nicolas-anelka-wigan.jpgThe Nicolas Anelka show is what we were waiting for and that’s exactly what we got today! I’m extremely happy about the result. It’s not everytime you win despite being second best! Yes, for great periods of time, Wigan were the better team. Another goal from a lobbed pass (or whatever you want to call it!) and a counterattack goal killed the chances of superb Wigan who can hold their heads high!

The first half was one of the most boring football I’d seen all season. There were attacking moves by either sides but were intercepted or aborted much before it can bring you to the edge of the seat. There were no decent chances in the whole half except a very few half-chances and ‘quarter-chances’. At least the second half was more exciting, thanks to Wigan as Steve Bruce ordered for some bold and enterprising football to get a result. Wigan would feel hard done by, but when it came to crucial moments, Chelsea had that extra bit of quality to romp home.

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We have progressed to the fifth round. It’s good to avoid replays and stuff. We need FA Cup and League Cup to play the young and new crop. I hope we draw a lower league team at home so that we can play as many reserve players as possible.

Anelka’s contribution is the biggest plus of the day. He must have been feeling restless that he has shown his magic yet in Chelsea. He had to be quiet for most of the time as there was no service at all from the midfield. But this goal/assist was always coming as Wigan were pressing us and pushing up. Sometimes when new players start performing from match day one, they put themselves under some kind of pressure by creating expectations. That way, it might even help Anelka that he has taken time to score and assist. Who wants a debut goal?

If Frank Rijkaard watches English football, he must be repenting his release of Belletti. I’ve been watching Oleguer/Zambrotta every week. I should say Belletti’s has been far more impressive than them. He should be in the running for the Chelsea player of the year award already. Best signing of the season unless Anelka weaves his magic in the second half of the season to overshadow Belletti.

Was this Sidwell’s best game for Chelsea so far? I think so. He looked comfortable on the ball, made some interesting passes and chips. More than anything, he seemed to have understood and realised where his colleagues would be. After about half a season, he makes me say ‘okay, let’s start with sidwell, let’s see how it goes’.

Couple of quality goals really lit up the second half. First one from Anelka. His nonchalant finish of the precise high ball from Belletti was Drogba-Colesque. Heskey or Bent could not have done the same in a similar situation. That’s what was crucial today. And that goal from Sibierski! That would qualify for the goal of the month. Anelka’s pass to SWP for the second goal was pure class, the timing and the weight. He looked to have pushed Kilbane before his square pass, but I’d take that anyway.

I don’t know if it’s a curse. The day since Grant said we don’t play longballs anymore, we have been scoring in lobs, chips, high throughballs, highballs etc. As such, aerial attacks as opposed to passing it along the ground from defence to midfield to attack, as he put it. I’m very happy that we still play in the air. It will be foolish not to realise the productivity of aerial attacks and not to capitalise on them.

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In 45 minutes of play, Wigan had only two shots on target, that’s ok, they’re Wigan. But wait a minute, how many shots did Chelsea have on target? None. Yes, that’s a shocking zero. When you have a top class striker like Anelka and return after 45 minutes with no shots on goal, that says a lot about the quality and construction of the attacks. Of course the pitch was bad, but these are circumstances that professional footballers should be able to handle. That’s what we said when Barca complained about the Stamford Bridge pitch.

wigan-vs-chelsea.jpgWhen we go ahead in the second half, we shut shop. That continues in every match even now which is fine. Shutting shop should not mean we put everyone in our half leaving only Anelka up front. The idea of deep defending in numbers and scurrying through when there is a sniff of a counterattack, is very bottom-halfish. We can control the tempo of the game and dictate the terms of the match without really parking the bus and looking for the lone targetman in the counter.

Once again, we don’t seem to be very convncing on the pitch. We have our first choice goalkeeper, our first choice defence, near first choice midfield, Joe Cole, SWP and Anelka. With these players we still seem to struggle to play convincingly. I don’t even mind a 0-0 draw if we were the better team and had played them off the park. We had the team to do it and Wigan are going down. Good part of the second half, you’d have the thought that the team wearing blue was Chelsea.

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Steve Bruce says that they had a chance to get a result against Chelsea:

I thought we had a real good chance but the one thing you cannot do is make individual errors. We made a couple that have cost us the game. We looked as though we were trying to play offside but that is a big risk against someone like Nicolas Anelka. It is a real shame because we had a chance to nick this one.

I hate it when opposition managers say that they had a chance to nick it against Chelsea. I hope we get back to our formidable best when the teams would face us with a defeatist mentality.

Avram Grant concedes that we tried to play good football:

We did a very good job. It was not easy to play on that pitch but we did try to play good football. We scored two nice goals, we controlled the game and the defenders did a really good job. When were 2-0 we almost let it slip when they scored but I think we deserved the win.

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We survive in all competitions. That’s good news. The next few matches would be very interesting as we play Reading, Portsmouth, Liverpool, Tottenham, Olympiakos, West Ham etc. As such there are no easy matches even on paper from now until mid-March. Our players from African Cup players would have returned for some of these matches but still these are crucial fixture anyway but if Anelka continues his form, there is very little to worry!