CHELSEA 4-0 BLACKPOOL
With United beating Joe Cole’s ‘biggest club in England’ where the captain ‘deserves to win the title’ in yesterday’s early game, we went into this game just a point ahead of both second and third place and with Lampard and Terry in the stands, it was down to Didier Drogba to lead the team out.
There wasn’t to be any hanging about either, with our first corner within a minute and our first goal seconds later as Drogba’s corner found an unmarked Kalou lurking at the far post for a tap-in. And it pretty much continued in that vein with Malouda doing his best to set up Essien, who didn’t quite have his scoring boots on this time.
12 minutes in though, the Frenchman bagged one himself with a little help from Didier Drogba terrorising the Blackpool defence to provide the cut-back. Ivanovic nearly made it three a couple of minutes later with a header at the back post, with Eardley just about doing enough to distract him. So, with all that going on, it was a bit of a surprise to then see Cech having to throw himself about down the other end but that’s exactly what he had to do to keep DJ Campbell’s effort going in – and that’s where it would have gone if Cech hadn’t clawed it away.
Normal service resumed after that though, with more chances and a bit of showboating thrown in here and there for good measure before our third found its way in on the half-hour mark courtesy of a deflection from Didier’s turn and shot. And four minutes from half-time it was four, this time with Kalou turning provider for Malouda’s second of the game and his sixth of the season so far. Drogba should have made it five just on half-time or at least Cole probably thought so after the work he’d put in to create the chance. Didn’t happen though, so we had to make do with 4-0 at the break.
No changes in personnel for us and we started the second half as we’d finished the first, with Drogba almost putting Kalou in – but that’s about as close as our second half performance came to our first. In fact, it looked as if we’d had forty winks at half-time and never really woke up from it properly as Blackpool decided it was time to try and give us a game. They had a few chances and all but lacked the clinical finish, particularly against a defence that’s let just the one goal in so far this season.
I’m going to say we should have had a penalty in here somewhere as well and whilst Blackpool would argue that’s harsh, it’s no harsher than Malouda’s arm almost being yanked out of its socket – it didn’t come though, so we soaked up another attack with Cech’s fingertips coming to the rescue again.
Not that we really needed rescuing at 4-0 up but if we could have taken our chances as well in the second half as we did in the first, it might have made for a less frustrating 45 minutes. It’s not as if we didn’t have enough chances either, Malouda had a couple of chances for his hattrick that went begging and Kalou could have helped himself to a second as well.
At least DJ Campbell gave the away support something to shout about though – unfortunately for them, it was only the ball hitting the side netting but I’m sure it was worth the journey. Kalou, on the other hand, resorted to providing the laughs, falling on his arse in front of goal and as more chances come and go for us, the away support drop a hint to their players with chants of “We want one! We want one!”
No chance of that happening as we went into the two injury time minutes and even then it was us who could and should have had a penalty but with Drogba put on his arse in the box by Keinen, rather than award the rightful spot-kick, a rather embarrassed looking ref blew for full-time instead.
Overall then, pretty deadly in a first half where our dominance came from the effort we were prepared to put it. It was great to see that even when a win looked to be coming easy, on the odd occasions we did concede possession, we made sure we won it back. Our midfield – even with Frank Lampard missing – looks as fluid as I’ve seen it and Ramires, with his first start, certainly didn’t look like a newcomer. On the downside, we were unusually wasteful for the second half and even with the game won, it would have been nice to see us convert some of the chances we’d made.
Didier Drogba, for me, was a bit too unselfish, playing team-mates in only to see the chances squandered. He could and probably should have taken a few more of them on himself but then again, with even Salomon Kalou hitting his fourth of the season so far, who am I to complain about his generosity?
TEAMS
CHELSEA: Cech, Ferreira, Ivanovic, Alex (Bruma, 72), Cole, Essien, Mikel (Benayoun, 77), Ramires (Zhirkov, 74), Kalou, Drogba, Malouda.
Unused Subs: Turnbull, Sturridge, Anelka, Kakuta.
BLACKPOOL: Gilks, Eardley (Taylor-Fletcher, 45), Evatt, Baptiste, Keinan, Crainey, Grandin (Harewood, 61), Adam, Vaughan, Varney (Ormerod, 61), Campbell.
Unused Subs: Halstead,Southern, Cathcart, Carney.
GOALS
CHELSEA: Kalou 2, Malouda 12, 41, Drogba 30
Blue is the colour
