PL Match Report: Man City 0 Chelsea 1
By dixon9
March 17 2007
Not a memorable match but I for one am not going to moan about the lack of goals. Chelsea reminded me of a boxer deliberately taking body punches to tire their opponent and conserve energy for what is likely to be a veritable congestion of matches ahead.
We didn´t really have to huff and puff too much during this game and despite receiving pressure of sorts, Man City seemed to have left their dentures out as they didn´t manage 1 shot on target in the 90 mins. When they did approach our penalty area the sight of Cech in goal made me feel that even with an opening they probably wouldn´t score anyway.
I like Stuart Pearce. A top bloke in my book and I hope one day we get to see him in charge of better material…or even England. Whilst the result hasn´t helped “Citeh´s” position they can take heart that at least they had a bit of spirit about them which should hold them in good stead to avoid the relegation zone at the end of the season.
It was vital that we won this one to keep the pressure on the Mancs who’ve been riding their luck for a while now. The 12 point gap is now 6 with parity in games played and we have that game at the Bridge against them to come.
Watching John Terry walk out of the tunnel can only encourage us to feel more optimistic with regard to pipping Man Utd at the post for the Premier League title. What’s more, he didn´t look as rusty as I thought he might have done. There was however, a negative surprise in that Essien wasn’t in the squad – presumably he is being rested after the knock he picked up against Spurs. Shevchenko had picked up a knock in training and also missed this match. City, for their part, dropped Corradi (much to their fans dismay) but they had a slight boost with the appearance of the fiery Joey Barton.
Opening exchanges from both sides lacked definition although there was a nice move involving Ballack, Drogba and Robben which resulted in the Dutchman skewing his shot wide. Later, Sun Ji Hai was lucky to get away with a stud raking challenge on Cole – his offence going strangely unpunished.
City pressed and their suffering crowd did their best to urge their team on but all that was really achieved was
Then, on the 27th min Kalou caught Richards by surprise with his pace, and as he bore down towards goal from the left into the box the City defender made a clumsy challenge which was rewarded with a
City weren’t deterred though and kept thoughts of “We’re going to lose this” out of their heads and strove all they could for their manager. Barton went down in the box with a ridiculous dive which should have been rewarded with a yellow – but he’s not Arjen Robben though is he?
For the remainder of the first half we were content to deal with the opposing teams exertions and to be honest, we didn´t really break sweat.
The second half didn´t bring too much fruit although we seemed to control the game still quite well.
Terry hobbled a bit after a Mpenza challenge but run it off ok, Kalou threatened a few times, Drogba, whilst apparently missing the off the ball runs of Shevchenko, had a great 2nd half controlling and laying the ball off superbly throughout.
Lampard found a gap after a great move around the City penalty area but his gentle lob over Isaksson was cleared off the line by Richards.
Wright-Phillips came on in the 79th minute to an ovation from the City supporters – very sporting and touching I thought. Seany almost made an immediate impact on the game when he thundered in a shot from a full
Drogba continued to annoy the City defence. Our man from the Ivory Coast evaded successive challenges from a couple of City defenders in his trademark, casual manner and this seemed to have pricked Richards who went in fiercely on him not long after. Drogba´s angry streak came out when he then went hunting for challenges with Richards as the referee hadn’t spotted the City defender’s offence when he caught him round the face during an earlier challenge - A yellow for each was the result.
Sky’s Andy Gray deserves a mention here: Drogba went down and Gray started moaning there was no contact, nobody near him....then the replay clearly showed him getting a hand in the face. With the slow motion clearly showing the hapless Scotsman’s mistake he remained mute (he did the same thing with a Blackburn/Arsenal penalty incident a few weeks ago). If Mr Gray wants credibility he might consider admitting his mistakes instead of fuelling his oh so transparent, anti-Chelsea agenda.
Ballack almost had the last word with a
Ballack has come in for a bit of stick of the media and some
Maka had a good game whilst Robben seems to have slipped back into his “anxious to impress” mode again resulting in some poor decision making when on goal. Carvalho particularly seemed to revel in the tough, fast tackling and was no doubt a lot more comfortable with Terry alongside marshalling the defence but for me it was Lampard who deserved MOM. Lamps was very good throughout and worked tirelessly – I can’t remember him putting a foot wrong.
This used to be called a professional display in the 80s when Pool were winning trophies almost every season, of course, nowadays, the “rules” have been reversed to suit media and oppo fan agendas.
One fan had this to say on the situation and last night’s game:
“This was a big big pressure match and we had to win it by whatever means. Many refuse to see the whole picture and were dreaming about Samba football - how naive, unbelievable.”
“These last 2 weeks, the media have been caning the team, the club, the owner, the megastore,
“First it was Sheva's comments, then JT/Lamps contracts, then JM swearing, then JM having to issue ultimatum to the gutter press, then JM/Lamps going, Sheva/Ballack earning too much, then RA selling and doing a runner…..”
“Lamps got it absolutely spot on the Newspage. Some people/fans cannot handle the pressure of being a fan of a big club and therefore dream of that one match of lovely football and forget the next battle ahead.”
WELL SAID THAT MAN!
Isaksson, Richards, Dunne, Distin, Ball,
Cech, Geremi, Carvalho, Terry, Ashley Cole, Robben, Ballack, Lampard, Makelele, Kalou, Drogba. Subs: Cudicini, Shevchenko, Boulahrouz, Diarra, Wright-Phillips.