Okay, we are alive and kicking and scoring too! What no English team could achieve at the Mestalla, we’ve now done it twice this year. The whole premier league must have taken notice of this result. If we back this up with another good performance this weekend, we would be well and truly back to our winning ways.

This match started in a worrying fashion, but ended up with a vintage JMC performance. In fact, the second half performance was typical Jose Mourinho style of football. Waiting for our moment, controlling the game, closing down the opponent, intuitive defending, ball winning by tight midfield play – JMC all the way. Tonight, the men in blue played with a purpose and some hunger to win. Still don’t believe that Grant has inspired them. As long as they win, doesn’t matter to me who is in charge, anyway it’s not like Roman’s going to listen to the fans’ preferences!

valchesco.JPGChelsea started with a very strong team with the surprise inclusion of Carvalho and Terry. This was the first choice Chelsea team except for Lampard. Though the presence and experience of Terry and Carvalho made a huge impact, I’m not too confident if they are really fit. I hope we are not risking them in the greed of winning a group stage match at Valencia. The official website says we played 4-3-3 but I could see only a 4-5-1 and 4-2-3-1 and hardly a true 4-3-3 as such. Avram Grant went a notch up in my books when he dropped Sheva and Ben Haim to the bench.

The first half belonged to Valencia. They started ferociously and looked extremely fearsome and dangerous. In the first ten minutes of play, they had threated our goal a few times and also led us through a collective defensive blunder. The way David Villa pounced on the chance in lightning speed and finished it with ease, had me drooling over him. The last I remember on the Villa story was that he was willing to join Chelsea but we had wait until summer. The summer is gone and so is Jose. Not sure if Villa is still interested to join us. Even after the goal, they got some clear cut chances which at this stage they should have converted. Whereas for us, the attack that resulted in our goal was probably the only decent attack we made in the first half.

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As it has happened with JMC, we upped the gear and tempo in the second half and slowly started to frustrate Valencia and shut them out of the game. I thought Makelele had a great game along with the defenders. Some websites were harsh on Paulo but I thought he played very well tonight. May be Belletti could have brought us another goal, at hindsight. Mikel and Essien were not at their best, while Drogba shone all through the match always causing trouble for the Valencia defenders. Chelsea started playing better and stronger that Valencia were slowly losing their momentum. Joe Cole and Malouda were very lively and thoroughly justified their selection and the formation they played in.

[video]http://www.dailymotion.com/swf/789HNt6TxvT0Nm1QD[/video]

At around the 70th minute came the winning goal for Chelsea. I felt that it was a handball by Joe Cole nevertheless he made a smart turn and unleashed a superbly timed and weighted throughball for Drogba. You can bet on Drogba to bury such chances with an air of arrogance. His finish under pressure was really top class. After we scored that goal, the match was completely under Chelsea’s control and that’s when I could see Jose’s method and style in keeping the lead. In the last 10 minutes and even until the last second, Valencia could have equalised. Chelsea had to go through some very nervous and clumsy moments, before the final whistle.

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Chelsea’s qualification is now made easy. His job is not at stake for now. Players are playing with passion. Suddenly things start looking very bright indeed. Avram Grant is obviously happy.

You saw the attitude in the last two weeks, it has been difficult, but it was good. I keep telling you I’m very happy with the attitude. It’s nice to be at the top. We came here to win the game. I think we want to do it and in the right way. To come back from 1-0, the second half we dominated, I’m happy. All the staff and the players have done a very good job. We did it the right way.

I wonder what this right way is all about. In terms of the style of football that we played today, it is completely identical how Jose’s team would have played. So, I really need to know what this cheeky ‘right way’ means. My congratulations to Avram Grant on his first major win for Chelsea but he stop bullshitting on the ‘right way’ thing. If the team is really going to play differently and win as well, he can make a claim about it, but everyone will agree. But he can’t be saying this for a match where we saw Jose’s Chelsea and this match was no different to how Chelsea played in April.

Also, Grant looks to be lucky indeed. He’s got all the key players (except Lampard) fit for this crucial match. I read somewhere that the last time the Chelsea team played with the first choices in each position was in Sep 2006 (more than a year back) and in just two weeks in the job, he’s got a near complete team. Also luckily for him, Canizares did not play in this match. Is Grant our lucky charm (what does ‘charm’ have to do with Grant)?

The Telegraph quotes Arvam Grant from the post-match conference:

I can say only that it was my best game in the Champions League as Chelsea manager

Now, how smart is that statement! Avram, we don’t want you to be Jose Mourinho, because we know you can’t but please keep us away from such lines.

Captain John says this:

We haven’t been performing as well as we’d have liked, but we had a great team spirit tonight. Maybe we had lost it a bit, it’s been difficult. We’ve had to pick ourselves up and look to move forward. We hope it’s the kick start we need after we’ve had a few iffy performances.

poll.JPGThere is no doubt that this is a surprise result. All experts were predicting a 2-0 win for Valencia while even in our poll, only 19 out of 92 people had predicted this result. In the end, of all the top teams that played champions league tonight, Chelsea came out with the best result. Liverpool lost at Anfield, Madrid drew 2-2 away with Lazio, Milan lost 1-2 away to Celtic. We’re on top of our group table and believe me, it’s certainly a nice feeling. This win should be the turnaround for Chelsea in this season. There cannot be a bigger confidence booster than winning 2-1 at the Mestalla. Let’s just believe that normal service has resumed!

[tags]Chelsea, Valencia, Estadio Mestalla, Drogba, Joe Cole, Malouda, Jose Mourinho, Avram Grant, David Villa, UEFA Champions League, goal, video, highlights[/tags]