Big Brana's Winner

By Gary Watton
February 27 2016

The much-maligned duo of Cesc Fabregas and his stand-in captain Branislav Ivanovic were the unlikely goalscoring heroes, as champions Chelsea avenged their three-one humiliation against the same opposition from their autumnal encounter in west London. This time on the south coast, Chelsea produced the kind of triple whammy which renders this arguably the most satisfying win of their ill-fated Premiership campaign. 

Firstly, they came from behind to win, something which has been too much of a rarity for the Blues. Secondly, they scored a late winner. They seldom manage that either. Thirdly, they finally got the better of bogeymen Southampton, so there were quite a few reasons to be cheerful. We even find ourselves in the lofty position of eleventh and poised to make a foray into the top ten if the current form is sustained. It begs the question of why oh why did we wait until about February to get our act together?! I'm afraid that it is too simplistic to blame Mourinho and to lavish praise on Mr Hiddink, although there is some validity to the theory that the change of manager has been instrumental in the change of fortunes. 

Anyhow, we really must go to Norfolk and put struggling Norwich to the sword, but although the Canaries are not a patch on the high-flying Saints, we need to come out strong against them, something that we did not do at Southampton. Instead it took the loss of a stupid goal almost on the stroke of half time which jolted our troops belatedly into action. Maybe the replacement of the error-prone Rahman by the promising Kenedy was also a big factor in our second half revival. For Guus, captain Terry cannot come back quick enough, as we may not yet be able to count upon the defensive reliability of young Baba. Fortunately, his captain, big Ivanovic got his team out of jail with a brilliant header shortly before full time, after Cesc had peculiarly found the back of the net with an effort that looked like a cross into the box that was merely allowed to wander on its merry way into the net.

Fabregas deserved that piece of good fortune after being blatantly denied a penalty kick at the same venue fourteen months ago. Some might call it poetic justice. Oh and daft remark of the weekend could possibly be allocated to expert summariser Perry Groves, who during the Absolute Radio commentary of this match suggested that Mikel was being preferred to Matic because he is more "mobile." That is like suggesting that a chest of drawers is more mobile than a wardrobe.

Southampton 1 CHELSEA 2; half time: 1-0.

CHELSEA goal scorers: Fabregas; Ivanovic

CHELSEA team: Courtois; Azpilicueta; Ivanovic; Cahill; Rahman; Hazard; Pedro; Fabregas; Costa; Willian; Mikel. Used substitutes: Oscar; Kenedy; Matic.

CHELSEA LEADING SCORERS:

Costa thirteen goals

Willian ten goals

Oscar eight goals

Pedro five goals

Cahill three goals

Fabregas three goals

Ramires three goals

Remy three goals

Traore three goals

Southampton

Discussion started by Chelsea FC (IP Logged), 27/02/2016 15:21

Chelsea FC
27/02/2016 15:21

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