In October, goals from Nicolas Anelka and Branislav Ivanovic beat Blackburn Rovers at Ewood Park. In the return at the Bridge today it was the same scorers with only the order reversed.
A defensive Blackburn side had one good chance in a first-half that saw Chelsea hit woodwork twice but it rarely looked like a game we wouldn’t win.
The goals came after the break and both from set-pieces. Ivanovic, excellent along with Terry in defence as well as a threat at the other end, shot in from close range. Anelka followed up by netting from equally close to goal after Ivanovic made his aerial power tell.
Although the display wasn’t vintage Blues, it completed back-to-back wins for the first time since that Ewood Park victory was followed up with a win in Moscow. Hopes of a revival are alive.
There was talk before the game that Carlo Ancelotti would leave some big name players out of the starting line-up but when the team sheet was handed in, the words Drogba, Malouda, Essien and Cole, none of whom were in the 11 against Ipswich, were written upon it.
Among the subs was John Mikel Obi who had not played since 27 December due a knee injury suffered at Arsenal.
The game started with the urgency that has too often been missing from the early minutes of Chelsea performances this season. On two minutes Ivanovic couldn’t reach a Malouda corner but it fell to Ramires whose shot hit the bar. So close to his first Chelsea goal.
Lampard looked to have played the pushed-forward Cole in on goal inside the first 10 minutes but Mame Diouf nipped across and took the ball away as the early promise began to dip, although Ramires was bright with his interceptions and swift running with ball. Malouda looked like he could give the 35-year-old Salgado a good contest on the left.
Chelsea won our third corner on 18 minutes but Essien planted a header firmly wide. Drogba fired a speculative shot over five minutes later.
The Blackburn threat up to the midway point in the half was a single long-range shot from Pedersen that Cech dealt with comfortably and they were forced into an early change with Jason Lowe coming on. It was little surprise that David Dunn was the player injured, the midfielder’s hamstring failing him.
On 32 minutes came a really good chance for a Chelsea opener when Anelka touched on a Ramires pass and Drogba was clear and onside. You’d have made the Golden Boot holder firm favourite to find the net but a touch too strong as he ran into the area allowed Givet the moment’s chance he needed to intervene. With Drogba at his best, that would have been 1-0, no doubt about it.
Suddenly it was all happening. Hoillet attacked the heart of Chelsea’s defence and it needed a very good save from Cech to keep the visitors from taking the lead. Terry was hurt in clearing up but hobbled on as Anelka curled a shot well wide as play switched again.
Lampard headed a Bosingwa cross over as half-time approached, unable to get over the ball, and it was a strong end to the first 45 minutes by Ancelotti’s men, especially when Drogba went to the right and hit quality crosses previously lacking.
Anelka reacted quickest to one of those deliveries but had to watch as the ball flicked up agonisingly onto the bar.
So it remained goalless as the teams went in at the break, with the main discussion how to break down a Blackburn side leaving just one man in the Chelsea half for much of the time. The visitors had parked the bus.
Blackburn brought on the returning Roque Santa Cruz at the start of the second half but it was a Chelsea striker who showed first, Anelka making enough space for a shot which he drilled a yard wide of the far post.
Malouda was the game’s first booking after a foul on Mame Diouf near halfway before Chelsea set about getting our game going again. Drogba wasn’t far from nodding into the path of Lampard’s well-timed arrival and although Bosingwa’s delivery was wayward over the course of the afternoon, he almost found Terry at the far post.
The captain had been pushing up in open play throughout the game but it was from a set-piece that he at last made a telling impact in attack.
Malouda took his side’s 11th corner on 56 minutes and Terry headed it into a crowd at the far-post. It dropped to the feet of Ivanovic who did well to wait his moment before poking it home from inside the six-yard box.
Ten minutes later Terry was only inches away from making it a centre-back double on the scoresheet as he headed Lampard’s miscued volley wide. Lampard then failed to connect strongly enough with an attempted lob and Robinson caught, but Chelsea were looking good for another goal.
The wait lasted until the 76th minute, Drogba doing nothing to ease the tension when he allowed Robinson save his shot when he had only the keeper to beat.
From the corner that followed, again taken by Malouda, Ivanovic headed towards goal and Anelka stuck out a leg to make sure that this time Robinson was beaten. It was the Frenchman’s first league goal since the one at Ewood Park in October.
Robinson reacted quickly to keep out a 25-yard Malouda shot in the final five minutes of normal time and Drogba almost defeated the former England stopper with a shot that dipped over the bar.
When the final whistle blew on the 2-0 win, Chelsea moved back into the top four, ahead of Spurs playing Man United on Sunday.
Chelsea (4-3-3): Cech, Bosingwa, Ivanovic, JT (c) Cole; Ramires, Essien (McEachran 79), Lampard, Anelka (Kalou 79), Drogba, Malouda (Sturridge 86). Unused subs Turnbull, Ferreira, Bruma, Mikel. Scorers Ivanovic 56, Anelka 76.Booked Malouda 48.
Blackburn (4-2-3-1): Robinson; Salgado, Samba (c), Nelsen, Givet; Dunn (Lowe 23), Pedersen; MB Diouf, Hoilett (Roberts 67), Olsson; Kalinic (Santa Cruz h-t).Unused subs: Bunn, Hanley, EH Diouf, Benjani,
Referee Martin Atkinson.Crowd 40,846.
Shots on Chelsea 2 Blackburn 6Corners Chelsea12 Blackburn 1Fouls Chelsea 8 Blackburn 5Offsides Chelsea 1 Blackburn 0
See the game in full on Chelsea TV from 6pm on Sunday , with highlights on Chelsea TV Online.
Webmaster Forum | SEO Forum | Coding Forum | Graphics Forum
Have you signed up for the newsletter. Every signup or comment left gets another entry into the draw. This week win Chelsea home kit.
the club should try as much as possible to put smiles of the faces of fans. this is transfer window and up till, we have not bought any player.
look at our team, no replacement for Terry and the midfeild problems are there unattended to. the 18.2m spent on Ramires is enough to buy three solid players from France to enhance our ageing team.
in my opinion,should spend good money on players that would give and add immediate value to the like by learning from Sir Alex Fargurson Wenger.