South Africa Bound?

By Since66
December 27 2009

I said in my preview yesterday that Chelsea take apart 'in-form' teams and put them to the sword and thats exactly what happened at St Andrews yesterday lunchtime. How Chelsea didn't score is down to one man - Brum's 'keeper Joe Hart. He was magnificent, pulling off three world-class from Sturridge, Lampard and Kalou. Then for his troubles, Hart's head was gashed after a collision with Kalou.

At one point during the game the stats read that Chelsea had 21 attempts on goal with seven on target to Birmingham's 2 and 1 which goes to show how Chelsea were dominant throughout most of the game.

Cechie boy had his moments, pulling off a great save from a Larsson free-kick, crashing into the upright in the process and Alex sent in a free-kick from 35 yards which crashed against the cross-bar leaving it shaking for a minute or two.

Chelsea didn't have the difficult game I expected, although Brum got off to a fast start straight from the kick-off when Benitez broke clear, causing Cechie boy an anxious moment, but his shot went wide after Alex woke up, chased back and deflected the ball for a corner.

The major talking point of tha game was the Benitez goal ruled out for offside.

With Didier lying pole-axed on the ground, Benitez was deemed offside (must have been a stud's length) after converting a cross-shot from Jerome.

However there is this grey-area, the team in possession generally kicks the ball into touch when a player is down and I wonder what the reaction would have been had the goal been allowed to stand.

I am really glad that Mikel is off for a month. Yet again he gave away needless free-kicks in dangerous areas.

Perhaps his national coach can drum the fact into his thick skull as it seems to get lost in translation at Cobham.

As for Florent Malouda. He was inspired when Hiddink was in temporary charge but is now regressing into the player he was when his first joined Chelsea.

His fluffed effort in the second-half was laughable. His sending-off was a complete joke. He is simply a waste of time and space.

Birmingham: Hart, Carr (c), Johnson, Dann, Ridgewell, Larsson (Johnson 87), Ferguson, Bowyer, McFadden (Fahey 76), Jerome, Benitez

Booked: Bowyer 70


Chelsea: Cech, Ivanovic, Carvalho, Terry (c), A Cole, Mikel (Ballack 84), Belletti, Lampard (J Cole 78), Malouda, Sturridge (Kalou 66), Drogba

Booked: Malouda 60, Ivanovic 78

Sent off: Malouda 88
 

Birmingham 0-0 Chelsea: Hart Stopping, Hart Breaking

Discussion started by 50 Years Over 100 Years , 27/12/2009 11:46

50 Years Over 100 Years
27/12/2009 11:46

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dixon9
27/12/2009 13:45

Have to say....GREAT title!

I pretty much agree with all you say - we did dominate but poor finishing was the culprit and reason we left with 1 point only.

The poor run may becoming almost pyschologically detrimental - we really need a result to snap us out of it. The frustrating thing is we could have been well, well ahead in the league by now.

The good news is that Drogba and co are being allowed to stay for the Fulham game - will cause Sturridge and Borini heads to go down though.



"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.

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