Matches, Premier League - Written by BlueChampion on Wednesday, August 15, 2007 22:23 | 1,734 Views | 115 Comments | Add Comment
Reading 1 - 2 Chelsea | Man Utd Draw Again!
2 matches. 6 points. 5 goals scored. Leading Man Utd by 4 points. What a fantastic start to the season! When BBC’s Lawro predicted that we would win and Man Utd will draw, I not only wished it would happen but also started expecting it. After a listless first half, we played to our potential in the second half, we drove Reading out of the game with some brilliant stuff. Looking back at the hype we created by comparing Chelsea’s and Man Utd’s pre-season games, it all seems so funny now.
The team that played was Cech, Ferreira (Pizarro 46), Ben Haim, Carvalho (Johnson 31), Ashley Cole, Wright-Phillips, Sidwell (Obi 46), Lampard, Malouda, Drogba, Kalou. Subs Not Used: Cudicini, Joe Cole. Not sure why Sheva was not even on the bench.
The first half was dominated by Reading. They played with lots of ‘home-fixture’ confidence and put Chelsea under pressure each time we had the ball. We could not string even few passes together and hardly made any decent attack in the first half. Reading took a very deserved lead though with a freaky goal, courtesy a poor but rare goalkeeping error by Cech. Immediately after that goal, Ricardo injured himself and had to be replaced with Johnson. Reading were unlucky not go 2-0 up but Chelsea reacted neither for the Reading goal nor for their closer chances for doubling the lead. At half time whistle, it did look very gloomy but I have always believed in the effects of Jose’s half time talks and tactics.
Having used one sub in the first half, at half time, Jose made a big gamble by using the other two subs too bringing on Mikel for Sidwell and Pizarro for Ferreira. The other bigger gamble was to play with three defenders only - Ben Haim, Johnson and Cole - against a stronger looking home team. Real gamble I’d say. Very typical vintage Jose. When we started the second half, I felt as if we’ve made 11 substitutions. We were a completely different team in the second half. It took all of 5 minutes in the second half, to equalise and to take a lead. Full credit to Jose, in the way he used his subs, changed his tactics and also for having developed a group who would respond to such situations positively. After we took the lead, SWP started playing as the right back and was surprisingly impressive there too. Having just outsmarted Sir Alex, Steve Coppell was devastated by an extremely dominant Chelsea in the second half.
I wonder if Frank Lampard is reading this blog. Exactly a day after the post on his form, he comes up with this super frank goal. This was not one of his better matches, he still lost the ball and all that but this goal was a beauty. In a swift link up play Drogba heads it to the space in front of Lampard and he controls the ball with his head and thighs and finishes superbly with nano seconds before Hahnemann makes contact. Within a couple of minutes from the first goal, Drogba does a solo effort to keep the ball from 3 to 4 defenders and does a 1-2 with Kalou, who sets it up for Drogba to blast an inswinging volley to hit the net.
The second half play by Chelsea is our new approach to the game. It was sheer joy to watch Malouda, Drogba, SWP, Lampard and Mikel linking up so well. We could have easily scored 4 goals but some kind of complacency or lethargy crept in. There was also a touch of arrogance in the way we toyed around with Reading midfielders and defenders. After we took the lead, we were in complete command of the game and it was played as we dictated. Believe me, Chelsea had 72% possession in the match and were only the traveling team in a diffcult Madejski stadium.
After the match Jose said:
I asked the players if somebody was feeling a bit weak or feeling a little bit of an injury because I wanted to make two changes and I wanted to finish the game with 11 men,’ he began. They told me yes, everybody was fine and fit and ready to go. We made the changes, I explained the objective of the changes, I explained the good qualities of the changes and the bad qualities. I prepared them for the difficult things and I pushed them to try to use the good things.
The players were brave. They were brave to accept some difficult situations because it is not easy for Shaun to play right-back, it is not easy for Glen Johnson to play central defender and it is not easy for Ben-Haim after two months at Chelsea to lead his defence. It is not easy for Mikel to play alone in the front of midfield and not easy for attacking players to have defensive tasks. The players deserve a lot of credit. When the game was 2-1, I could make the game more defensive with Malouda in the centre of the midfield but I thought with this positive wave, we can score the third.
I know it is a big gamble but if one day it doesn’t work, like in my first season it didn’t work at Newcastle, and I am criticised, I accept that but I sleep well because I tried. The worse thing in life is when you don’t try. It is a message I want to give to my kids all the time - you have to try. If you fail, you fail but you have to try.
See, Jose wants the third goal. Now with the current set of players, that’s the mood at the Chelsea camp. We want to score more and more and more.
The big difference in the second half was the introduction of Mikel. He brought so much stability in our midfield that I was no longer worried about Reading’s advances. Mikel was solid as ever, no-nonsense as ever and I dont know why he has to play only 45 minutes, if he can make such a strong impact. The other player who deserves huge credit is SWP. He seems to be a completely transformed guy this season. I wish he has the consistency in his game, that can give a run for Joe Cole’s money. SWP played superbly, made good dribbles, kept possession and most importantly, made some correct decisions with respec to choice of passes and timing and placement of crosses. Malouda and Pizarro are fast becoming (or already become) the crowd favourites for Chelsea. They seem very very dangerous and look like they could score/assist any moment. The inimitable Drogba did what he is best at. Kalou still needs to work on the final ball. Roman watching Glen Johnson play is good enough for Jose to get those extra millions (!) to sign Alves.
Staying with Daniel Alves’ news, his agent Geronimo Suarez says:
I am confident in the Chelsea directors, I understand Chelsea is not easy to be driven but let’s say at least we are 80-90% confident that we can close the agreement. He is determined to go there (Chelsea). He has spoken in these terms a lot of times, he has said to the press here in Seville that he is 100% determined to go Chelsea. He asked for the Seville club to close the agreement with Chelsea as soon as possible. These are his own words. We expected yesterday afternoon to be the perfect day to close the agreement but it didn’t arrive so it may be two or three days or a maximum of one week before both clubs must find a solution.
See this first page at The Telegraph website as at 12:00 midnight in the football news page, there is absolutely no mention about Chelsea’s win over Reading. Isn’t this strange? Their correspondents and editors don’t like Chelsea or something?
Elsewhere, Man Utd were once again held to a draw, this time by Portsmouth. If losing Rooney was not bad enough for the Reds, Cristiano Ronaldo got sent off for unwarranted headbutting. He would be missing the next three matches, which are against Man City, Tottenham and Sunderland. Fergie said this about Ronaldo’s sending off:
Steve Bennett has sent him off before, and I think he took great delight in sending him off too.
I’m curious about what actions would FA take for saying so.
If Chelsea manages to beat Liverpool on Sunday, that will send out a huge warning to all and also would make it very difficult for other teams to catch up with Chelsea. Now, how about the resurgent Man City beating the Reds at home and Chelsea picking up three points at Anfield. A seven point gap after 3 games? God, I’m fainting!
[tags]Chelsea, Reading, Madejski Stadium, Cech, Drogba, Lampard, Jose Mourinho, Steve Coppell, Premier League[/tags]
Related links:
Official Chelsea FC website report
BBC Sports report
The Telegraph’s LATE report
The TimesOnline report
The Chelseablog report
115 Comments
1. Cashif
2. Siddharth
somebody please update match status.
3. Torohi
last time i checked it was nil all at 20 minutes
Sidwell starting!
4. Siddharth
r we playing attacking game today? on bbc site, i can see two bookings for reading & chelsea possession is 61%.
5. stimpej
1-0 down
bikey scores from a header, sounds like cech didnt read it properly
Not as attacking as you would like. Now that we’re behind, we should pull our socks up. Defensively we’re still shaky a bit.
7. stimpej
correction: left footed strike
8. stimpej
carvalho off with injury, johnson replaces him
9. Celskis
Jesus,where are defence???
10. Peter jones
We will win this game 2 1 mark my words!
11. Maysam
thanks to Ashly cole and Cech , reading is winnig 1-0 , first half is over in 1 minute.
12. Maysam
it is obvious that chelsea need a DM , nobody plays in this position .
13. Maysam
it seems Malouda is not accustomed to play in rainy days .
14. Maysam
if chelsea does not bring in a DM , with Glen johnsen , we will lose 2-0 .
15. ruphilo
i can see chelsea winning the match, but we have to work on our defence, very back at this time,
16. Maysam
i wonder if Jose works on defensive line or not . first 15 minutes , we defended like second division teams.
17. ruphilo
what is happening to Johnson???
18. Maysam
i don’t know how we wanna defend versus Liverpool next weekened.
19. Maysam
something very bad, he is in
and plays
20. Maysam
did u see Cech’s mistake. i am disappointed
21. Mikey
Our midfield is central midfield is embarassing right now. We need essien or makelele or even Mikel asap!
22. Maysam
don’t worry , first Sub. is Mikel in Sidwell out
23. ruphilo
then, that will be terrible at the middle of the season, but let see how it goes, every clubs are out for the big teams, watch out..
24. Celskis
Thanks God Portsmouth score against manure,now 1-1
25. Maysam
DAMN Celskis don’t announce the result of that game , i wanna watch that tonight. , so i had better close this page and don’t show up here
bye
26. Celskis
Man,not everybody can watch this match,so for some people it will be good to know result
27. Maysam
last prediction : Chelsea 1 - 2 Reading
bye
28. Maysam
see i told u Mikel will come in
29. Maysam
pizarro and Mikel are in , bye
30. Siddharth
hoq many rough tackes were threre from our & their side? is everyone safe?
31. Maysam
GOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAL
32. Maysam
Gambeling is not what we do in vagas
,is using all Sub in halkf time
what jose did
33. Celskis
GOOOAAAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLL
34. Maysam
”gosaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaal DROGBA
35. Maysam
Mourinho is GOD
36. Celskis
He cant do anything,only make all changes,coz first points very important,of corse Jose playing roulette,but he knows what he doing,reading have 3 yellows
37. Celskis
GOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!!!!
Chelsea 2reading 1
38. Siddharth
gr8
all 3 subs used? & we r playing with only one proper CD? gosh….
i wanted to see Joe Cole playing
39. Siddharth
pls describe goal details
40. Celskis
Cant describe goals,i watching game-reading game-trough sky page…:(
41. MourofEssien
Maysam, pls do not provoke our friend M_D with Mour Is God comment pls.
42. MourofEssien
Didi scored a brilliant goal with the right foot from an assisst from Kalou
43. Siddharth
whats the formation now? is it 3-4-3 or who is playing as second central defender
44. Blue Champion
Guys! Cristiano Ronaldo red carded at ‘85. Still at 1-1 there!
45. Siddharth
@BC what did he do? i read on bbc that Muntari was also red carded, why?
46. Celskis
Muntari second yelow,c.ronaldo red card for fighting,can you believe? :)))))
47. Torohi
Muntari recieved second yellow 82min
Ronaldo straight red for violent conduct! 84min
48. Siddharth
Cisse dismissed……..
49. Blue Champion
Portsmouth 1 - 1 Man Utd at FULLTIME. Yipppeeeee!
50. MourofEssien
Manure sucks big time. Ronaldo out for three matches. This is looking great.
51. Siddharth
any update on RC’s injury. Will he play against Liverpool
52. bigbadblue
looks like Alex May be thrown in at the deep end…
53. MourofEssien
4 points clear. The boys are falling behind already. they cannot handle the pressure of being champs. Jose causes such fear in their camp
54. Peter jones
Yep i said 2 1 we didnt play dat well but hey 4 points clear of the champions afta only 2 games?cant ask for more!liverpool we coming for u!
55. Blues_Godson
I LOVE THIS GAME
56. Adonis
Oh man, what a performance. I was sweating at halftime, after the poor showing in the first half, but what genius management by JM, he deserves all the credit for having the balls to do what he did. We’re entertaining, we’re winning, and we’re 4 points ahead of the Red Devils. It keeps getting better.
Any Carvalho news?
57. Makarvelli
Up blues Up Chelsea Up Mourinho.I’m blue 4 life
58. Mikey
Awesome day !!!!
Mourinho is incredible! A genius! We don’t need Alvez, SWP is the best right-back ever!
That was one of the most incredible tactical displays I’ve ever seen, and the way we played early in the second half is just about the most exciting and riveting football I’ve seen Chelsea play in the last 3 years.
Beautiful stuff. Can’t believe Manure drew. Perfect start so far.
59. Makarvelli
TOO STRONG 4 THEM,READ THIS INSCRIPTION “BEWARE OF CHELSEA”
60. Mikey
Reminiscent of the last few games, Lampard was invisible in the first half alongside Sidwell.
Then we broke out at halftime and he looked incredible. Nearly every touch was perfect, every pass beautifully lofted and spun exactly where he wanted it to go. Cisse just couldn’t keep up with his energy. His forward runs were unstoppable!
61. foreverblue
MOM Frankie Lampard and for all manutd fans THIS IS HOW ITS DONE!!!!
62. foreverblue
JOSE was brilliant with his tactics….awesome match!!!
63. RomanEmpire
am seeing chelsea in barca shirts, beautiful eye-catching passes from so called boring chelsea
lol. wid juss moderate defense we rocked like anything. once terry is bak, alex is fit, alves getting RB position, we are the team to beat…go chelsea go…
64. bigbadblue
match report BC…..???
65. manishchandra
I had to miss second half…how did it go…
66. RomanEmpire
we played second half really well, keeping abt 75% that too @ rugby ground is not a joke. juss now i d relaized even jose knows how to teach crisp passes, complete non-stop action football, so called attractive football as well
as everyone knew our defense is kinda weak as of now, so hoping to see a fit terry @ littlepool clash
in one word lamps goal ‘intelligent’, drogba s goal ‘craker’!
67. TBag
WOOOO!!!!
I actually forgot we were playing this morning (my time) oops but so happy with results!! Once i got to work rubbed it in to my Manure fan supervisor so bad, its a great day!! By sounds of it the 2nd half was awesome, shame to hear about Cech stuffing up, maybe he was a little worried/tentative heading back to Reading. He is in my fantasy team too. Oh well, at least the Drog and Lamps got me some points
68. SH.IBRAHIMI
JOSE MOURINHO … Nothin more 2 say
69. Blue Champion
And guys! Steven Gerrard was injured in their champions league qualifier match and is a doubtful starter for our Sunday clash!!!
70. Spanish Fry
It’s a bloody good result (the Manchester one) from an Arsenal perspective as well. Although Chelsea winning was a little disappointing. Two great goals though. Things seem to be falling Chelsea’s way a little bit so you guys should be very happy with the start to the season. The game against Liverpool will mean a lot, in my opinion. Whoever wins that game has the initiative - and a draw would hand it back to Arsenal early on. Very exciting start to the season so far.
71. Adonis
What a game, what a game, what a game!!!! Absolutely breath-taking, ballzy performance, although we looked pathetic during the first half, we more than made up for it in the second. Lampard was on fire, absolutely marvelous thing to see. Pizarro also impressed me once more, I’m starting to absolutely love him. Hopefully Carvalho’ll be back soon, he’s a jem.
But for Liverpool, we’ll hopefully see Alex and Terry beginning their season, with Ben Haim (another impressive player today) at RB.
This season’s absolutely brilliant. As is our team.
If Gerrard’s not playing, there’s a possibility of a repeat of the 4-1 thrashing of two seasons ago at Anfield. Can’t wait till Sunday!!
72. Adonis
TBag, how do you have THREE Chelsea players on squadgod??
73. Snotz82
Nice articles…. luv the picture of our Jose.. Hey BC please show the video of the goals from
Sopcast Not working!!!
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