Chelsea put in a very dominating performance against an Olympiakos team which didn’t look worthy of their place in a knockout round in champions league. You can give 10/10 for the Chelsea midfield tonight – and yes, it had both Lampard and Ballack!

Avram chose his tried and tested 4-3-3 as he started with Drogba, Kalou and Joe Cole. Anelka must have been waiting for his chances in European matches but he had to be on the bench. I should say I was quite happy with the first eleven though it was a bit different from the one I had drawn up. Ferreira was in, both Lampard and Ballack played, and Maka in defensive central midfield. Very strong team balanced in attack and defence.

It was a match where only one team played and the other was simply running around chasing shadows. Chelsea were completely dominant in attack and in defence of which a good amount of credit should be given to Olympiakos’ disgraceful display. Sometimes it felt like a FIFA08 game where you play against an AI of one-star difficulty. Granted they were missing their best players but at this stage of champions league, this was inexcusable.

All through the match, Chelsea were allowed to do what they wanted to. Olympiakos were neither pressing us nor tackling us. When Chelsea are allowed to play on like this, you know what happens with the likes of our players. They ran riot. They should have scored more than three goals.

If you know my stance, I’m a strong believer that Ballack and Lampard can co-exist on the pitch quite successfully. This match was a prime example of that theory. Basically, they are not similar kind of players. They are quite different, they have different strengths and weaknesses. They can complement each other very well. But I don’t see them coming good in a 4-3-3 against a good opposition, which Olympiakos was not. If Avram wants to play both of them together again in the champions league, I hope we switch to 4-4-2.

The best player of the night was Ballack but he pipped Lampard only by a whisker. Apart from their involement in the first two goals, they also made some fantastic passes. I especially liked that pass made by Lampard which was colelcted and finished superbly by Drogba, only to be called offside. That does not stop me from saying that Drogba was probably the worst Chelsea player on the pitch yesterday. He would have had competition if SWP had played any longer than he had to. Few more of such performances, I’d start doubting his commitment. Drogba should have been subbed at least by the hour mark, if not by half time.

In a match of very little negatives, some deserve a mention. Carlo did not have to do much. In that sense, it was a good match practice for him as such. That 35-yard shoot that he was simply watching while the ball hit the woodwork and rebounded, did not make me feel comfortable at all. He made a couple of good saves but Olympiakos was never going to test him enough for him to warm up for the next 4 weeks of Cech-less action. The yellow cards for Terry and Lampard were unfortunate. While Terry could have avoided it, Lampard was just unlucky.

I don’t want to read too much into this result and performance. It’s very easy to get carried away by this match and the West Ham match and claim that we are back on track after the cup final defeat. We have certainly raised our game in the last two matches but we were also gifted with two weak spineless oppositions to bring ourselves back. The next few matches also don’t do us any good. We will sweep aside Barnsley, Derby and Sunderland. To know if we have really addressed our problems and whether we are ready to beat the big boys, we’ve got wait for a couple of weeks.

Meanwhile in other champions league fixtures, Arsenal earns a deserved victory over a lacklustre and lazy Milan, Man Utd scraped past Lyon after a scare, Barca did not surprise us by despatching Celtic, Roma thumped Real Madrid in front of the Bernabeu home crowd, Fenerbahce shocked Sevilla while Schalke upset Porto. But for a crazy drama at San Siro, Liverpool should join these pre-quarter winners next week.

The quarter final draw is on 14-Mar (Friday). Drawing Fenerbahce or Schalke would make Chelsea’s job easy but I prefer to play a bigger opposition. That’s because the confidence we gain by beating them and progressing forward would be immense. Look at Arsenal. Having beaten Milan at San Siro, Fibreglass is saying they can win the double. In that respect, I would prefer Man Utd, Arsenal or Barcelona. When we have the team that can win this competition, we should not really bother about the draw.

Finally, the first live match chat at BC Shout was very successful. Thanks to those who were there and chatted all through the match and even after. It was solid fun! I observe that BC Shout is a lighter, humourous, less-intense version of the blog. You can keep exchanging one-liners there unlike your extended research and analysis in the comments area of the blog. Something like a five-a-side!

Keep shouting folks!