When we scored at the 70th minute, I had already taken three points into account to see where we find ourselves in the league table. After all, we don’t have the habit of losing our lead or conceding late goals. Everton scored a superb goal at the 90th minute, which I cannot call as undeserved because of the quality of the goal and also the spirit and intention they showed in the last 20 minutes in a formidable away match.

The result is disappointing and to be honest, the performance was too. By performance, I mean the last 20 minutes of the match. Our first half was very listless. We played as if we were sure of winning the match. I could see some kind of complacency at display. At least things improved in the second half with stronger performances from certain players. Of course we had three times the shots than Everton. Very few of the shots really were threatening Everton’s goal. We ought to have been better than Everton in terms of shots, possession etc as we were playing at Fortress Stamford Bridge and Everton were missing Mikel Arteta, Andy Johnson and Leighton Baines.

Everton must have gone a goal ahead within 10 minutes. Had Pienaar made that tap-in, it could have been a different match altogether. Drogba missed a sitter too. While Drogba was waiting for a back-heel from SWP, he was struggling for a back heel. SWP’s limitation was exposed as he had to turn and make a delayed pass for Drogba to miss it completely. Still, it was Drogba’s fault that it did not find the net. But I won’t say we did not win this match because of Drogba. That would be a very silly comment to make. He is our most consistent striker who has got us out of jail many times before. In fact it’s not that he did not contribute at all – he scored from a brilliant header.

Strikers some times score impossible goals and miss the simplest of tap-ins. If Drogba keeps missing those simplest of finishes, I would say there is a problem. The most disappointing show on the pitch was from SWP. Joe Cole played well but he is still falling short of expectations. Handling these two players would be quite a challenge for Grant. With SWP and Joe Cole, we have two good players, both feeling they are better than they actually are. One way to handle them is to drive home the point, make them understand of the reality and another way to handle them is picking them only when you’re satisfied.

SWP started this season well. We were all made to believe this would be his season. How wrong we were! His decision making has generally been awful in his period with Chelsea. His performance in this match sums it up. He loves dribbling and he loves beating the opponents even more. He follows a certain script and would never change it for anything around him. All that he’s trying to do is to get to the corner flag and cross it in. There could be moments when he would encounter one of the faster or better defenders or he would get double marked. But he goes on as per his plan. Run in a straight line – beat players – run in a straight line – get to 1 metre from corner flag – cross it in. The success rate of things going exactly this way for him is may be 2/10 or 3/10. Some of the crosses he delivered in this match were simply embarrassing. He should train well, improve in the reserves, show his worth, find himself on the bench and then go about starting matches.

Joe Cole’s new found freedom is becoming a concern now. Now, I’m not against players doing things that they can, things only they can. When it’s not helping the team, tricks, flip-flaps, step-overs etc have no value. Joe Cole works rather well if he knows that someone’s waiting there to kick his butt when he screws up trying to be a hero while having better options (which includes himself going for the goal). I’m not sure if Avram can do that.

Cudicini had a good match. Not for one moment I was missing Cech. Few more matches including some champions league nights, Carlo would be right on the money. Mikel was outstanding and he remains somewhat consistent in his performance and stays away from those rectangular cards, he can be a regular starter and a dependable midfielder. Lampard was superb. Only bad luck and Tim Howard (more of the latter) prevented Lampard from scoring his 98th goal for Chelsea. Wayne Bridge once again proved that he should start ahead of a fit Ashley Cole. I believe Ricardo’s injury is a minor one and he should be ready for our next match which is after two weeks.

Avram’s post match comments won’t make you believe he’s talking about this match.

Yes [it's frustrating], it’s always like this when the other team scores in the last moments, especially when we played very well and created a lot of chances. [Their] one chance they scored, we scored one goal from many chances. I’m happy from the football, but of course not the result. I think everybody had good chances to score. All the forward players had good chances, but we continued to play good football. From the football side, it was a good game, one of our best. We don’t have a problem with this, only the result.

He is correct about playing well and creating chances. Talking about the football that we played, I don’t see anything too different. Our best chances were from counter-attacks which means we couldn’t really break Everton’s defence by our brand of football. Oh wait, he goes on to say something more . . .

It’s not easy, remember that one month ago the goalkeeper and back four were all different players. We have too many injuries. It’s not easy to play without all the back four from before. This is the reason we have a big squad, but it’s unusual.

Hmm . . yes, this is a fact. This has been the situation for not just one month . . more than one year. This is what we always had to fight against. The environment has changed, the climate has changed. At least, Grant can bank on Roman to help him with the January reinforcements, something JM could not get last season. Grant has a big squad, he does not have to play with Hilario on goal, he has his wingers fit and ready, he has Sheva, Kalou, Pizarro, Ben Haim, Sidwell, Maka – all available for selection.

When asked if he should have closed the shop to safely coast to a win, he said:

We lost two points today, so it’s disappointing. We want to win any game and play good football, especially because we dominated the game for 90 minutes. When you want to make a style, it is reasonable they want to score the second and third. Maybe this is the reason people all over the world like to watch football. You can dominate and make chances but always the other team can score. People like it.

See I’m very positive about Avram Grant. The one area I really want him to be judged is his on-field tactics. This is where I think Avram failed in this match. When Drogba scored that goal in the 70th minute, that’s exactly the moment when the manager should have stepped in and made the difference. Avram needs to get his priorities straight. When we score a goal in the 20th minute of the match, we should go on to score more and kill the game. When we score at the 70th minute, the first priority is to secure the win.

Ok, let me buy that he wanted us to score one more but Cahill equalised in the 90th minute. Did Avram want to see another Chelsea goal even at the 89th minute? When you claim to have played your best football of the season for 70 minutes then I wonder what’s the shame in bringing on Maka and closing the shop for the last 20 minutes? I’m not sure what he means by ‘people like it’! If we are playing just for the neutrals, then the Leicester match would be one of the best match this season. If we have any other reasonable objective, that was a poor match for Chelsea. Avram tried the same tactic against Leicester but was let off by the quality of the opponent. Should have learnt something from that match but he repeated it against Everton and got punished.

I don’t want to hide the fact that I was expecting someone to foul McFadden in the middle of the pitch. That was the 90th minute and we were leading 1-0. What else would you expect? You have to play ugly when you have to. We’ve seen such late collapses under TSO too, but not so much at Stamford Bridge. Whenever we get a disappointing result TSO’s Chelsea would come back roaring. I want to see how we react now. Any possible rush of blood reaction will all be toned down by the international break. Yes, one good thing is Portsmouth drew with Man City which helps our standing. God, I’ve started worrying about the results between these teams! Good remains that we’re still in top four!

 

 

 


See what Sam Wallace from The Independent has to say about this result.

Delivering exciting football, as Avram Grant is discovering, is a splendid idea as long as you make sure your team win the game too.

Avram Grant, if you’re reading this blog, one message to you – As the Chelsea coach, please entertain us and then the neutrals, please don’t try it the other way around.

[tags]Chelsea, Everton, Drogba, Cahill, Avram Grant, Moyes, Lampard, Cudicini, Shaun Wright Phillips, Joe Cole, Kalou, Stamford Bridge, Premier League[/tags]