Premiership: Chelsea 2 - 2 Fulham
Things can only get better in 2007… can’t they?
Match reports
The Observer, Amy Lawrence: “In stoppage time, with another two points slipping from their grasp, John Terry sat in the dugout and shook his head in thinly disguised dismay. For the second time in five days he has looked on as the kind of defensive shockers that are anathema to him gave Manchester United yet more Premiership ground. The gap has been extended to six points.”
Independent on Sunday, Steve Tongue: “This is getting serious. For the fourth game in succession, a Chelsea defence deprived of John Terry’s commanding presence conceded two goals, allowing Fulham, like Reading last Tuesday, to leave Stamford Bridge with a deserved draw and putting Jose Mourinho’s side six points behind Manchester United at the head of the Premiership. There is a limit to how often Didier Drogba - reaching 20 goals for the season with his sixth in as many games - can rescue them.”
Sunday Times, Joe Lovejoy: “For the first time last night, Jose Mourinho admitted he was a “worried man”. For the fourth Premiership match in succession Chelsea’s once impenetrable defence conceded twice and, as against Reading on Boxing Day, they could manage only two in reply, and are now six points adrift of the leaders, Manchester United. Mourinho said: “Yes, I’m worried. If we were at the top of our form it wouldn’t be a drama, the drama is that we’re not. We cannot defend. We concede incredibly easy goals and in attack we have only one player (Didier Drogba) performing.” The Chelsea manager said the solution was not “spending millions” in the January transfer window, but getting “the best goalkeeper in the world” (Peter Cech) and “the best centre-half in the world” (John Terry) fit and back in the team. Terry, who had keyhole surgery on his spine to repair a bulging disc last Thursday, is already back in training and joined in the “warm-down” after the match.”
Sunday Telegraph, Patrick Barclay: “These west London derbies are seldom disappointing and the wet and wild conditions helped to make this one no exception. Nor was the drama confined to the match, for Jose Mourinho made a better and more succinct job of panning his team than any critic could have done. “We can’t defend,” said the Chelsea manager, “and in attack we have one player.”"
Official Chelsea FC Website: “Two goals had been conceded for the fourth Premiership game running and with Man United pulling six points clear, the price is being paid.”
Related links
Preview
Jose Mourinho goes into this game against near neighbours Fulham down to his last sixteen senior players.
John Terry underwent back surgery in midweek but has returned to light training, while Joe Cole may need an operation on his broken foot. Both Petr Cech and Carlo Cudicini remain sidelined, as does Arjen Robben with a hamstring strain. Khalid Boulahrouz is suspended.
Fulham, who have won only one of their last five games, are without Papa Bouba Diop, Zat Knight, Heider Helguson and Claus Jensen, while Luis Boa Morte is only fit enough for a place on the bench.
Chelsea have conceded two goals in each of their last three Premiership games. Boxing Day’s 2-2 draw with Reading left the Blues four points adrift of Manchester United.
The Blues have won seven of the eleven Premiership meetings with Fulham, including this season’s reverse fixture 0-2. Victory here will complete a third Premiership ‘double’ over the Cottagers.
- Posted at 01:24 PM · Permalink · Print · 2043 views · Last indexed by Google on the 16th May 2008
- Tags: Arjen Robben, Carlo Cudicini, Fulham, Joe Cole, John Terry, Jose Mourinho, Khalid Boulahrouz, Matches, Petr Cech, Premiership
What a load of shit! might aswel give man u the league! our team is playing like shit. Our sefence is the worst and how the f*** can mourinho say hes happy with hilario, with him we are nothing but hilarious! congrats man u for making us look stupid.
Another extremely unlucky draw. From TOCWS’s account, their first goal was a deflection and their second an absolute mess by our players with Essien missing a cross, and Drogba and Ballack both mishitting the ball away.
Six points now. We need luck to go our way, but once we get Robben, Cole, Cech and Terry back, we need to go on a storming run while United hopefully drop points at Anfield and the Emirates.
We HAVE to beat them at the Bridge.
We can do it. KTBFFH.
Oh, and there’s always the cups!
Keystone Kop-like defending again by the sounds of it. I had to make do with Radio Five Live Sports Extra commentary and Score Interactive: the pundits on Score laid into our defending after Fulham equalized.
Mourinho gave a frank post-match interview: criticised nameless players for shouting about not playing, then not producing the goods when given the opportunity. (Wright-Phillips’ days at the Bridge are numbered.) Also admitted we can’t defend.
I have to confess that a small part of me is… appreciating in some way the way things are going at the moment; it’s like Abramovich never happened!
Our unbeaten home record remains intact.
What the hell? Hilario is HILARIOUS. I won’t talk about the goals but about his distribution.
Can you remember the short pass to Essien? If Essien was not gifted, technically, that won’t be more pressure on a thin bare defence.
He does not exude confidence at all. I don’t care anything, Mourinho says because he has to be political about this issue. I can’t wait to see Magnus during the cup games to assess him.
We need a right back probably someone like Micah Richards and Daniel Alves. Of course, another central defender because Khalid is not confident at all. He is so rash in his challenges and always missing the tackles. I remember him walking down the tunnel, when substituted in the game against Barcelona. As Mourinho said, now the opportunity arise and he is utter rubbish. Be humble, young man and let the game come to you.
What will happen if Ricardo Carvalho gets injured against Aston Villa?
To be really candid, it will take us a miracle to win the league. we need to be straightforward in our acessment . Cfc are not playing well as we are deepply worried by the key players we missed. Apart of from the weaken defence, our midfield is rubbish except from Lampard. Both Makalele and Ballack are waste of talents. Co mpleted passes from chelsea midfield are very minimal and also losing possession so quickly from Ballack and Makalele. At the front, I think we are missing Robben and Joe Cole serious. Solomon Kalou needs to improve while Shevchenko needs time(maybe by next season he will start scoring and play with more vigour) . On Hilario, he is not good but still doing good as a third choice goalkeeper. We just need to get in some new players immidiately the window opens. I will suggest we go on to get the following players - Micah Richards , Sol Campbel(if possible) and a good Striker from a premiership team so he will quickly adapted to the game. I will be witing for Chelsea to surprise at the end of the season if we win the league or any trophy at all.
By the time we get our injured players back in the team, Man Utd might have gone so far and beyond reach.
I knew the second goal from fulham will come in because the defence was in shambles, is like we only have one defender which is Cavalho. the rest of the defence were just no where to be found when the pressure came on .
Up Blues till I die
Extraordinary defending - the worst I’ve seen since the glory days of Andy Myers. And not just for the goals, the miscues and airswipes in the last 30 minutes was of park standard. Ferreira was poor, Cole was shocking and Essien is not a full back.
That said, we were unfortunate to go 1-0 down - should have been two up at that stage, and once again it’s a case of not taking our chances, making mistakes and then not killing games off when seemingly home and clear. Our mental attitude still hasn’t adapted to the fact that our defence is no longer impregnable. It’s made for some cracking games, though!
I think it’s clear that Jose’s gamble of a small, adaptable squad hasn’t paid off (especially in the face of a bad but by no means severe injury crisis), but he’s a bright spark and will learn from that. Every manager makes mistakes, Fergie is still making them in his 60s, and people sometimes forget how inexperienced JM actually is. We’ll still be there at the end of the season, but it’s going to be very, very tough, because we’re going to drop more points before the defence gets back to normal. But, with JM (and I’m pretty sure Kenyon and Roman would agree), you’re going to be successful four seasons out of five, and that’s about as good as anybody can hope for at this level.
And even after saying all that, I still think we’d be top if Cech was fit.
We don’t get it. the problem with the team is not the defence but the midfield. we simply cannot hold the ball and complete the passes. Ballack and Makelele(very surprised) are the worst culprit. We do not have a structure in the midfield and lampard/essien can only cope with this deficiency. We have simply allowed teams to dominate us at stamford bridge because we have stopped closing them down in the midfield as before. it is over confidence or we have lost the mentality. Good enough we have the january window but we need to have a paradigm shift of mentality, work tirelessly as possible.
Needless to say, we miss Cech and he would have covered for this errors. Our support strikers particularly Kalou and SWP are just too selfish with the balll.
Forget the six points gap, forget about Man Utd dropping points, we need to improve our game play first. If we get the right mentality back we can then talk of challenging.
Lastly, i feel players have been talking too much on the championship that we forget its a team game. let the talking be done on the pitch. Mourhino’s gamble to work with a lesser squad has been checkmated with the worst injuries to our key players and i know he feels gutted letting up to 9 squad players go.
I am quite sobber now and dread to watch our next match against Aston villa. i do not have a choice, its blue forever.
How can you blame Hilario?blame ballack and sheva who don’t value half what you paid for them.I’m portuguese and if there where no portuguese on your squad and without the portuguese Mourinho you where no more than a nice team to fight for the CL.Don’t let the success blind you! Viva o futebol!
My patience in Shevchenko is beginning to wear thin. Didi’s reaction is the only good thing that it has produced.
We desperately need to find some cover in the transfer window. A right winger and a central defender would be nice.
Oh, and the same for SWP. Tosh.
Fourteen more games and Chelsea is down by six. This ain’t a time to conceed anything to Man U. But, it is time to make some changes. First, Ballack and Sheva can fill water bottles for 90 minutes. Second, don’t make Essien play full back. Third, anyone picked up in January must already play or have recently played in the Prem. If these things do not close the gap on Man U by the begining of March and Chelsea still have major injuries, heck promote our best reserves and stick Darria and Mikel for a few 90 min sessions. At least that will set up a good foundation for the 06-07 race.
Although Hilario looks terrified half the time, goes on unnecessary walkabouts and has awful distribution, he has produced some fantastic saves but his overall apparent lack of confidence seems to have spread to the defense as well. Without a confident keeper between the posts, defenders will be skittish and prone to mistakes.
Everyone has bad days and mis-hits but when you get Essien, Drogba & Ballack in a row all failing to clear the same tame ball, you know something else is wrong. Carvalho must be feeling that he’s not as good as he thought he was when Terry was around.
I feel Bouhlarouz is more of a liability than anything else and can’t help but breathe a sigh of relief when I see his name missing from the line-up. Pay the money for Micah Richards and play him.
Our midfield has shocking moments of miscommunication and rarely look comfortable on the ball. It sometimes seems as if some of their passes are completed out of sheer luck more than anything else. And what’s with all the long-balling? I’m still not convinced by Ballack although I was a big fan of his Bayern days.
I agree with Chris earlier about Shevchenko - he has made Drogba raise his game to a sublime level - although I’m willing to give him until next season. I remember the exasperation I felt when Essien seemed to be a vanity purchase. SWP needs to be played.
Despite all of that, or maybe because of it, we have been playing some very exciting football. I’m enjoying the small gap between us & Utd. They will drop points and with any luck the title will come down to when they have to face us at home. I get shivers just anticipating it.
Drop Ballack and Maka. Use Sheva as a sub. SWP to start. Let Khalid be in Centre. Give a chance to Diarra. With this, we can fix the problem temporarily!
After a night’s sleep and a couple of asprin, things don’t look quite as bad. But all things considered, the outlook is hardly rosy on current form.
The overall problem is the lack of confidence; partly due to the absence of Cech and Terry, but the goals we’re conceding hides a bigger problem.
The lack of creativity is alarming - Fulham played well, but to manage only 4 shots on target and (from memory) not force their keeper into a meaningful save is abysmal.
A fit Robben is the key, but we know how rare that is. With no Joe Cole, Eidur and Duff gone our options for opening up defences are very limited.
Mourinho’s ‘Untouchables’ comment is looking rather hollow at the moment. Several of those names simply aren’t delivering.
I’ve not been as critical as some of Ballack - he played very well against Reading in the way that he pulled the centre of their midfield all over the place but the gaps weren’t exploited clinically enough. But I’m not convinced he is consistent enough to warrant a place in the team at present. Possibly a good player to alter the shape of the game and therefore the opposition’s approach after 50-60 minutes, but on current evidence there shouldn’t be a place in the starting lineup for him.
Maka is looking like a shadow of his former self - the narrow midfield goes some way to explaining that in my opinion and there are numerous others (SWP, Sheva) whose endeavour is admirable but with little or no end product.
On the positive side, 6 points adrift at this stage is by no means a bad position to be in. With Terry back, we are far less likely to concede goals like yesterday’s comedy equaliser.
Mourinho has some big decisions to make this month; the transfer window, and more specifically how to restore the confidence of a set of players who appear to have lost a great deal of their once unshakable self belief.
I have to say that it speaks volumes about the high standards we expect these days, when we’re having conversations like this about a team who haven’t actually lost a league game in nearly 2 months…
We wouldn’t have so much grief if Fat Lump would play the ball to Ballack and Sheva instead of shooting every time he has the ball.
And Essien, just how good is he?,
Cant: shoot, pass, tackle, defend, cross…and this is football.
What’s with these people slaying SWP, He only plays 5 minutes a match when things aren’t going our way, Give him some respect.
Get rid of Lampard(to Ipswich Town FC or Hammers) and get Tevez. It’s time we get back to one touch football (without the Mouron).
Nice one Henry. Essien can’t shoot, pass, tackle, defend, cross etc - love it! This is our player of the year (although your other favourite player, Drogba, gets most of the plaudits). And a player that every other premiership manager would love to have in their side. That’s the best joke I’ve heard all year!
Lamps scores 20-odd goals a season, so yes lets sell him to Ipswich - it’s the season of charity after all. OK yes, he sometimes shoots when Sheva is better placed and that is frustrating (as it was for Crespo last year), but thank the gods he shot against Fulham else we’d have lost.
I agree though that SWP needs a run of half a dozen starts before we see the best of him, however we cannot afford him in the side at the moment because he’s not on form. Then again, it’s either him or Kalou at the moment - and Kalou’s composure in front of goal leaves a lot to be desired. Maybe SWP would’ve stuck a few away by now if he’d started regularly.
Nevertheless a draw in a derby game over Christmas is hardly a disaster, and with the window opening now, there is a chance to bring in some defensive cover (we’ve scored 10 goals in the last 4 games so attacking is hardly a real problem). Not Sol Campbell though please! What are the chances of nicking Wes Brown from Man Utd, or Sami Hyppia from Liverpool lol? Personally I would like to go for Michael Dawson or Ledley King - Spurs might do an exchange deal for SWP. Or Luke Young of Charlton to play right back. Or Barca may have one or two spare right backs at the moment.
Don’t you just love Henry’s comedy writing, he must have taken inspiration from our defending on Fulham’s second goal!
Henry only appears when there are bad vibes to feed off - two wins on the trot and he’ll vanish like a fart in a thunderstorm.
In my opinion, I think ManU are peaking too soon and likely to drop points when they travel to southern clubs like Portsmouth, Tottenham, Arsenal (these clubs are fighting for a place in Europe). A true champion always comes back strongly to prove it’s worth; as Margaret Thatcher once said, “It will get better sooner or later!”… Wishing Chelsea a Happy New Year!