine…………
CECH—— PATHETIC(3/10)
TERRY—–WORSE THAN PATHETIC(2/10)
CARVALHO—-DECENT(6/10)
BRIDGE——JM CLD HAV PLAYED BETTER(1/10)
DIARRA——ANOTHER BOOKING AND ANOTHER SUB(3/10)
LAMPS——IT SEEMS LIKE JM WILL PLAY HIM UNTIL HE COLLAPSES(4/10)
MIKEL——NEARLY INVISIBLE THROUGHOUT(4/10)
ESSIEN—–THE SAVING GRACE(9/10)
SWP——–SENSATIONAL(10/10)
KALOU——ONLY FOR THE GOAL(5/10)
DROGBA—–SO STATIC IT SEEMED HE WAS IN CONCUSSION(4/10)!!!!!!
AND OF COURSE JM——-4/10 TO BE SUCH A STUBBORN PAIN IN THE NECK!!!
i have to agree with chelseablog for once over you, although i almost always disagree about SWP, i feel everyone played pretty well. However, i agree with your score for Terry over theirs, he was pretty shabby in my opinion for his usual standard. I’m also glad everyone noticed Ferreira had a good game!
a 7/10 overall team performance imo!
Haha, Joe Blue, your ratings are hilarious. “JM could have played better
”
Nobody’s talking about Terry completely being outplayed by Carvalho of late… Is it the injuries, or is he just in a funk? We know he could be the best central defender at times, and we can certainly still count on him, but Carvalho has just been fresher! Why is that??? Carvalho certainly hasn’t gotten as much rest… Is he suffering from any injury, BC?
Guys any news regarding Robben’s return…can he play in CL match at Stamford…..if he can it would be great as he would be fresh and then we all know what he can do as a winger….
Terry’s contract talks have stalled. Once that’s done, he should be fine. Being in the last month of the season, there should be mutual reassurance. Robben is out for the season. He’ll be back only for the pre-season.
Robben out for season….certainly not…
Robben may be available for the EPL match next weekend and not before that , but the concern is Sheva who is expected to miss the match against Newcastle and might even fail the fitness test for the CL match!!!!
And u guys wld die of shock or amusement cuz he got that injury from that tap-in miskick against Blackburn !!!! LOL !!!!!
Anyhow it really seems that JT is not fully focused on his game , his anticipation has been weak and hes been so invisible in both the boxes, m also hoping JM has noticed Drogs recent showboating persistence!!!!!
Yo pal Adonis , was just a bit frustrated after the game wen i wrote that comment!!!!
Bluechampion can i please ask u for a favor? if u can collect all the comments “abdullah” has wrote this season. Abdullah is my brother and he asked me to collect all his comments for him but i cant find them plz collect them all and send it to me if u can on bu_shab91@hotmail.com. Thank you.
Hi! How r u?
nice site!
[...] West Ham 1-4 Chelsea: Sloppy, but who cares? (13) [...]