What a thriller! I had my heart in my mouth in the last 10 minutes. All hail Didier Drogba, the perennial saviour! He absolutely deserves to go to the African Nations Cup on a high. And, what a cameo by Sturridge! I’m so so pleased that I can’t explain how much. We end the year 2009 as the league leaders. This was a superb performance by Chelsea against a very determined, organised and highly professional Fulham side. In a very ordinary month, you gotta say that the performances against Birmingham and Fulham were the best. When your best performances are also your recent, you can be happy and hopeful. Let’s enjoy this big win. A win against Fulham of this season has to be a big one.

The goal that we conceded kind of summed up our situation. There are too many observations from that goal. Firstly, why was Ferreira picked to start while Ivanovic was fit and ready? What was Ferreira thinking when drifted to the centre completely letting loose his man on the right side? How can he take his eyes off his corridor? Sometimes, as a team we have too much belief on our ability to close down, tackle and win the ball. If I’m a right back and if the ball is on the left side and the Ashley Cole is fighting to win the ball, I tend to think that Ashley would surely win it. If he does that, my positioning does not come into question. If he does not and the ball is shifted to my side, I’m completely exposed because I simply wasn’t ready for it. That’s exactly what happened yesterday.

More than 5 seconds after Konchesky made a lovely cross, Gera scored the goal. For more than 5 seconds, we just couldn’t get rid of the ball. Carvalho didn’t jump well enough because he thought it was not his ball. Terry and Mikel didn’t think this was going to end up in a goal. They didn’t really do their best. Any decent cross into the box, we seem to convert that into a goal. Sometime later, before a defensive corner was taken, Petr Cech walked up to Mikel pointed a spot and told him to ‘just go and stand THERE’. I liked it.

Our goal was very impressive. What Ivanovic did was what we had to do a lot. Getting a long cross to the far post and put Fulham under pressure. Pantsil’s substitution was very useful for us as he was pretty good at containing Drogba. That’s not to say Drogba would not have score if Pantsil was there. When Drogba is fired up, not many defenders have a hope.

Staying with team selection, just why did Kalou start? I understand that Ancelotti has gotten a permission from the respective national associations to retain Drogba, Mikel and Kalou for this match. That was a very smart decision by Ancelotti, repaid by a goal by Drogba. But why should he start Kalou when he’s at his best when he comes on in the second half? We play 4-4-2 when we have two strikers who can fit into that role. Otherwise, we don’t have to play 4-4-2, certainly not with Kalou, in his current form.

For our second goal, Kalou played a key role but not as a striker in a 4-4-2 formation. After an hour into the match, we had changed to a 4-3-3 and that’s where Kalou’s best efforts have come from. I’ve always said that Kalou is basically a striker and we’ve turned him into a winger. But I wouldn’t start him and ‘try him out’ as a striker in a 4-4-2 while we have won only one match of the last 7 matches. Ancelotti seems very open to experimentation. He is not as conservative as I had thought.

I call this a superb performance because the final 30 minutes we played like a team that wanted to win. We were all fired up. We weren’t willing to give up. Especially after the introduction of Sturridge, everytime we attacked Fulham it appeared that we might score. In the words of Ancelotti, we played with intensity in the final 30 minutes. Sometimes, you need to attack with arrogance. Leave the discipline and organisation to the defensive roles. During attacks, we should be lot more unpredictable. With Sturridge’s introduction, I thought we did that. He had the pace and he could beat his man with little tricks. Superb cameo by Sturridge.

I hope this result has turned the season around for us. We will not have Drogba, Essien and Mikel for the next 6 weeks. Sturridge gives me confidence. Kakuta may not have the experience but he does not have to play the likes of Man Utd and Liverpool. Anelka would be back for the next premier league match. It is in the defensive midfield where we don’t have a quality replacement. The FA Cup match next week should give us a fair idea of what we should expect in January. Let’s hope that the young players make a name for themselves next month.

We are the winter champions. Game in hand or game not in hand, we are topping the table and a Man Utd win today cannot change that. An indifferent month of December has ended with a win. If your most recent result is a win against a very good side, you should not be worried. Let’s see how Ancelotti manages Jan 2010. That would be a defining month for Carlo. Something tells me he’ll come good, or even better, will come out with flying colours. See you later, then!

Wish you all a very happy new year!!!