Sturridge against celebrates victory over Ipswich Town

The damn finally burst.

On Sunday Chelsea scored as many goals as they had in their previous seven matches combined.

2 months of frustration. And 7 glorious goals.

Poor old Ipswich Town, a team in disarray, were the whipping boys. 3 goals in the first half alone. And not a chance that Chelsea would let up. Not this time. Not after the pain and humiliation they’ve endured. They bombarded Ipswich with 18 shots on target. That’s 15 more than they managed against Wolves.

Said Ipswich’s interim manager Ian McParland, “The boys are a bit shell-shocked… we were either going to give a good account of ourselves or take a right thrashing. Unfortunately it was the latter.”

2 goals for 21 year-old Daniel Sturridge. That makes seven in the last five days, including his reserve match bonanza midweek. Sturridge has always scored against lesser opponents, never against the best. But surely in this time of need the young man is making his case for an opportunity to start against the big boys?

“Every player has to be ready when the moment arrives,” said Ancelotti. “Daniel deserved to play and did well. In the future he’ll have opportunities.”

Sturridge celebrates goal against Ipswich Town

2 goals for Lampard. Late in the match, perhaps. But also vitally important for his confidence as he comes back from a devastating sequence of injuries that have robbed him of almost half a season.

A goal for Anelka, his first in ten matches, and one for the profligate Kalou. An own goal for Carlos Edwards to put a cap on Ipswich’s woeful day. And by all accounts (since none of us could watch the game on television) a fine game by youngster Josh McEachran.

Josh McEachran against Ipswich Town

In all, three of the younger players got a start including Patrick van Aanholt, who left with a “slight hamstring tear” to be replaced by another youngster, Jeffrey Bruma. Cynics (who, me?) will note that this is the first senior game in which the team hasn’t conceded a goal while Bruma’s been on the pitch this season. Again, all of this against a slumping opponent near the bottom of the second division. But it will nevertheless encourage fans who believe that Chelsea’s younger players deserve more playing time.

So what can we read into this? Did the big win save Carlo Ancelotti’s job? Will it spark a Premiership revival? Will Chelsea flow with confidence and more goals going forward?

I think we can safely say that Blackburn Rovers aren’t looking forward to Saturday’s visit to the Bridge. But beyond that it might be dangerous to take too much from a single game against an over-matched opponent.

“When we scored the first goal, everything was okay. But we have to play more games to say the bad moment has gone,” said Ancelotti.

Roman Abramovich flies into London this week for talks with Ancelotti. No-one seems to think he’ll sack him. In fact, fans gave Carlo a nice chant near the end of the game.

“It’s very nice, obviously, to hear the fans like that,” he said. “We all have to be close, and the fans showed fantastic support today.”

Presumably Roman’s meetings will center around player needs and costs. BlueChampion will delve deeper into that later this week, so watch this space.

For now what we can say is that it appears that Ancelotti and not the bungling board will have the loudest voice in the transfer discussion. As we discussed in mid-December, that’s a great sign for Ancelotti’s future with the club. And it may also portend more suitable signings than were made over the summer.

But all that’s in the future. For now, it’s a giant sigh of relief. The second-biggest FA Cup win in Chelsea’s history (the biggest was a 9-1 victory against Worksop in 1908.)

Tension has been removed from the locker room and the practice field.

Today, at least, all is right with the world.

Finally found video of the goals. I hope it stays up long enough for you to see it.