Same scoreline against marginally less men but compared to the game against Bolton in the Carling Cup mid-week, it was a similar story. To be fair though, Bolton had a go at us here and there in the first half and even at the start of the second, despite being down to ten-men but ultimately it was clear Chelsea were the better side again.
The trotters could have opened the scoring inside the first minute but Cohen headed wide and he had an even better opportunity just before the half hour mark. Kevin Davies might have given them the lead as well if he hadn’t fired wide but apart from that, I’m not sure how many clear cut chances they really had.
As for us, we kept Jaaskelainen busy enough and missed the odd chance here and there before having a Branislav Ivanovic goal ruled out with Ballack and Anelka stood in offside positions around the half hour mark. But if Bolton found us hard work up til that point, it was about to get tougher still when possibly one of the best attacking moves of the game ended with Didier Drogba brought down in the area by Samuel. Cue red card and Frank Lampard penalty right on half-time, sending us in a goal up at the break.
Ancelotti made no changes at half-time despite Joe Cole being available on the bench (what is that about by the way?), Megson on the other hand, now a man down remember, made a couple of changes and to be fair, Bolton worked pretty hard to make a game of it – forcing Essien to come to our rescue just a yard out at one point. Fortunately though, it didn’t matter how much of a fight they put up, this wasn’t a battle they were about to win.
Jaaskelainen was doing a bloody good job keeping both Didier Drogba and Nicolas Anelka at bay to be honest and Frank Lampard did his best to break the crossbar but it was our movement on the counter attack from a Bolton corner that saw us make our numerical advantage count, with Nicolas Anelka picking up from Carvalho and sweeping down the left to play in Deco who made it look easy as he side-stepped a lunging tackle from Robinson to put it in the back of the net. Classy finish.
Our third, twenty minutes later, was a bit of a close call between Branislav Ivanovic and Bolton’s Zat Knight, with Ivanovic certainly looking capable of putting away Carvalho’s cross, although the lack of enthusiasm in his celebrations would probably suggest it had rightly been credited a Bolton own goal. And then Didier Drogba – who the home crowd had wasted their breath booing throughout the second half, because like it or not, Samuel had caught the back of his legs (albeit a little ‘Platoon’ style from the Ivorian) – finished off a sublime flick-on from Frank Lampard to wrap up our second 4-0 win over Bolton in a week.
Overall then, that’s eight goals in four days and seventeen in our last four games, so it’s fair to say we’re taking our chances a lot better than we have done in the past. We’re playing some good football and our movement is great to watch at times, in fact, yesterday the movement of Drogba and Anelka really made the difference.
So, as for that old ‘can Anelka and Drogba really play together?’ chestnut, you’d have to say that question’s answered.
TEAMS
BOLTON: Jaaskelainen, Ricketts, Cahill, Knight, Samuel, Muamba (Davies M, 64), Basham (Robinson, 45), Cohen, Lee (Gardner, 45), Davies K, Elmander.
Unused subs: Al Habsi, O’Brien, Taylor, Steinsson.
CHELSEA: Cech, Ivanovic, Terry, Carvalho, Ferreira, Essien, Lampard, Ballack, Deco, Anelka, Drogba.
Unused subs: Turnball, J Cole, Malouda, Sturridge, Alex, Belletti, Borini.
GOALS: Lampard pen (45), Deco (61), Zat Knight og (82), Drogba (90).
Blue is the colour
