A goal and a win finally! Such is the irony of the day that the goal had to come from Kalou! His skills have finally come to his rescue for him to build that fantastic goal. We should have scored more and were lucky not to concede. Overall, good performance from most of the team. The Reebok stadium continues to be a three-pointer for us.

Once again a typical Chelsea performance where we play well, have numerous shots on goal, score one goal, and defend doggedly while looking for more goals on the break. Avram must be mightily relieved with his first league win for Chelsea. Now he’s won a match apiece in a domestic cup, champions league and premier league. Good for him.

Let me give credit where it’s due. I was impressed with Avram’s team selection on two counts – he dropped Shevchenko and he brought on Belletti for Ben Haim. In such a short period he seems to have realised why certain players were ‘untouchables’. Also he is under the pressure to show people that he thinks on his own in football matters. Anyway, I was happy with the team selection.

We started very clumsily and Bolton took full advantage of the same were all over us for the first ten minutes. Our defence started to appear a little weaker than on paper. I wish this back-four remains unseparated for as many matches as possible. After many matches of hitting the bar, over the bar, his colleagues, the goalkeeper, and every possible thing between himself and the goal, Kalou managed to find the net. You’ve to see the goal more than once to really appreciate Kalou’s skill there. He got a good touch on the ball in an awkward situation and position, and then he positioned himself in a tight angle to beat three bodies for the goal.

kalou.JPG

Avram surprised me once again by replacing Kalou with Pizarro at the halftime. I’d have brought on Pizarro for Sidwell instead of the goalscorer. That is, expecting Avram going for the kill and putting the match out of Bolton’s reach. In the second half, just like in the Valencia match, we started playing much better. As we started wearing them down Bolton had to make something out of the half chances they got, which they just couldn’t.

table.PNGIn addition to the goal, Kalou played well today. Even before scoring, he created some good chances for Malouda and Joe Cole. Lampard had a decent game today. With some luck he could have scored too. But you could see that his reflexes were not big-match-ready. I’m sure he’d be much much better as he plays on. I thought Malouda played well too. Everytime he got the ball, something was going to happen. Terry was caught napping at times but the back four as a whole played well. Cech made a couple of good saves which included a very close one-on-one from Anelka.

Joe Cole had an excellent match. Typically, while he made some good dribbles, he was at times wayward trying to overdo things. There were two wasted chances – one by Malouda and another by Joe Cole. In either cases, Lampard was right in front of goal, superbly positioned to tap in, but had to see the ball fly over the bar. That’s where I have a problem with Joe Cole because whenever he has a good day with his feet, he invariably goes for glory himself. There are certain things you do and you don’t do based on whether you’re 1-0 up or 0-1 down or drawing level. I’m all for the unleashed version of Joe Cole but I hope he does not lose his discipline and common sense.

[video]http://youtube.com/watch?v=4PrctCj7ZVc[/video]

What we saw in this match was again the same Chelsea that we saw last season. I did not see a ‘new way’ or ‘right way’. Avram now seems to be happy with the three points:

We deserved to win. We created more chances. It is not easy against Bolton but three points is what mattered. It was very good for the team after we did not start the season so well. We missed many, many players through either injuries or red cards but we dominated the game.

Hey hey! Many, many players through injuries or red cards?! He’s getting into trouble I say. He was only missing Essien and Drogba, and we have replacements for them. It’s not that Lampard had to play second striker or Ashley Cole had to play as the left midfielder. He gotta be little careful with such things.

The big news before this match, was that Roman Abramovich had met with the Chelsea fans and talked to them about Jose’s exit and Avram’s appointment. It’s an interesting story. Read it here. Roman has said:

I love Jose and will always love him because of what he did for Chelsea – but nobody is bigger than the club. I understand that you are upset he has gone but things had not been right for some while and the time was right for a change. I want you to trust me that Avram is the right man and he is a permanent appointment. There will be more additions to the coaching squad but Avram is here to stay. You could see tonight against Valencia we still have a great spirit in our team.

Quite obvious that Roman knows that he has disappointed the whole fan mass by sacking Jose. May be he had that guilt in him and wanted to explain to us somehow. You could see his desparation, when he wants us to acknowledge the team spirit in the Valencia match, which even Drogba recognised but gave all credit to Jose and none to the new man.

We are now 5th in the table. Some kind of recovery you can say. Just when things seem to pick up, we are served with another long, boring international break. By the time we return to the league on Oct-20 at Riverside, I hope we will be in a position to notch another win. Unless we come up with something like ’10 consecutive wins’, we’re going to find it too difficult to play catch up. More importantly, I wish all things Chelsea remain stable and calm, so that we can resume the campaign in the current spirit.

[tags]Chelsea, Bolton Wanderers, Reebok Stadium, Avram Grant, Roman Abramovich, Sammy Lee, Salomon Kalou, Joe Cole, Florent Malouda, Premier League, Goal, Video, Highlights[/tags]