We are still on top of the league thanks to the goal fest in the Pompey which feels like a year before. The first match we won emphatically, the next match we struggled but we won, today’s match after all the huff and puff we could only draw. Any predictions for the next match? Worry not, this is not a doomsday post. I see only one problem – our apparent weakness up front. With one quality finisher, we could have won today’s match by a margin. In these type of derbies, you can’t expect to get a dozen chances. You get one and you gotta finish it.

You think I’m putting the blame squarely on Anelka? Yeah, somewhat. When you play as the only striker, you take a lot of responsibilities, especially that of scoring. In this match, neither team had too many chances. The best chances of this match came from outside the box, with individual efforts. In such a match, if you get the chances like Anelka got, you gotta finish them. Tell me, if it was Drogba or any other quality finisher in place of Anelka, would we have won the match? Forget about finishing his chances, he was crap otherwise too. Had no positional sense, lost possession, muscled out too easily and in short, highly ineffective. One good thing about him being garbage today was Franco do Santo’s debut at Stamford Bridge. I wonder why Scolari had to wait until the last 4 mins of regulation time. Anyway, I’m glad it happened.

Of course Kalou was also guilty of wasting a chance. But I’m sure if Kalou had played Anelka’s 86 minutes, it would have been more eventful. I know Kalou is not a great finisher himself but he does something worthwhile, creates something useful and is more value for time than Anelka. Do you guys know that Wenger secretly made an offer for Kalou which Scolari rejected?

Franco was a fresh breath of air. He looks very impressive but he did not have too much to do but I noticed one thing. He was in the right areas at the right times. If Scolari has not seen enough already he should see in the training if Anelka still deserves a role in the first team. I generally hate these international breaks but I’m relieved this time. When we’re back, we’ll have Drogba.

Scolari came up with a couple of surprises today. First one was the 4-1-4-1 formation. Contrary to general perception, he thought it’s okay to change the winning formation. I didn’t mind that. I always believed we have the players to play any formation. Scolari’s second surprise was to play Belletti and that too as the defensive midfielder. He played well, really well to his credit. But I think this 4-1-4-1 formation has been one reason why we are not able to play a more attacking game. We certainly could create more chances with our 4-3-3 than in a 4-1-4-1. In the formation we used today, we were always going to get less chances but we should have been sharper than today to take them and make them count. Knowing that Anelka couldn’t hit a barn door, we should have opted for a more attacking 4-3-3.

I thought Lampard had a great match. He movement and passing were brilliant. He was unlucky not to have scored with that delicious chip. He did hit wide a few times but I thought he was very good otherwise. Deco was good but wasn’t what we’ve started expecting of him. May be that early yellow card kind of toned down his game. Essien was a disappointment today. He must have felt bad himself. He was nowhere near the Essien we know and in fact was very poor. I doubt if he was fully fit because I haven’t seen Essien being outmuscled so easily. Bosingwa made his hattrick of superb performances.

Scolari is not too worried about this result:

We know that we lost two points today but in the Premier League it is impossible to win three, four, five games in a row, because the other teams are strong and have good quality. Seven points in nine, if we make this at the final surely we are first. For the last two or three seasons, [if you achieve] 75 percent of points, you will win.

We used the long ball too much and made mistakes. We need to try to work the ball more. Okay they closed, but with high balls we don’t have the players for this. What I said afterwards was we needed to work the ball more, if we make mistakes not a problem, but try. High balls we win one time and lose eight. They felt the pressure for the fans, to need to win, and it is difficult to think inside the pitch. I
understand this.

We need to respect Tottenham, they are a very good team. They played very well and sometimes it’s impossible to win. They played the same game as Chelsea, and had five players in midfield. They touched the ball very well, and it was an interesting derby. A draw is a normal result. We had more chances but made mistakes with the final shot.

I’m very impressed with this response from Scolari. He doesn’t seem to be too concerned with the result, in a good way. He sounds unruffled. Also, I thought we played too many long balls in the second half. There’s no harm but when we have Anelka as the lone striker, that’s the last option I’d think of. He says we ‘win one time and lose eight’ (does Portuguese decimal system have only 9 numbers?!) but if it was Drogba, the ratio would be much better. But I’m happy that he recognised this thing and also another one – that we made mistakes with the final shot, by that he means finishing. I liked the part when he said ‘they felt the pressure for the fans, to need to win, and it is difficult to think inside the pitch. I understand this’ – very nice of him to say that.

Elsewhere, SWP scored a brace against Sunderland today. I saw the goals. The second one in particular was a great finish. Lovely SWP, playing full of heart and passion. I love this guy. C’mon, have a great season boy!

And now here is the Robinho daily digest. Robinho arranged for a press conference today to again let everybody know that he wants leave Madrid and that he is thinking only about playing for Chelsea. With this self-arranged press conference, he has broken his relationship with Madrid to such an extent that his staying at Madrid is completely wasteful for them. Real also published this no-brainer announcement about Chelsea and Robinho in their club website. Chelsea FC responded without wasting any time. Looks like there’s still one final twist in the story. If Madrid still stay stubborn, Robinho has an option of buying out his £40m contract; Or Chelsea can pay that money and structure Robinho’s wages to factor that. Strangely, I’m more confident than ever (a complete turnaround from yesterday’s belief) that he’d be a Chelsea player tomorrow.

Cool it guys! The next match is only on 13th of September. There are a few very interesting world cup qualifying matches (incl Croatia vs England) until then. So we go to the international break as league leaders. And when we’re back with club football, we’d have got back Drogba, Ballack, Essien, Mikel and Robinho hopefully!