Chelsea had a game yesterday – not so you’d have noticed though because just about the only thing being written about us right now relates to our captain – and not the fact he scored the winner either! Still, the less said about his morals, which are evidently as loose as his pants, the better. So, on to the game.
There’s some games you just have to get through and this was certainly one of those. A bit of a let down after our last couple of games to be honest, but again, we didn’t particularly look in any great danger of losing it, in fact we didn’t look as if we bothered getting out of second gear really.
We dominated the early stages but didn’t create anything of note and gave Burnley a little more of the play as time went on. Obviously that worked in our favour because on 27 minutes, a nifty little counter gave us the lead. Petr Cech’s quick release of Joe Cole started the move, with a cross to Malouda who gave Nicolas Anelka a pretty easy goal.
We needed all three points from this game – and it showed. Not that we were edgy or nervous but our players seemed almost pissed off at times with a Burnley side who clearly weren’t prepared to just bend over. Still, it’s not as if we didn’t know this was a side more than capable of raising their game against the top sides, so 1-0 at the break seemed ok.
Back from the break Burnley gave us a wake-up call three minutes in with Alex caught out with Fletcher getting round the back of him to slot past Cech, and there might’ve been half a shout for handball but whatever, we were caught out. Not sure what the ‘chicken tonight’ goal celebration was all about though?
We definitely responded in the right manner though despite a resilient Burnley defence doing their best to push us back. A bit of a scramble around the Clarets goal saw one shot after another before it finally went in off Joe Cole’s head. Unfortunately, our midfielder hadn’t been given the advantage but at least he hadn’t had time to go through the celebration routine before the flag went up.
Just over the hour mark and three-quarters of the possession saw the pressure piling on a Burnley side who could really save themselves from relegation if they could put as much fight into games against sides not in the top three. Lampard’s free-kick somehow found its way through the wall, with the rebound off the keeper falling to Ballack and back out again for Alex to come close with his head, although lacking the power to put it anywhere but the keeper’s hands.
72 minutes gone and Joe Cole exchanged for Daniel Sturridge before a blocked shot from Ashley Cole saw our left-back turn his ankle, forcing him off minutes later with Deco coming on and Zhirkov moving to the left-back slot.
With ten minutes to go and a goal apiece, Burnley’s recent record of 1-alls at Turf Moor seemed to loom a bit large. Fortunately though, a lovely turn in the area from Sturridge saw Burnley concede a corner and having spent the entire game booed for every touch, it was John Terry on the end of it to give us the win on 82 minutes.
But whilst the Chelsea captain’s celebration might have been muted, clearly the headlines it provokes aren’t!.
CHELSEA TEAM: Cech, Ivanovic, Alex, Terry, A.Cole (Deco, 76), Ballack, Zhirkov, Lampard, J.Cole (Sturridge, 72), Malouda, Anelka
Unused Subs – Turnbull, Carvalho, Ferreira, Matic, Borini
GOALS:
BURNLEY: Fletcher (48)
CHELSEA: Anelka (27), Terry (82)
Blue is the colour
