Anyone who thought yesterday would be a routine game for us against Norwich would have come away from it a little surprised because it was anything but routine – I think ‘eventful’ might be a better way of describing this one.
Started out bright enough, we were finding ourselves in acres of space from the off and when Jose Bosingwa cracked in a shot from 30 yards out, it looked like a drubbing might be on the cards. It wasn’t. We did little more of note for the rest of the first half whilst Norwich responded well to going behind and they battled themselves back into the game.
Terry had already had a struggle keeping hold of Grant Holt in the first half and our defence again looked about as impregnable as the fertile Mrs Beckham, so it came as no great surprise to see Holt take advantage of Hilario going walkabouts to flatten his own player and promptly hooked the ball in the back of our vacated net.
At least Ivanovic walked away from his collision though, which was more than could be said for Didier Drogba after his tangle with Ruddy. The Ivorian was out cold before he even hit the floor and with a ten minute break whilst the medical team did what they had to do, an unhappy looking AVB took the opportunity to bring on Anelka and Mata.
Ruddy’s next contact with one of our players was a little more helpful though as he brought down Ramires to earn us a penalty and himself a red card. In spite of stats suggesting 6 from 8 penalties had been missed in the Premier League at the point he stepped up to take it, Frank Lampard coolly buried it right down the middle to give us the lead again.
Torres, who hadnt had his best game, made way for Romelu Lukaku and whilst we werent suddenly transformed into Barcelona, you’d have to say AVB got the subs right as Lukaku put himself about from the off. Mata had already served up the sort of cross Torres has been crying out for before the Spaniard departed, so needless to say, when he pounced on a loose pass from De Laet and slotted it past Rudd from a narrow angle, there were probably more than a few Chelsea hearts stolen.
Overall then, the scoreline probably flattered us on what was definitely not one of our better days at the office but again, we ground out the win and the introduction of Mata and Lukaku have given us plenty to whet our appetite for the coming weeks.
TEAMS
CHELSEA: Hilario, Ivanovic, Cole, Bosingwa, Terry, Ramires, Lampard, Mikel, Malouda (Mata, 67), Torres (Lukaku, 83), Drogba (Anelka, 67)
Unused subs: Turnball, Ferreira, Alex, McEachran
NORWICH: Ruddy, Whitbread (Pilkington, 30), Barnett, Tierney, De Laet, Naughton, Johnson, Crofts, Hoolahan (Morison, 60), Holt, C Martin (Rudd, 81)
Unused subs: R Martin, Fox, Bennett, Jackson
GOALS
CHELSEA: Bosingwa 6, Lampard 82 (pen), Mata 101
NORWICH: Holt 63
Blue is the colour
