Match Reports
The Guardian, Dominic Fifield: “Performances as authoritative as this insist there is life in the old guard yet. Chelsea have thrust their way back into the Premier League’s top three, eclipsing Fulham at a canter with players whose days at the club appear to be numbered thriving in the familiarity of a derby. Those crammed into the Putney End will have found reassurance in the sight of Frank Lampard and, in particular, John Terry excelling. This was a throwback, a saunter to enjoy on the banks of the Thames.”
The Daily Telegraph, Jason Burt: “Emphatic victory here elevated Chelsea back into the top three. It might not constitute title success but if they were to stay there it would avoid a calamity and help them realign themselves in the summer under a new manager, such as Malaga’s Manuel Pellegrini – who would be easier to attract with a Champions League place. Rafael Benítez could go on his way with his job accomplished in what has turned into another demanding and extraordinary campaign for this soap opera of a club.”
The Independent, Jack Pitt-Brooke: “David Luiz’s opening goal was extraordinary but from then on it was a win of efficiency and control for Chelsea. Rafael Benitez manages his teams to peak at the right time and they look like doing exactly that, riding out some early pressure to win 3-0 at Craven Cottage and stride ahead of the pack chasing Champions League qualification. Chelsea are now third, one point ahead of Arsenal, with a game in hand, three points ahead of Tottenham, with them yet to come to Stamford Bridge, and five ahead of Everton. Having won four of their last five in the Premier League, they must now be favourites to finish in the top four.”
The Official Chelsea FC Website: “A John Terry brace, coupled with a David Luiz wonder strike, saw the Blues run out comfortable 3-0 winners at Craven Cottage and move above Arsenal into third in the Barclays Premier League table.”
Goals and Highlights
30′ David Luiz 0-1
43′ Terry 0-2
71′ Terry 0-3
101 Great Goals highlights
News Links
That screamer Luiz put in the Fulham goal was a pure quality! Really great goal!!!!
Pleasantly surprised by the result.
Cracking night at the Cottage down by the river.
Expected a dull 1-1 draw and failure to capitalise on the Arsenal v Everton result, but far from it. Big result in the context of the end of the season scramble for the CL places.
Luiz’s thunderbolt (carbon copy of Goalbaek’s at Spurs) was the highlight, support was excellent and noisy which left the quiet folk of Fulham rather nonplussed. Captain’s performance from JT, but having been as close to the incident as you could be without invading the pitch he was rather lucky not to give away a penalty when Ruiz went over. Took his first goal superbly.
Let’s hope that we don’t balls it all up at Anfield on Sunday, then.
Not sure it was a penalty. They replayed it several times and it was inconclusive. The yellow card was harsh. Think it was one of those where the player anticipates a challenge and in adjusting his feet loses balance. He didn’t leave a trailing leg or any of that nonsense and JT moved across but didn’t dangle a leg out. Seen them given though. That plus Petric doing a marvellous goal line clearance off our line gave us that bit of good fortune you sometimes need.
I had posted this under the previous thread.
Well a 3-0 win in a local derby is not to be sneezed at.
JT looked a tad more interested than he did in Moscow, with a lot less pointing and a lot more defending.
They still don’t appear to get enough shots on goal for the
possession they have in the final third. Particularly in the second
half, there were numerous occasions where the break was on but the wrong
ball or a mis-placed pass meant the opportunity was missed.
You can’t depend on superb goals like Sideshow Bob’s to break a game open every time.
Still, I enjoyed the performance and hopefully it will provide a bit of confidence for the trip to Anfield on Sunday.
I hope you all read Lord BlueGlover’s splendidly long rant a few days ago at the fag end of the Rubin Kazan blog – pah to your 140-character social networks I say!
Among his targets were those irritating e-mails from the club addressing you by your first name urging you to “spend some of your hard earned cash with us on some tasteless tat memorabilia or clothing”.
I just about tolerate those as the compulsory yin to the yang of the ones that tell me half-way useful stuff like ticket sales dates for cup-ties and re-arranged fixture times news.
However, it seems I must have failed to tick/untick correctly one of those “we’d like you to allow carefully selected third-party associates to plague you with e-mails too” boxes at some point as I have recently had a “Dear Dave” from Sky telling me they know I’m a “true blue” and “have been selected to experience full access to Chelsea TV for 2 weeks for free”.
All of which is by preamble to saying that on a night when Sky couldn’t be arsed to do a proper Football First and only tacked on a few minutes of highlights of our game after Gary Neville and Sir Trevor B had got bored picking over the bones of the Hammers v Mancs game I was able to sit down and watch the full 90-minute re-run on Chelsea TV at midnight [subscription to Insomniacs-R-Us seems to be required too].
And surprisingly decent stuff it was too, both on the pitch and in the commentary box, where Clive Walker was unexpectedly critical of some of our wayward passing, if not quite reaching Tony Gale/Trevor Francis levels of arsehole punditry.
I still won’t be subscribing when my 2 free weeks are up, though.
That is a disgrace. Where did the 6 minutes come from? Where did the 30 seconds beyond the 6 minutes come from? Why was Suarez on the pitch (after biting Ivanovic)? Why was Sturridge allowed to stay on the pitch?
and then…why was Torres picked at all? Why did he stay on the pitch beyond half time (when he was so clearly so ineffectual)? Why did Benitez take off Hazard, and put on Benayoun?
Day Tripper……because today was all about Rafa and his Liverpool love-in. Hero’s welcome home (check) ex-old boy Torres gets 90 mins (check) Why else discard the rotation of the strikers today – esp when Ba is cup-tied for Thursday’s SF? Torres performance was about as inexcusable as rat-faces bite on Brana. Thrown in the substitution of Hazard for Benayoun (ex-old boy gets a run out @ Anfield, check) and you see the pattern. What a horrible afternoon. Feels like a defeat. Sick of seeing us lose late goals.
And whatever retrospective punishment is dished out to Suarez, that doesn’t restore the 2 points we would have had. I don’t think I have ever been so disgusted by a game in the all the years I’ve been watching football