Chelsea 3-1 Birmingham City - Newspaper Reports, Goal Videos, Carlo's Reaction
Matt The Blue |
Newspaper reports
The Guardian, Dominic Fifield : “Manchester United will not be quaking in their boots just yet but Chelsea, with little fanfare and virtually unnoticed, are creeping back into contention. The defending champions strolled to victory here, the ease at which they had brushed Birmingham City aside even reflected in passages of sloppiness after the interval that had Carlo Ancelotti pacing his technical area in frustration. Complacency cannot be tolerated but, privately, the Italian will be buoyed. Perhaps even optimistic.”
Daily Telegraph, Jason Burt: “It was almost like the last five and a half months did not happen at Stamford Bridge. Chelsea brushed aside Birmingham City with the kind of swagger that has not been witnessed since late autumn, since they were pulling apart all-comers, since before Roman Abramovich started his meddling. Again.”
Official Chelsea FC Website: “The Blues move up to second and made it 19 points from a last possible 21 thanks to a goal in each half from Florent Malouda and a strike to savour from Salomon Kalou. The game on a balmy spring evening continued on from the weekend away performance as Carlo Ancelotti retained the 4-3-3 shape and much of the same team.”
The goals3’ Malouda 1-0 26’ Kalou 2-0 62’ Malouda 3-0 77’ Larsson 3-1 (pen)
“There are five games until the end of the season, our aim is to win every game and after that we can see where we are in the table.
“Everyone knows to close the gap of six points with five games is not easy. Our aim is to stay focused on the next five games, after that we can say the season was good or not good.
“The side played very well because from the back we are playing quicker compared to the difficult period we had.
“The strikers have more possibility to show their quality. This is good for the team. We scored after two minutes, so the game was more comfortable.
“For 60 minutes we played really well, the last 30 minutes were not so good. Maybe it was because we didn’t use all our energy before the end of the game.”