Spartak 0-2 Chelsea: Early Tricks and Treats
TAKE A BOW SON
By Since66
October 20 2010
Chelsea returned to the Luzhniki Stadium last night for the first time since...... that night, and with everything against them, Chelsea proved what an in-depth squad the Boss 'Anco' has at his disposal. Trick 1. No Drobga, no Lampard. Trick 2. The Luzhniki Stadium. Trick 3. The plastic pitch. Trick 4. 70,000 partizan Russians. Trick 5. An in-form Spartak. Trick 6. A very young bench.
The treats.
Treat 1. Yury Zhirkov's first goal for the club - and what a goal it was - Zhirkov hit a 25 yard volley arrowing into the left-hand corner, after Spartak cleared a Mikel high ball.
Treat 2. Minutes before Anelka, one on one with the 'keeper, missed an opportunity to put Chelsea 2-0 up, he made up for it when feeding off an Essien pass, expertly passed through the legs of a covering defender and wide of the 'keeper into the bottom corner of the net.
Treat 3. Anelka. Excellent all night, causing Spartak problems everytime he got on the ball.
Treat 4. JT - Our Captain, Legend, Leader, blocked everything in his way and when Spartak did get through him or round him, Treat 5. Petr Cech. Brilliant. Three great saves and had command of his area all night.
Treat 6. 17yr old Josh McEachran. Came on with 15 minutes to go. He showed no fear and some of his touches..... were just sublime!
Treat 7. Obi Mikel. That holding role is his own now!
All in all it was a good night, a brilliant night for Chelsea and Chelsea must be favourites to win Group F.
Spartak: Dykan, Parshivlyuk(c), Pareja, Suchy, Makeev, Ibson, Sheshukov, McGeady, Ari (Ananidze 84), Kombarov, Welliton
Booked: Suchy 56
Chelsea: Cech, Ferreira, Ivanovic, Terry (c), Cole (van Aanholt 86), Essien, Mikel, Zhirkov, Kalou (McEachran 73), Anelka, Malouda (Kakuta 81)
Goals: Zhirkov 23, Anelka 42
Booked: Zhirkov 87
Watch Yury's goal over and over again
http://www.chelseavideos.co.uk/Gifs/Zhirkov%20v%20Spartak%2010.gif
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There was me expecting a grinding-out, slightly bore match - and we get "tricks and treats"!
Besides all the points which you mention it really is becoming apparant that Ancelotti has the SQUAD - rather than just a select 11-13 players - that can all replicate his model of football. It´s almost as if we can´t have a much weaker team if major players are out.
The other good news of course is that, at long last, it does seem that some of our kids are finally breaking through. Brendon Rogers said the target was 2010 years ago - looks like the club are delivering.
"It is born out of hypocrisy and fundamental insecurity. There have been two kids on the block for the past 12 years. Suddenly, there is a third and that one is threatening to be more successful than the others and they don’t like it." P Kenyon.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2010:10:20:19:07:51 by dixon9.
FIVE against WBA for the reserves (in their 5-4 win) and the reserves were 3-0 down in the first 20 minutes
Don't Gamble, Bet Risk Free
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2010:10:20:18:25:55 by Since 66.
Was a great performance.
"It is born out of hypocrisy and fundamental insecurity. There have been two kids on the block for the past 12 years. Suddenly, there is a third and that one is threatening to be more successful than the others and they don’t like it." P Kenyon.