CHELSEA 2-0 MARSEILLE
With a couple of defeats behind us in the Carling Cup and Premier League, it was vital we got back to winning ways in the Champions League and last night’s game saw us up against Didier Deschamps Marseille – and the French supporters thought they’d announce their arrival with a bit of dodgy behaviour while they waited – charmers.
Early goal for us on 7 minutes after a bright enough Marseille start. Gael Kakuta makes a mess of the corner, hitting it low to the near post but John Terry manages a flick to put it past the keeper. 1-0 up and the first half was all about us from there really. Malouda was giving them all sorts of problems and could have given them more if he’s played the shot rather the dummy in the 24th minute.
Just before the half hour though the second came thanks to a bit of generosity from the ref after he adjudged M’bia to have handled in the area and Anelka rolled it into the bottom right of the net. I’m sure the Marseille fans loved that, they seemed to be trying to attract the Frenchman’s attention for most of the game anyway.
Marseille see if the ref’s generosity stretches to them as well, with a claim for handball against Alex but evidently he’s given his quota of gifts so they’re out of luck and just about manage to make it to the break without conceding again.
Second half and several chances for Marseille in succession after the break, all dealt with but a complete contrast to the first 45. In truth, we just looked far too casual, giving the ball away cheaply in the second half, inviting unnecessary pressure and whilst Cech was never truly tested and our defence did their job, it was still disappointing.
Ayew came on for them on the hours and immediately made his presence felt, getting past the Chelsea defence before putting it out for a goal-kick but we were still getting little warnings here and there. Not that we didn’t get chances ourselves in the second, I don’t know who put the bloody post there but we managed to hit it three times in the second half. First a cracking free-kick from Alex, a shot off the post from Essien with 15 minutes to go, and another from our Ghanaian midfielder on 90.
Overall though, it was the clichéd ‘game of two halves’ and whilst we did more than enough in the first half, we looked a bit uninspired in the second. I guess if we can get away with playing like that and win, all well and good but we’ll need to do better than that against tougher opposition. Obviously we had players like Lampard and Drogba missing, so we shouldn’t be too hard on the lads – besides, we’re back to winning ways, so bring on Arsenal.
TEAMS
CHELSEA: Cech, Ivanovic, Terry, Alex, Cole, Essien, Mikel (McEachran, 87), Zhirkov (Sturridge, 72), Kakuta (Ramires, 61), Anelka, Malouda.
Unused Subs: Turnbull, Ferreira, Van Aanholt, Bruma.
MARSEILLE: Mandanda, Kabore, Diawara, M’bia Etoundi, Heinze, Gonzalez, Cissé, Cheyrou (Ayew, 59), Remy, Gignac (Valbuena, 59), Brandao.
Unused Subs: Andrade, Azpilicueta, Taiwo, Hilton, Abriel.
GOALS
CHELSEA: Terry 7, Anelka 28 (pen)
Blue is the colour
