Lampard the difference again as Chelsea defeat Wigan 4-1.
This week’s fixture against Wigan Athletic saw Juan Mata start on the bench, leading only to confusion and frustration for Chelsea fans. The Spaniard had reportedly been suffering from a virus however.
Despite the omission of the number ten, Chelsea took the lead inside 24 minutes after a sublime finish from Ramires. Assisted by a perfectly weighted first-time pass from Fernando Torres, the Brazilian was able to open up his body and place it on the inside post.
Prior to the goal, the first half failed to entertain as the majority of Chelsea’s play was drowned out by their own inability to produce a final product. Wigan meanwhile posed little threat, and happily ended the half with a deficit of just one.
It was a similar story at the beginning of the second half, and it could only lead to an inevitable second goal from Chelsea, scored by Eden Hazard. Cesar Azpilicueta once again displayed his crossing abilities as he found the Belgian in space, leaving the £32 million signing with an unchallenged finish.
Chelsea then got that familiar feeling when Shaun Maloney was able to beat Petr Cech with a well-worked goal that agonisingly trickled into the net leaving Branislav Ivanovic unable to clear off the line.
Despite Wigan coming to life, mainly through Franco Di Santo, it wasn’t to be another 2-2, as Frank Lampard drove Hazard’s pass into the bottom left-hand corner in the 86th minute. Once again it was all about Chelsea’s number eight, as he delivered a man-of-the-match performance with his defence-shredding passes.
It got even better for the London side when Marco Marin came on as a substitute and found the net with a header in the 92nd minute. It was a game that could have gone horribly wrong for the home team, but Lampard’s goal proved to be the turning point.
Press Reports
The Observer, Dominic Fifield: “Chelsea were becoming increasingly edgy in this contest with the final whistle still four minutes away, their authority rather undermined by memories of recent failings, when reassurance was found from a familiar source. Frank Lampard waited until then to make a proper mark, a calmly placed and precise finish from the edge of the area securing goal No198 for this club and a first win in five matches for this team. The veteran’s class is a permanent, as are the calls for his time at this club to be extended beyond the summer.”
The Independent on Sunday, Glenn Moore: “Hold the tumbrils, put away the scaffold, Rafa Benitez survives for another week. Probably, since nothing is certain at Chelsea. It was close, though. Had Mike Dean not decided Ashley Cole’s 71st-minute handball was inadvertent when he blocked Ronnie Stam’s shot in the penalty area the executioner may have been put to work.”
The Sunday Telegraph, Jason Burt: “They came to bury Caesar, not to praise him. Defeat — even a draw, which appeared likely at one stage of this nervy contest — could have spelt the end for Rafael Benítez as Chelsea’s interim manager. But, instead, the goals and the relief came and the César in question was César Azpilicueta, another Spaniard, who was comfortably his team’s man of the match and gained the plaudits.”
The Official Chelsea FC Website: “A run of four games without a win came to an end at Stamford Bridge. It was a victory which keeps us third in the Barclays Premier League table.”
Goals
23′ Ramires 1-0
56′ Hazard 2-0
58′ Maloney 2-1
86′ Lampard 3-1
90+2′ Marin 4-1
Hey Chris, welcome to the blog. Looking at your twitter profile, “20 year-old Journalism student” I’m now getting concerned Nick has been told to look to youth and break up the old guard.
Listen, I deserve a renewal of my contract for another three seasons. I’m not the ringleader in the Podding Shed, it’s that KaiserJonny. He’s the one undermining the management.
Not that I’m too bothered because I’ve been offered a 12 month contract by LA Galaxy. Or was it LA Fitness, no matter.
Thanks for the welcome. Yeah, apparently I’m part of a ‘transition’. I’ve told them you deserve at least another year though…
Happy to see Marin scoring, he is trying hard every time he is on the pitch. Great win and yes Lamps looks like the difference. He is completely resurrected player for us. his slump in form, which was caused by his injury is completely in the past and forgotten. The guy is like a whole new player, very interesting.
Torres gave great pass apart from it …………
KTBFFH!
Came into ChelseaFCBlog Towers this morning only to find my space had been removed from the main car park. When I questioned this the gnarled old finger from the security guard pointed across the road to the Youth Academy where my new space is. I can’t get any response from Blog Management Relations and my fellow pod casters have responded with a wall of silence, shrugged shoulders in a veil of plausible deniability.
A Brazilian blog seems interested in my services and I’ve heard rumours of BeijingUnitedFCBlog about to enquire.
It seems that KaiserJonny’s influence to the very top of the blog is growing as he builds his power base.
As an aside, decent showing yesterday with top notch stuff from all the players,. Hazard and Oscar shone but for me the MOTM was Dave who seems to have eliminated the problematic right back position for us. Luiz also looked good in midfield again.
The downside is it gives Benitez a stay of execution.
Speaking of training with the reserves, whatever happened to cunningplan?
Agree wholeheartedly with you assessment of MOTM. It seems to be very difficult to get past, CA, he had an excellent clearing header at the far post in the first half, and in the second came to the fore as an attacking force. All power to him, and long may he continue.
My general concern with yesterday’s show was the pace – or astounding lack of it – at which we went about our task. We need to get some urgency and zip into our general play and restart the game more quickly form free kicks and throw ins. Get the tempo up and we might see us, rather than the oppo, getting the all important third goal.
These are tricky days for we old-time Chelseafcblog fans.
While we wallow in our natural loyalty to the grumpy old men who churn out the Podding Shed when they can be arsed, we have to admit they don’t have the stamina to produce a regular stream of match day reports anymore.
So we embrace the new, bright young things even when they write with tippy-tappy, Twitter character-friendly length paragraphs as the future of the blog.
Tempus fugit, “so it goes” and sundry similar epigrams, possibly…..
Seriously, welcome Chris, and congrats for being brave enough to make it to The Bridge or find a dodgy internet stream to make such a timely report.
I settled for Sky’s Game of The Day 90-minute coverage and didn’t feel like I exactly missed a real cracker of a game despite the score line.
Nick, surely you could have kept the recent alliterative headlines going with “Lampard The Difference as Latics Larruped”?
Damn. Missed a good opportunity there didn’t I, BBD?
I have bad news re Disqus. As I and many others feared they are dropping support for the older versions of their comment system as used on here:
“We’re proud of the newest Disqus and are now at the point where it’s time to say goodbye to the older versions of Disqus. This enables us to better serve you and focus on building new features that will continue to make discussions on Disqus the best of the web.
“We’ve noticed that your site is still using an older version of Disqus and therefore, effective March 1st, 2013 your community will automatically be updated to the newest version of our product.”
First Rafa and now threaded comments. Where will it end?
Sigh!
I assume there is no point repeating the request that if Disqus are so proud of their new version they might like to build in some automatic highlighting for unread entries so that we can still follow conversations – or is the whole ethos that everyone is just interested in sounding off themselves rather than engaging with a conversation.
Meanwhile, I see Big Ron’s Building the Brand seems to be stuttering a bit, with the club reduced to advertising on LBC to try to shift even the usual reduced price tickets for the Brentford replay, magic of the cup or not.
Also, I noticed an advert in yesterday’s Observer offering freebie hospitality tickets to the Sparta home game for those adding their names to next season’s priority list for hospitality packages.
For some reason I thought this was apt:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BDyFuDxA-I
Tom Lehrer my favourite singing scientist!
Congratulations to our Nigerian contingent for winning African Cup! Well done Moses and Mikel!
…and Omeruo of course (Chelsea youngster on loan). He was a rock in the Super eagles Defense. The 19 yr old’s got a great future ahead of him.
Sorry for missing Omeruo, of course congratulations for him as well!
Headlines are Pope Benedict in shock resignation which is typical press hyperbole.
Now if Rafa resigned that would be a shock.
Can we agitate for them to make Rafa the new pope?
Rafa is Catholic. Fact.
He could do with being infallible for a while, it’d make a nice change for him.
Do performances get any worse than this?
To think I could still be working!
Dismality personified. Shambles season.
It was extremely pedestrian performance. In fact I hardly remember such a pedestrian performance. Probably 10 years ago when we played the same team and won 1:0
Chelsea vs Brentford 1940
Nice one. You’ve kept it in very good condition. Have you lasted as well?
I wasn’t born back then yet 🙂
One more goal and that is the 100 for the season …………… let’s hope tis a certain No. 8 that scores it.
Got a long drive later today, so gonna miss the match, but at least I’ve had a bit of practice looking out for pedestrians…
ITV coverage of FA Cup against Bees was disgusting. Ian Wright and another cunt in studio were competing who hates Chelsea more. Commentators were shambolic. WTF!!!
4:0 win and this place resembles a google+
wtf…?
It’s called apathy. It’s Rafa’s fault.
Joking aside, I think Vik’s writing a review of the match.
Might be simpler to create a template report and just fill in a few variables. The pattern of recent games seems very similar.
Sounds like ITV’s commentators’/pundits’ approach too….