Fulham 0-0 Chelsea - Newspaper Reaction, Match Report, Team Analysis

Newspaper reports

The Guardian, Dominic Fifield: “Chelsea’s league defence has taken on a ragged look. This spluttering stalemate at local rivals has merely confirmed the impression that their pursuit of silverware this term must now now focus on the Champions League and FA Cup, with any hopes they had privately entertained that Fernando Torres’ £50m arrival would breathe life into their title pursuit long since dashed.”

Daily Telegraph, Henry Winter: “Chelsea dropped two points and Didier Drogba on Monday night and the fall-out from both will be felt for some time. Although Drogba eventually replaced an out-of-sorts Fernando Torres, the Ivorian still could not rescue the champions at a cackling Cottage. When Drogba fluffed a late chance, Fulham fans chanted “are you Torres in disguise?””

Official Chelsea FC Website: “Chelsea stay fifth in the Barclays Premier League table, but had penalty hero Petr Cech to thank after a goalless draw at Fulham on Monday night. The game looked all but over until the 93rd minute when the otherwise outstanding David Luiz brought down Fulham’s Clint Dempsey inside the Chelsea area, but Cech made amends for his error against Liverpool last week by keeping out the American’s penalty and ensuring what could be a valuable away point for his side.”

The preamble

Are you one of those people who believe that anything’s possible? If you believe, work hard and have a little bit of luck along the way you can achieve anything.

Personally I’m not one of those people. If someone says to me “Do you think Ann Widdicombe could play centre forward for Chelsea?” I wouldn’t be able to respond with the platitude “Anything’s possible”. Of course I think she could make a decent holding midfielder!

Similarly I now have no belief we can win the title and found it hard to muster great enthusiasm for tonight’s game although the prospect of our first eleven versus our reserves of Duff, Sidwell, Gudjohnsen, Kakuta, Hughes, Dempsey et al is intriguing.

Not too sure why Jose was in the stands?

The match

0’

Slow tempo
Sloppy passing

10'

Pedestrian
Good shot Ramires

20'

Good shot from Duff – Cech parried but should have held it
Cech safe on corners
27 minutes until first decent move and good effort from Frank
29' – best and worst of Luiz, played it out brilliantly but then over played it and lost the ball

30'

Great shot Malouda
Is Torres out there?
Cross, shot from Branners – almost in
No width
Too many long aimless balls hoping Torres can run on to it

40'

Anelka dropping far too deep
Chance for Torres but poor first touch and feeble shot
Brilliant long ball to Shevchenko, oops I meant Torres, again poor first touch and fumbled his one on one

Half time tea and Revels – at least I got a bit of excitement wondering if I’d get an orange centre.

45’

Great run from Ramires, fine cross into the box and a tame header from Torres
More of the same. Everything’s too slow and we’ve forgotten how to open teams up
Good strike from Ramires
Another wayward pass from Essien. Get him off for fuck's sake

60'

Impressive the way Anelka can twist and turn and keep the ball around the half way line but I once knew a bloke who could throw a pen and catch it on his ear. I’m not sure either skill is useful
Anelka off for Kalou
Malouda could have been awarded a penalty
We are dominating. Is it like the tide or just a bit of swell?

70'

Torres off for Drogba. It’s a bit like buying a car a few years back and Torres needs running in
I’m dreading voting for Player of the Year
Great chance for Essien with a diving header
We’re totally dominating but don’t really look like scoring. When you’re cottaging you’ve got to get in behind them

80'

Fulham almost score – great save by Cech from Dempsey
Gudjohnsen’s coming on
Spectacular overhead kick by Luiz – show’s that fat bastard Rooney how to get off the ground

90' + 3

PENALTY to Fulham
Cech SAVES IT
Another chance for Fulham, open goal but Dempsey misses it

Final whistle: 0-0.

Team analysis

Defence – no problems here. Best defence in the league and it’s just got better with the addition of Luiz who’s going to provide us with heart stopping moments at both ends of the field.

Midfield – big problems.

Frank can’t pass or shoot, firing on one cylinder
Malouda can’t pass or run, looks totally disinterested, firing on one cylinder
Essien can’t pass or do anything at speed, firing on one cylinder
Ramires – firing on eight cylinders but can’t make up for everyone else’s deficiencies

Attack - big problems.

Anelka wants to go in the opposite direction
Torres won’t get fed tidy little sliders so he can play off the shoulder. If we wanted to play it long we should have bought Andy Carroll or Kevin Davies
Drogba is losing his mojo
Kalou – to be fair he looked the most lively

Summary

I’m getting a little tired of Carlo interviews where he bemoans our lack of tempo. We can all see that. I thought he is being paid £5 million per annum to fix little issues like that. I’m seriously contemplating applying for the next managerial vacancy. I mean how hard can it be? Tell the board you need three or four players, get Scott Parker to give the team talk and defend crap performances by claiming “we’re going through a difficult moment”.

Sorry but I still don’t believe.