When the match was nearing the one-hour mark, I was just thinking that this was John Terry’s best match for many months. And this happened in a match where Carvalho also played. Terry was in a very positive frame of mind. He made those crunching tackles, crucial interceptions and even made some interesting runs. But I didn’t think he could get the man of the match award ahead of Mikel. And then came his fantastic header. The header was very reminiscent of his tremendous winner which was Chelsea’s amazing fourth goal of the match against Barcelona at the Bridge few seasons back.

That’s what happens in football. If you really really play well, everything else will fall in place. It’s no coincidence that Terry score yesterday. He was playing very well indeed and his own performance gave him that confidence in overall game. His good defensive performance is what made him go for that header and win it. How long I’ve been waiting for a John Terry goal! I only hope he picks it up from here and does better. If he is at his very best, I won’t be too worried about anything at all. Man, he can be unbelievable.

The win was very deserved as only Chelsea were going for the win. Roma was hell bent on not getting beaten than anything else. I can’t blame them. After being runner up in the last serie a season, they’ve had a poor start to the season and the coach is under tremendous pressure not to lose again. If you saw Spalletti in the sidelines, it appeared as if he was quite content with the way Roma were playing. It was certainly their strategy to contain Chelsea and frustrate them as much as possible. To their credit, it almost worked out.

There were no surprises in the starting eleven from Scolari. He went for experience everywhere on the pitch more than anything else. I don’t think we were at our best. Roma sitting back also in a way helped us. We were very patient and confident that the goal would come sometime soon. By the 70th minute, I was not overly confident of us scoring a goal because we couldn’t not really break down their attack. Granted they sat back but it was Stamford Bridge and we had put forward a strong team. We did not create too many clear cut chances to be honest. When a top Italian team decides to defend deep, you won’t be able to score that easily.

And we couldn’t break them down because, we were playing the passing game a bit too much. This was a game where a strong centre forward like Drogba would have made a big difference. This was a game where we must have used our long passes to great effect. We were playing along the ground which turned out to be quite advantageous for Roma. As we were relying on the ground/short passes, as Roma lined up at the back, we got only half chances and we did not have someone special up front to convert these half chances into goals. A Fernando Torres would have got one or two yesterday in the flash of a light.

Anelka is too slow to pick up smart slip-ins and loose balls. Good lot of you are saying that his movement was impressive. Remember, he is playing as the lone striker with wingers on either sides. In this set up his role is certainly not to make spaces and draw defenders. That’s what Malouda, Kalou, Lampard and Deco must be doing for him to exploit the space and make a goal. I’m worried that Anelka is not selfish enough or even hungry enough for goals. As Jose once said, strikers live for goals. It is goals and nothing but goals that would satisfy them. Anelka is playmaking and seems to be content with that role. Something needs to change – Anelka or Anelka’s mindset or my mindset on Anelka. I still feel we are awafully light upfront. We’ll never realise that as long as we keep winning.

This was a match where there were not not too many 7/10 rated performances. Mikel was an exception. He would have been my MOTM but for John Terry’s three-pointer. Okay now, just think of Essien’s best days with us. And compare that to Mikel’s best days. I’d have the courage to say that Mikel’s performances are on par or better than Essien’s performances. When Essien would have edge is in the passion that he shows. It’s quite important to have good players who are passionate and expressive. It’s good for the team psyche when the chips are down. When you just take the bread and butter performances of the defensive midfielder role, Essien was a tough act to follow and now when Essien’s back, Mikel would be a tough act to follow.

One other area where Essien was better was in scoring some goals. Mikel has been trying his best to get his name on the scoresheet but has been failing rather miserably. He does not seem to be able to shoot while Essien could score from various ranges and angles. Mikel still has some untapped potential for being a good attacking midfielder too. He has the gift of being able to trap and shield the ball and when he makes a run, the ball looks stuck to his foot. Very useful skills those, if he plays as an attacking midfielder in a slow build up. To sum up this topic, I can confidently say that this Chelsea team is the most versatile team in England (Europe?). We have too many players who can play in more than one position and deliver the goods. Helps in the premier league marathon.

I was saying that there were not too many 7/10 performances this time. That’s true. Lampard, Deco, Malouda, Anelka, Kalou, Bosingwa, Bridge, carvalho and Cech – I wouldn’t give 7/10 for even one of them. Mikel and Terry were the only players who deserved a 7/10. Are we developing some sort of form against those teams that defend deep? We didn’t score against Cluj, we struggled to beat Wigan, we just about drew against Man Utd (yes, they defended deep that day like a freaking relegation battler). When the opponents come out and play, we come up with a fantastic performance and there are 7/10 all around. When they hold the fort, we seem to struggle to break them down. Just think why.

I know you cannot always dominate opponents or you mat not always control all the games. I’m absolutely fine with the positive results. In fact I care more about them than anything else. All that I’m trying to say is that there seems to be a pattern in the way we handle the deep defending teams. We need to work on that pretty soon or else draws are upon us. We might have had 65% possession, 30 shots against opponents 5, but the score line might read 0-0 or 1-1. The way I see it, the problem is with the attack. We need a genuine goal scorer whio has a nose for goals. We need an Inzaghi or something. I’d even take Crespo over Anelka. Good thought?

Let’s shift our focus to the big game this Sunday. No Torres. No Keane. Stamford Bridge. Carvalho & Deco are back. Looks like the result is already for all of us to see. But I won’t underestimate Liverpool. Not even in their worst form. Nevertheless, I’m certainly confident of a positive result. You’d see some delays in the posting of the previews and reviews. These are busy days. Don’t get to sleep much. Anyway, please keep the blog alive even when I’m away.