We’d kicked off the season by battering West Brom 6-0 and Carlo Ancelotti insisted we shouldn’t expect 6 goals every week, but following Arsenal’s 6-0 over 10-man Blackpool earlier in the day, we needed to give a decent account of ourselves if we were going to reassert ourselves at the top of the table.
It was Wigan who had the brighter start though whilst we looked generous to a fault in terms of possession, particularly in and around our area. To be honest, the way we were playing pleased me about as much as our away kit – and that was hurting my eyes. Sloppy defending at times, unconvincing clearances and an inability to get hold of the ball didn’t make for the most comfortable start as Wigan dominated possession. It didn’t improve when Ivanovic’s sloppiness had Diame nicking the ball before curling a cross around Ashley Cole and finding the unmarked Mauro Boselli in the area. Fortunately for us, though, Boselli couldn’t quite coordinate an ascent and a header all in the same movement, so the ball eluded him.
There just didn’t seem to be any urgency about our play, we seemed happy enough to sit back and soak up the pressure, almost as if we simply expected a goal to come anyway. Which is exactly what happened in the 33rd minute when Lampard’s shot was parried by Kirkland, and Malouda, as ever alert, had got himself down the left into the perfect position to tuck it away.
There was just enough left of the half for us to threaten here and there for a second and John Terry to take N’Zogbia’s studs in the guts but we went in with just the one goal advantage and a captain bearing the odd twinge and a grudge he’d hang onto a bit longer.
No changes at the break and Wigan were again lively to start with but not for long, because a stunning 60 yard pass from Mikel finds the chasing Anelka, who sticks a lovely ball past a sprawling Kirkland into the bottom right corner of the net. Lovely pass, lovely finish 2-0. Just four minutes later, another great pass on the end of a hefty Cech clearance, this time sees Malouda send the ball in to Drogba at the far post. Whether the Ivorian actually went for the goal himself or not is debatable but it came off his heel anyway, bouncing back up off the pitch for an offside Anelka to head in. As luck would have it though, the ref wasn’t quite as clear about the offside as the rest of us, so 3-0 it was.
Wigan thought they had a shout for a penalty around the hour mark, with the ball hitting Alex on the arm but it was a shout more in desperation than anger, although I’m sure there was a bit of both when Boselli tapped the ball into our goal in the 61st minute only to be rightly caught offside. John Terry sees an opportunity to get his opportunity to get his own back on N’Zogbia for his first half challenge, hurtling into him with plenty of enthusiasm, and whilst there was little argument he’d won the ball, catching N’Zogbia again when he was barely on his feet might have cost the Chelsea captain on another day seeing as he’d only just had a yellow.
The 3-0 cushion afforded Ancelotti the luxury of giving players a rest and Malouda was the first one to earn a break, going off for Kalou with 20 minutes remaining. And just when you might have been wondering if the game was going to go a little bit stale, Drogba went on a lively sprint, knocking the ball forward and the defenders sideways before playing an unselfish ball to Kalou to put in.
But whilst Kalou was denied a second with a decent tackle in the area a couple of minutes from time, he picked himself up and had the ball in the back of the net just two minutes later anyway with a glancing header. And rounding off our second 6-0 of the new season, new signing Yossi Benayoun – clearly having a better week than Joe Cole has – slots one in from a Ferreira cross just before the final whistle.
Overall then, bloody surprising to be honest. I don’t think we played all that well, particularly in a first half where we struggled to get on top of the game against the battling Wigan who’d definitely upped their game since last week’s defeat to Blackpool. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think we ever looked like losing this one and from the minute we did score, that was blatantly obvious but realistically, we only played for 45 minutes.
Boring, boring Chelsea eh?
TEAMS
WIGAN: Kirkland, Gohouri, Alcaraz, Stam, Figueroa (Boyce, 83), McCarthy,
Thomas, Diame (McArthur, 80), N’Zogbia, Boselli, Rodallega.
Unused Subs: Al Habsi, Watson, Moses, Gomez, Scotland.
CHELSEA: Cech, Ivanovic (Ferreira, 63), Alex, Terry, Cole, Essien (Benayoun, 80), Mikel, Lampard, Malouda (Kalou, 70), Anelka, Drogba.
Unused Subs: Hilario, Zhirkov, Van Aanholt, Borini.
GOALS
CHELSEA: Malouda 34, Anelka 47, 51, Kalou 77, 90, Benayoun 93
Blue is the colour
