I hate to say I told you so but I did tell you so. Christmas, Chelsea game, inconsistent……see where I’m going with this review?
If the first half was like a bad boyfriend – all foreplay and no penetration – then the second half was more your heavy petting teenagers – a bit more action but still stopping at second base. Yes, yet another frustrating game where we’re left jealous of our better looking competitors who can’t stop scoring whilst any pre-match excitement we may have had deflates like a parent’s intrusion.
AVB had tinkered with the line-up, giving both Lampard and Torres a start and whilst Drogba starting on the bench may have raised a few eyebrows, to be fair to Torres, he had a lively enough start. He forced a good save from Stockdale in the first half and played a big part in Mata’s goal, taking down Cole’s cross but in truth, he still didn’t look enough of a threat himself.
As for the other start – for Lampard – you’d have to say the hour he spent on the pitch was probably less significant still in what was a pretty lackluster performance from Chelsea as a whole. Yet again we seem to have turned up late and even then looked as if we wished we’d got the day off with the rest of the country.
Not that there weren’t chances, there were, they just didn’t trouble Fulham enough. With Sturridge less than clinical and Torres more than a little rusty we resembled my grandmother at bedtime – toothless and a bit slow on the old pins.
And whilst Mata might have popped up to combine with Torres for our goal, it was back to the bad boyfriend syndrome with Chelsea failing to stay on top for more than ten minutes when Ruiz got past Cole a little too easily and Cech failed to claim the cross allowing Dempsey to tap in.
Considering their last game saw them battered 5-0 though, Fulham put up a decent fight to be fair and Stockdale looked like he’s got six arms towards the end, saving from Drogba, Meireles and Malouda in succession but in a display that’s all too familiar recently, it was too little too late for us to take more than a point.
Consistently inconsistent!
TEAMS
CHELSEA: Cech; Bosingwa (Ferreira 80); D Luiz, Terry (c), Cole; Meireles, Romeu, Lampard (Malouda 61); Sturridge (Drogba 70), Torres, Mata.
Unused subs Turnbull, , McEachran, , Kalou, Lukaku,.
FULHAM: Stockdale; Kelly, Senderos, Hangeland,J A Riise; Dembélé, Murphy (c), Dempsey; Ruiz, Sa (Kasami 81), Frei.
Unused subs Etheridge, Baird, Hughes, Briggs, Etuhu, Sidwell,.
GOALS
CHELSEA: Mata 47
FULHAM: Dempsey 56