Chelsea
Pedro's Sensational Start
Azpilicueta Scores!
By Gary Watton
August 24 2015
It only took Pedro nineteen and a half minutes to announce himself to the English Premiership with a goal. His impact upon Chelsea's counter-attacking was immense. However, even blessed with a new cutting edge to our attacking, the champions still almost contrived to throw a couple of points away in a match that had almost everything, well almost everything except a Chelsea penalty or a red card for a Chelsea opponent, but hey let's not fantasise about such apparent impossibilities.
The Sunday afternoon drama began when that nice Clattenberg awarded West Bromwich another penalty against us, following one that they were allocated back in May. Of course the home supporters celebrated this decision as if they had just scored. Twas a pity for them when big Courtois reminded us all of his greatness when he prevented the round object from rolling into the net. The home supporters were suddenly not rejoicing quite so much. As often happens in such circumstances, it is the team that has saved a penalty which makes the team that missed a penalty then pay the penalty for missing their penalty, if you get my drift. So it came to pass. Shortly afterwards, the new recruit Pedro promptly fired his team into the lead. Ten minutes later, Costa displayed his best predatory instincts to double the advantage. Chelsea were temporarily cruising on easy street, but Chelsea wouldn't be Chelsea if they didn't shoot themselves in the foot. Morrison atoned for his penalty blunder and halved the deficit. However, just as the Baggies' faithful were getting their pretty little heads excited again, up steps none other than 'Dave' Azpilicueta to restore the two-goal cushion shortly before the interval with his first-ever Premiership goal. At the halfway stage, I was rather hoping that Fabregas would add to the scoring spree, thus making it a clean sweep of Spanish goal scorers. However, in the event, 'only' three Spanish amigos bagged our goals, a record only matched previously in the Premier League by Swansea City.
Regrettably, the drama was not all confined to the first half. Mark Clattenberg proceeded to award John Terry an early use of the dressing room showers, and Chelsea were back in the well-trodden territory of trying to negotiate the last half hour with only ten men and defending a slender lead when Morrison scored again. This is the second time this year at the same venue where we conceded both a penalty and were reduced to ten players, and the second time in three matches this August that the Blues (or all blacks) were handicapped by conceding a penalty and by having to compete with one less man. In truth, the away team were the authors of their own misfortune. Defensively, Chelsea are not the solid castle that they have been. Mourinho will look to address this problem as he would sooner have a 1-0 than a 3-2. At the moment, Chelsea are full of goals and their matches are goal bonanzas, but the team is also afflicted with defensive frailties. A Chelsea geezer called Bernard rang Blokesport later to suggest that our midfield was now so lightweight that opposing teams were able to attack at will without much hindrance. The failure of the Fabregas-Matic axis to repel invaders from pouring forward with ball at their feet is perhaps more alarming than the reported loss of form of Ivanovic, Terry, and Cahill. The tabloid focus will inevitably be all over JT like an unwanted red rash, but captain fantastic has been written off before. He was used sparingly by both Robbie Di Matteo and then Rafael Benitez. Nevertheless, when it looked like he was being eased out of the picture, the big guy showed his powers of recovery. Chelsea haters will be sneering that Terry is finished, but I beg to differ. It is certainly likely that he won't be able to play each and every league match in England and Europe from now on, but JT can still be relied upon to play at least thirty and probably more than forty matches this season.
My main gripe is with the match officials. Poor Jose is goaded in post-match interviews into saying something controversial, but even the outspoken one recognises the need for tact, because an honest appraisal of the proceedings has sometimes culminated in a fine being slapped upon him for simply answering the question and criticising the flawed refereeing. Now he protests that he can and will say nothing. On his behalf permit me to say that when an opposing team are looking for a penalty against us, they are granted the benefit of the doubt, yet when Chelsea appeal for a penalty, the referee by contrast thinks to himself "Oh they're just looking for a penalty." If we are fouled outside of the penalty area, it's a free kick, but again, if it happens inside, the official's attitude is "Oh they're just looking for a penalty." Nobody is asking for special favours, but it would be rather nice to operate on a level playing field of consistency. The chance would be a fine thing!
Anyhow, John Terry is far from finished, and despite our temporary defensive problems, Chelsea are far from finished either. Pedro is clearly going to provide a much-needed creative impetus. When Chelsea manage to batten down the hatches again, they will be capable of accumulating lots of clean sheets and maximum points too. Manchester Mercenaries can be congratulated on making an impressive start to the Premiership campaign, akin to ours last August, but the league isn't won in August. It's a marathon, and the champions can be relied upon to provide a fearsome challenge to any challengers. Funnily enough, Chelsea took four points from their three fixtures last season at home to Swansea and away to Manchester Wannabes and West Bromwich Albion, so we are actually no worse off in terms of points than last year when we won the league by a landslide. That is one straw most definitely worth clutching at!
West Bromwich Albion 2 CHELSEA 3; half time: 1-3.
Chelsea scorers: Pedro; Costa; Azpilicueta.
CHELSEA team: Courtois; Ivanovic; Azpilicueta; Zouma; Terry; Matic; Fabregas; Pedro; Costa; Hazard; Willian. Used substitutes: Cahill; Falcao; Mikel.
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24/08/2015 12:56
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