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CHELSEA 1-0 AS ROMA

Well, I guess we’d only get spoilt if we had 4-0 wins every game, so maybe we should be grateful to Roma for keeping our feet firmly on the ground? 

But there was something about last night’s game that stops me short of thanking our Italian opponents – it’s left me feeling deflated. Not that I expected us to run rings around the Italians of course, they were always going to make it hard for us. The proverbial bus was always going to be parked firmly in front of us, with them shutting up shop and hoping to catch us on a break that fortunately failed to materialise. I say fortunately because we just didn’t seem to trouble them enough. Too many balls went astray, too many passes failed to reach completion and too much of this was down to sheer lack of concentration on our part.

After a week in which his praises have been sung out loud, Malouda probably put in his least effective performance this season. Kalou and Anelka couldn’t buy a goal, and Deco’s was a much less influential return than I’d got my hopes up for. I heard plenty of praise for Lampard after the game as well, with him repeatedly referred to as our ‘biggest threat’ and yet I didn’t see anything particularly special with the exception of his ball off the upright. Pretty much summed up our efficient yet distinctly forgettable night.

Of course, I don’t expect us to blow every team we meet away and I fully appreciate there’ll be games where we’ll have to win ugly but I just can’t help thinking the game could have had the face-lift it needed if we’d been a little more focused and a lot more clinical up front. I guess that’s what disappointed me the most, as I was forced to accept we actually looked like we needed Didier Drogba last night.

In the end of course, John Terry’s 78th minute header proved enough for us to take the three points at home and ensure Roma will have to come out and play in the return leg and the Chelsea captain stated “They made it very difficult for us the whole game but thankfully we got the goal and picked up three points.  They are a very good side, they have got some great players in their team and made it difficult for us.  They worked very hard all night and maybe they deserved something but thankfully we got three points.  I think in the first half we got a little bit frustrated and were maybe too keen to get a goal. We had to be patient and wait for a chance because sooner or later it will come.”

And yet for long periods, with Chelsea doing plenty of huffing and puffing, it didn’t look as if a goal was on the cards as Roma’s defence remained as tight as the Arsenal coffers. Not that Spalletti’s men troubled us much either, but then when you’re concentrating all your efforts on keeping the ball out and no effort at all on staying upright in a breeze, I guess they didn’t do too badly out of it really.

My guess from the Stamford Bridge crowd, who were seemingly hoping to earn every penny for this week’s sponsored silence, was that they were a little frustrated by the game as well. Still, Scolari had warned us we couldn’t expect flowing football every week and a win is a win however it comes.

If only I wasn’t such a purist!

 

 

 

 

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