Birmingham 1-0 Chelsea: One Shot on Target was Enough
Amber Nectar
By Since66
November 21 2010
Last Christmas, on Boxing Day, Chelsea travelled to St Andrews and were denied three points by a spectacular goalkeeping display by Joe Hart. Yesterday at St Andrews, different name but the same outcome, Ben Foster denied the Blues with a heroic display. Deja Vu, Lightning striking???
Chelsea were looking for a quick bounce back after last week's performance and result against Sunderland and dominated the play and possession but hadn't reckoned on the form of Foster who must have been buoyed by his unexpected appearance for England in midweek.
Lee Bowyer scored the only goal of the game, running into a wide expanse of space in the Chelsea area to latch on to a Jerome knock-down, before sliding the ball past the on rushing Cech.
Foster denied Drogba, Anelka, Ashley Cole and Ivanovic. The woodwork denied Drogba. Ramires and Kalou (on more than one occasion) denied themselves when scoring would have been the easier option.
Chelsea had eight attempts on target to City's one and Chelsea had 16 corners to City's four.
The stats alone prove Chelsea's dominance, the all important three points went to City who now move up to 12th in the table.
The Boss 'Anco' was stunned by the result, but was happy with the performance.
He said, "It is not good. I think that when you deserve to lose you have to lose, as against Sunderland. When you deserve to win you have to win. We didn't win because I think we were unlucky.
"I have to say nothing to my team because everyone showed good spirit, good attitude, everyone wants to win, we played good football, had a lot of chances, but we lost.
"It is a difficult moment but we don't have to lose confidence."
With just about a third of the season played, Chelsea have lost four times, losing three out of the last four and interestingly enough we HAVEN'T scored a goal in those defeats.
Birmingham: Foster, Carr (c), Johnson, Dann, Ridgewell, Larsson, Ferguson, Bowyer, Fahey, Jerome, Zigic (Hleb71)
Goal: Bowyer 17
Booked: Ridgewell 77, Fahey 84
Chelsea: Cech, Ferreira (Bosingwa 84), Alex, Ivanovic, Cole, Ramires (Sturridge 71), Mikel, Malouda, Anelka, Drogba (c), Kalou
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I´d actually put this loss down to pure bad luck...Sh-t happens....that´s football etc etc..
Finishing in some cases (Kalou) should have been much better but we will have to take this one on the chin and move on...
One more depleted squad match to go (Newcastle) before 1-2 big guns return for Everton.
Who knows, Anco might just play quite a few kids against Zilina as he promised and if 1-2 shine then they just might get a run out v Newcastle?
"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.
