Chelsea 3 Sheff Utd 0 + Goals Highlights


SHEVCHENKO
By dixon9
March 20 2007

Chelsea remain resolute in our quest for a 3rd successive premiership title. Again, the gauntlet was thrown in our direction by Messers Ronaldo and Rooney, and again we picked it up and responded.

The gap remains at 6 points.  8 games and 24 points are up for grabs with one of those fixtures being a home tie against Man Utd at Stamford Bridge.  Of course, the league is in the hands of the Old Trafford side and all we can do is keep winning and hope that they slip up soon.  I can’t help feeling we wouldn´t be in this position if it hadn´t of been for that match at Reading.

 

This was a comfortable win and achieved by giving rests to the likes of Lampard, Ballack, Drogba and no injuries received – ideal preparation for tomorrow evening’s FA Cup clash in north London.  I have to say that the Blades had no cutting edge at all and pretty much rolled over for us – NOT a trademark of Sheff Utd or Neil Warnock.  Not only was this an easy win but the style in which was carried out was pleasing to the eye – some really nice fluid football.

 

Robben tormented and threatened the Sheffield defence and he and Wright-Philips thoroughly enjoyed themselves interchanging flanks throughout the match with the latter surprisingly taking up the central midfield position as and when required.  Shevchenko had a superb game and Terry looks to be finally over his injury troubles providing a typical, solid and competent display. 

 

A special word must go out to Carvalho who again had an excellent game.  The Portuguese defender has been immense for some time now and has been a rock in the heart of our defence for large parts of this season’s campaign.

 

The Chelsea faithful have been told our celery ritual has to come to an end but they couldn’t be stopped from singing it at least and the famous chant echoed around Stamford Bridge at regular intervals!

Chelsea got off to the best of starts when in the 4th min, Carvalho made a surging run from deep in defence which took him past no less than 3 Sheffield Utd players, he provided a perfectly flighted ball to Shevchenko who had got himself into space on the right.  The Ukrainian did what a player of his stature had to do, perfect control on the thigh before lashing his shot into the net with aplomb.  12 goals now this season.  Admittedly, the defending was Sunday League at best, with 2 defenders drifting towards Kalou inexplicably leaving a 30M striker unmarked in space.

 

Chelsea continued to press and the likes of Robben, Wright-Phillips, Shevchenko and Kalou were having a field day and it was no surprise when we doubled our lead in the 17th min. 


Shaun Wright-Phillips scampered down the right before delivering a dangerous cross in across the face of the Blades goal.  Shevchenko cleverly helped the ball on (and got an elbow in the back of his head for his trouble) and Kalou was left to side-foot the ball home from 2 yards.

 

Humiliation loomed for the Sheffield side and barracking from Warnock briefly sparked them into life.  Kazim-Richards went through the middle and fired a fierce, albeit centred shot which Cech could only parry out to his right.  Gillespie then was provider for Hulse who tested Cech forcing a save with feet.  There was an unfortunate clash of inrushing players which very unfortunately resulted in what could be a broken leg for Hulse.  The Blades forward was stretchered off and replaced by Nade.

 

On 31 mins, a Davis goal was disallowed for offside/foul on Boulahrouz – take your pick.

 

The beginning of the 2nd half saw the withdrawal of Lampard and the introduction of Ballack and it wasn’t long before the effect of the German’s introduction put the match totally out of reach for Sheffield United.  Wright-phillips swung in a free kick from the left, Ballack leapt up and headed past Kenny.

 

Warnock was beside himself with the 3rd goal and made no bones about making his feelings known with regard to the legitimacy of the free-kick earned by Robben.

 

 On 65 mins, with the 3 points safe and an eye on tomorrow nights Spurs match, Mourinho made more changes bringing on Drogba for Shevchenko and Ferreira for Cole.  Shevchenko had had an excellent game with the sort of performance we expected since his summer signing.  The Ukrainian received a standing ovation from the Stamford Bridge crowd and had caused all sorts of problems for the Sheffield United defence with his off the ball running and ability to find dangerous scoring positions, which, far too often this season, seems to have gone unnoticed by his team mates. 


Chelsea had the match in complete control and with players rested for Monday, those on the pitch were content to stroke the ball around untroubled.  This encounter was summed up quite well by Warnock:

 

"I thought we did fantastic to lose three-nil.'' "I'm not trying to pull the wool over anyone's eyes."

Mourinho said the following after the match:

 

On the White Hart Lane, FA Cup Semi-Final what does he expect? "I expect to be in the final.”  Confidence or language error? (“Expect” also means “hope” in Portuguese).

 

On the match: “Against Tottenham on Monday, I was hoping not to chase a negative result and it was very good to get that start and have the game under control. The players could enjoy the game not under pressure.”

On Shevchenko´s superb display:  “I believe the same will happen to him as Didier. The second season will be better than the first, and the third season will be better than the second. His team play is much better and he is a happy boy.”

 

Is he fed up with the constant questions from the media on his future at the Bridge?  "Yes, a little bit.  But I don’t change my mind. I want to be here next season. If I say it 50 times and have to say it 51, I will say it 51."

On the title race:  “The Premiership is not two months it is eight months and everyone knows the problems we had, we lost so many points during the December and January period."

"When we have our best players and the dynamic of the team back we are a good team, a team that scores goals and defends well and it is not a surprise.”

"We have many things to play for, three competitions to fight for. If Essien is back and Joe Cole is back and we don't lose players, we are a strong team."

"The only thing we have under our control are our matches.

"We can believe and we can beat them and recover three points, but after that we are not involved.

Chelsea: Cech, Boulahrouz, Carvalho, Terry, Cole (Ferreira 65min), Wright-Phillips, Lampard (Ballack ht), Makelele, Robben, Shevchenko (Drogba 65min), Kalou.

Sheff Utd: Kenny, Geary, Morgan, Davis, Armstrong, Gillespie, Montgomery, Quinn (Tonge 67min), Jagielka, Kazim-Richards, Hulse (Nade 27min)

Scorers: Chelsea: Shevchenko 4, Kalou 17, Ballack 58

Referee: C Foy

Attendance: 41,897

MATCH HIGHLIGHTS:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WtmIHSgIHTc