By dixon9
February 9 2007

Well, we came away with the all important 3 points from the Valley albeit with our sometimes perplexing trait of “just doing enough to win.” I imagine José would explain that there is a long way to go this season, still four competitions to resolve and a smaller, tighter knit squad to stretch out.

Conserving energy and efficiency are no doubt much underestimated weapons in a long campaign that could pan out to something like 60 odd games for some players but there is also a small matter of a 12 goal goal difference besides the points separating us from the Premier League trophy.  This goal difference is worth another point to our foe from Old Trafford, and we missed an opportunity to eat away at that niggling statistic yesterday in SE London.

 

Chelsea carried on from where they had previously left off on Wednesday during the initial stages of this match; Ballack, Mikel and Lampard bossed the midfield, an inspired Wayne Bridge whipped over dangerous, probing crosses, young Diarra continued to impress, Drogba was everywhere and of course, Shevchenko demanded the ball whilst making sure the Charlton defence always had to keep one eye on him.

Hermann Hreidarsson made a pig’s ear of a clearance which Shevchenko swiftly latched onto on the right side of the penalty area.  The Ukrainian ripped in his shot from a tight angle which Scott Carson did well to parry out.  Ballack had a diving header just go wide (and nearly got beheaded by a Charlton boot in the process) and then the inevitable conclusion came on 18 mins with the only goal of the match; Shevchenko was dispossessed after appearing to have taken on too much when he ran into a flurry of Charlton defenders, however, he managed to prod the ball into Lampard´s direction after Faye was caught unawares.  Lampard did his usual, tee-up and drive home from 25 yards to score his 18^th goal of the season.  Carson sprawled to his right to no avail and jumped up like a jack in the box to rebuke his colleagues.

The blue tidal wave continued to threaten and it could have been 2-0 when Shevchenko just headed over another searching cross from Bridge.  Drogba tried a low trajectory 30 yarder and “One man went to mow!” and “José Mourinho!” rang out - this is the moment when I expected and hoped that we would reduce the goal difference as well as the points tally before the battle at White Hart Lane takes place later today.  However, this turned out to be the moment where we took our foot off the accelerator and let a tenacious Charlton side try and get back into the game.  Cech was forced to touch over a looping shot from Talal El Karkouri and soon after had to quickly get down to his right from a Matt Holland free-kick.

Just before the half-time whistle Chelsea briefly rallied again with Drogba angling a difficult, fast cross over goal followed by a Lampard 35 yard free-kick which Carson pushed away.

The start of the 2nd half saw “Oh Jimmy Jimmy! Jimmy, Jimmy, Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink!” come on for Rommedahl, presumably to provide more support for Bent.

Chelsea seemed content to absorb the Charlton pressure although, whilst they didn’t really cause us any problems, it was enough to encourage the home support.  Jerome Thomas hinted that he may cause problems down the left although Diarra kept him at bay.

Then the two London sides took turns in applying the pressure – Charlton’s Ben Thatcher made a desperate clearance from a low Lampard cross and then, at the other end, Cech made an excellent save from a dangerous Faye first time shot form the edge of the box. 

Shevchenko was then replaced by Salomon Kalou in the 74^th minute and as against Blackburn in midweek, the youngster from the Ivory Coast almost made it 2-0 after his rasping shot took the paint off the outside of Carson’s post. 

Sean Wright-Phillips also came on at the same time and I have to say, produced an excellent, albeit brief display.  Twice he came close to scoring – one effort after scampering past two Charlton defenders deep into the box, only to see his shot curl just outside the far post, and another fierce shot that forced a great save from Carson.

Terry came on with 5 mins to go, replacing Claude Makalele.  This move also freed up Essien from the labours of central defending, escaping into his so effective role in midfield.  It was great to see our captain back and this augers well for the remainder of the season, although I couldn’t help feeling puzzled at why Mourinho hadn’t done this much earlier – surely the Essien powerhouse in midfield would have given our strikers a new lease of life?

We now await the result from White Hart Lane this afternoon and a lot of the older Chelsea fans find themselves in the uncomfortable position of wanting Spurs to win for a change – I reckon the return of Lennon and Berbatov with the side still smarting from their midweek Carling Cup exit should be enough to inspire them to a draw.

Charlton: Carson, Sankofa, El Karkouri, Hreidarsson, Thatcher,
Rommedahl (Hasselbaink 46), Faye, Holland (Lisbie 78), Hughes,
Thomas (Diawara 88), Marcus Bent. Subs Not Used: Randolph, Ambrose.
Chelsea: Cech, Diarra, Essien, Carvalho, Bridge, Mikel (Wright-Phillips 75), Makalele (Terry 88), Ballack, Lampard, Shevchenko (Kalou 75), Drogba. Subs Cudicini, Geremi.
Booked: Diarra. Goals: Lampard 18.
Att: 27,111
Ref: M Halsey (Lancashire).

Post match Mourinho quotes:

"We had a great leader in Frank Lampard, who set a very good example, but it is still good to have JT back and put Michael Essien back into midfield.”

"I think now that opponents have to forget what teams have done to us over the last couple of months because now we have our defensive security back.”

"I hope this was the last game Michael Essien played as a central defender."

"We fought really hard for this - I just feel that we had moments where we could have killed the game and we did not.”

"I told my players that we have five finals in February in the Premiership, the FA Cup and Champions League - but good players should react to that pressure in a good way and be comfortable with it."

On the latest “feed the masses with some slops” from the media, Mourinho refused to comment on a move to manage Real Madrid:

"I will not play this game. If someone does not respect Chelsea or myself then that is their problem - I will not get involved.  I respect Real Madrid and Fabio Capello and, for sure, I spoke with nobody and nobody spoke with me.  I do not think a big club like Real or a big coach like Fabio deserve this sort of thing.  I will not play this game. If others want to, that is up to them. But it is important that I send this message to Fabio because I respect him a lot."

And on the pretenders to his throne:

"There are apparently 12 on the list - some confirm, some close their mouths, some are happy to see their names in the light but that is their problem. It is not my problem."

Post match Pardew quotes:

"The champions were flexing their muscles in the first part of the game and we really struggled to cope with them.  But after that our commitment and effort was fantastic and the stadium played its part.”

"There will be occasions when the quality just is not good enough. That was perhaps the case today - but we ran them close, we forced them into errors and made them look uncomfortable.”

"Jose jumping up and down gave an indication of the threat we were offering and we created a couple of great chances.”

"If we keep doing that, we will have a great chance of staying in the division."