Gutted. 30 seconds to go and we concede an equaliser. Cahill’s goal comes to mind. We have not learnt from that yet. Almost the same mistake. Once again the concentration levels dropped at the end. We gifted a goal to Wigan as we failed to put pressure on the opposition in the dying moments. Well, there was also a positive thing – this was Chelsea’s 100th unbeaten home league game.

This match has to be analysed in three parts – a lack lustre first half, an electric 40 minutes in the second half and lazy and complacent last 5 minutes. Drogba and Carvalho were rested. Lampard had to withdraw very later due to family reasons. I wonder why we played and risked Petr Cech. Hilario is not that bad a keeper. We won 4 points over two legs against Barca with Hilario. What’s the need to bring fragile looking Cech who must put physical caution above anything else at this stage. And our bench selection was very poor. It had Shevchenko, Joe Cole, Shaun Wright Phillips, Pizarro and Hilario. Two strikers, two wingers and a goalkeeper? What about a Makelele or an Ashley Cole or even a Sidwell? Why do we need 2 strikers and 2 wingers in the bench?

Once again we played 4-3-3 and we hardly looked threatening apart from a couple of chances – Anelka missing a couple of easy headers. Wigan played with confidence and they too had a couple of chances. For some time we were chasing Wigan relying only on the breaks. 4-3-3 with Kalou and Malouda was not producing much. Whatever was produced either Anelka screwed up or he was not there in the right place to deliver the goods. He had such a poor match that I was screaming for him to be subbed at half time. Avram Grant thankfully brought on Joe Cole for Malouda. His earliest ever substitution in a match? Easy decision to make but Grant should get the credit for making it as early as half time.

When I voted for Joe Cole as the player of the season, it was not without a reason. He has this charm and his presence and makes his attitude and belief so contagious that the whole team starts running around him. From the moment stepped into the pitch, Joe Cole simply mesmerised the crowd with his dribbles, moves and cheeky passes. Every single attack in the second half had a crucial contribution from Joe Cole including the one that ended in the goal. Luckily, Essien’s goal was slightly deflected but it was well worth a try from him. Anelka’s best contribution of the match was when he moved out of the way to help Essien aim and shoot.

After scoring the goal, Chelsea was pushing to extend the lead. There were occasions where we delayed pulling the trigger and over passed obsessively. Only some bad finishing and a brilliant Kirkland were between us and more goals. Kirkland had a dream match. He made lots of crucial saves and there was even one just seconds before they scored. At some point, Chelsea had to slow down, keep ball and kill the game. We did not do it. We were still going for more.

In the last 5 minutes, I just wanted us to quietly finish off the game. For that we should have had the ball. With ten men, we should have been pressuring them like crazy to ensure that we get the three points. Knowing the importance of this game, I’d do anything to get three points. Instead, we allowed them to have the ball, move around with the ball in dangerous area and even gave them the time for a perfectly curved cross, which came safely upto the far post to be netted by Heskey.

I almost published this post with the title ‘Chelsea 1-0 Wigan’. How many times have we lost a lead this season? Why don’t we put pressure on the opposition until the final whistle? Why do we get so complacent? Someone needs to sort this out. It’s gotta be Avram Grant. Don’t ask me how can he be responsible for this. The buck stops with him and that’s the case with every manager. We have slowly got ourselves into this nasty habit of losing our lead to draw games and sometimes even to lose them. I’ve lost count of the number of occasions we’ve let our lead slip.

And what was the point of bringing in Shevchenko when there were only seconds to go? He should have come on for Anelka at some point of time. While I doubt if he could make any impact in the last 30 seconds, I also was pissed off that we were further delaying the kick off as we had to wait for the sub to come in. Hats off to Shevchenko. The man is a true gentleman and professional. He must have been really really disappointed that he is not playing. When he gets to play, it’s for 30 seconds and he didn’t show any disappointment or frustration in his face. The relationship between Rijkaard and Eto’o broke when the former brought on the latter for he last 10 minutes or so, when he returned from his injury. Compare this with Shevchenko. I feel really sorry for him. We’ve made a mess of our title challenge. 5 points short of Man Utd with just another 4 games to go, which include Everton away and Man Utd at home. I don’t think we are out yet. There is still a remote chance. Strange things do happen in football. We now have to win all matches while Man Utd has to lose two matches. Difficult to imagine but does not look completely improbable. One way to make this possible is may be by swapping Fergie and Grant for a month.

This is what Grant had to say after the match:

We are still in the title race. It is more difficult now but we will still fight away. In the second half we played wonderful. It was one of our best performances and we had a lot of chances. But this is football. If you don’t score the second one and don’t pay attention this is what happens. Our problem this year is we don’t use the chances. I don’t know why, maybe it is a lack of concentration.

I’m getting tired of his ‘this is football’ and ‘i don’t know why’ comments match after match after match. You’re supposed to know it Mr. Grant and then if it’s a surprise, you’re also supposed to fix it!

I’m sure the players must be feeling really low. The team morale must be down at this moment. At this stage, the fixture at Goodison park looks like a monster of a match. In 05-06 when Man Utd were chasing us for the title, we brought them to Stamford Bridge, stuffed them 3-0 and won the title right in front of their eyes. Is Fergie looking for a revenge?

Avram Grant! Please do me a favour. Don’t ever lose our home record to Man Utd.