FA Cup review: Blackburn Rovers 1 - 2 Chelsea
Monday, 16 April 07, 12:30 PM · Comments (41)
Match reports
The Guardian, Kevin McCarra: "The season is coming to a close yet for Chelsea it must feel as if there is an infinity of football before them. That is no reason for distress when a game such as this FA Cup semi-final, which had to be settled in extra-time, can bring them so fierce a joy. They negotiated this odyssey of an afternoon and found a course to their destination, the meeting with Manchester United at the new Wembley on May 19."
The Independent, Sam Wallace: "It is not just that Chelsea are still in the hunt for the three major trophies to put alongside the Carling Cup that will have persuaded Roman Abramovich to push open the door of the Chelsea dressing room yesterday for the first time in three months. It is not simply that they are in an FA Cup final, a Champions League semi-final and three points off the top of the Premiership - it is the glorious style in which they are living life on the brink and surviving."
Daily Telegraph, Henry Winter: "The Football Association blazers got their dream final for the new Wembley, but they were made to sweat in the sun for it yesterday. Blackburn Rovers performed with such marvellous verve and conviction in the second half that Chelsea's ticket to join Manchester United at the Aristocrats' Ball on May 19 looked seriously imperilled. But then came Michael Ballack."
The Times, Matt Dickinson: "Sir Alex Ferguson must have left Old Trafford yesterday wondering whether a 7-1 lead will make them safe from a Chelsea comeback in an FA Cup Final that will give the new Wembley Stadium a tumultuous opening afternoon."
Official Chelsea FC Website, Neil Barnett: "This will be Chelsea's eighth FA Cup Final, but after a great start to the game it was much harder coming than it might have been."
The goals
16”² Lampard 0-1. 64”² Roberts 1-1. 110”² Ballack 1-2.
The good
- The performance and result. Master of the bleeding obvious again, Tony? Well, the result means the quadruple is still a possibility, but let me caveat picking out the performance by stating this applies to the first half only and then extra time. Second half though, we were abysmal and relegated to a bit part player in a battering from a fluid, energised and motivated Blackburn side. We dominated the first half and frankly should have been at least two up going into the break. I knew what was going to happen next, and I bet a fair few others did as well. It’s happened far too often this season. However, extra time was remarkable, as we looked by far the fitter side. Considering our mid-week adventures this was frankly amazing.
- Joe Cole. Utterly magnificent. Tricky, fast, clever, intelligent and always dangerous. A close call for Man of the Match.
- Michael Ballack and Frank Lampard. Ballack's best performance by a distance in a blue shirt and a close contender for Man of the Match. Frank scored very coolly and put in his best performance for some time. Was the presence of Joe Cole a factor there?
- Michael Essien. Played at right-back, which again isn’t his natural position. He dominated that area and when he has the ball he looks untouchable. A fine performance. Let's hope we can get by without him in the first leg against Liverpool.
- Peter Cech. The world's best. Enough said.
- Blackburn Rovers. Yep, credit where it’s due. They gave us a hard game, probably one of the hardest we’ve had this season. They played good football and they mixed it up when they needed to. I thought they got away with some harsh tackling, but on a second viewing so did we. Mark Hughes is building a very useful side and frankly had Morten Gamst Pedersen scored with his free header 8 minutes before time I don’t think many of us could have complained about the result.
- The referee. Alan Wiley officiated the game with a lot of common sense. Other pedants would have been flinging yellow cards around within the first 5 minutes, but seemingly realising the importance of the occasion and the fact that this was a game between two skilful but physical sides he dished out the cards only when he probably had no choice. Ballack's booking was silly. If you’re going to wear a vest, why not just have another shirt underneath? I really want to see what a ref would do if a player had another identical shirt on underneath.
The bad
- Martin bloody Tyler. Andy Gray just redeemed himself yesterday by returning to the world of balanced and informed opinion. Tyler however can barely disguise his hatred of Chelsea. We scored and he could barely muster a small rise in his voice. Blackburn score and he raises the rafters. He’s a disgrace.
- Old Trafford. Surely Villa Park would have been a better more neutral venue than this? The place was nowhere near full and I can vouch for gaps between supporters not being good for the atmosphere. The pricing of the tickets certainly played a part, but really, I live near Portsmouth and the journey out of Manchester on Sundays is bad enough. Getting back around midnight will put a lot of people off, especially those with work the next day.
- Andriy Shevchencko’s comedy miss. Don’t get me wrong I am a fan of the Ukrainian but this was inexcusable. Honestly you could cut my arms and legs off, remove my knob, gouge my eyes out with rusty spoons and fill my ears with blancmange and I would have scored from there. And the pathetic limping away was truly laughable. I trust he will come good but really perhaps he should talk to Didier Drogba about how to overcome comedy misses and faux-injuries. One point about Sheva. I’m not convinced he ever had pace. He reminds me of Shearer and perhaps that would be a better role, a penalty box sniffer. Shearer managed 20 plus a season after retiring from England duty until he stopped playing and for me, that’s the role Sheva should be looking at rather than trying to be a playmaker as well.
- Extra time. Perhaps the last thing we needed with the week we have coming up is an extra 30 minutes on an energy sapping mega-pitch against a tough team in the blazing spring sunshine. I’m sure the physios know how to get the boys to recover, but let's hope that wasn’t 30 minutes too much football in an already very long season.
- The second half performance. What is it with us? Can we not play for the full 90 minutes. Do we really need the opposition to score in order to lift our game. We were poor second half and although we defended stoutly we seemed to give the ball away too easily and frankly were lucky to still be 1-1 at full time. It’s a mystery. Anyone got any ideas?
- My bad planning. I travel to the South of France for a holiday on... May 19th! When we are playing the final I will be on board a TGV gliding through the Massif Centrale at 200 mph. When I get to my little place it will be about seven in the evening French time. Game over. Can you imagine the torture of following by text and the sporadically successful Mobile Phone Internet service? If we make the Champions League final then I’ll be watching in a bar in a typically French village called Vias. An Irish bar, as they’re the only ones who show football when a French team isn’t involved. Can you guess who the majority of fans will be supporting?
Player ratings
- Petr Cech: Made a key save from our very own John Terry which seemed goal bound - 9.5/10
- Michael Essien: Marvellous performance at right-back and unlucky not to score with a fiercely struck 30 yarder 5 minutes before the end - 8.5/10
- Ricardo Carvalho: Quietly and efficiently marshalled the defence - 8.5/10
- Ashley Cole: An okay game and he linked well with Joe Cole but was skinned by Brett Emerton of all people and seemed to be easily dragged out of position - 7/10
- John Terry: Solid display but nearly got an own goal with a weird header - 8/10
- Frank Lampard: Occasionally loose on the ball but scored with great aplomb and this is the closest to the old Frank I’ve seen in a while - 8.5/10
- Didier Drogba: The big man was a bit quieter today and totalled just two attempts on goal. Made one or two odd choices when a shot at goal would have been better, but was a handful for Christopher Samba and caused problems for the Blackburn back four - 8/10
- Claude Makelele: Out of his depth more and more each week. Tackling was okay, but distribution was dire at times. A player from the bench or for the smaller occasion next season I think - 6/10
- Joe Cole: Brilliant. Didn't take him long to recover his best form after a prolonged injury lay-off - 9.5/10
- Michael Ballack: Masterful, fast, powerful and really looked like he was enjoying himself. Fabulous, but not before bloody time - 9.5/10
- Andriy Shevchenko: Hmm... A poor game compared to recent performances and the comedy howler of a miss was both pathetic and inexcusable. I was glad to see him come off in the end - 6/10
- Salomon Kalou (Sub): Busy entrance and did a lot of good stuff, but occasionally gives up the chase too easily and needs to learn not to over-elaborate - 7/10
- Shaun Wright-Phillips (Sub): Had a good game again when he came on. Didn’t have a great deal of time to make an impact but did very well for the winning goal - 7.5/10
- John Obi Mikel (Sub): Surely Makelele's days are numbered? This boy took hold of the Maka role in this game and passed better, tackled better and why aren’t the press drooling over him? - 8/10
Man of the Match
Three players scored 9.5 out of 10 on my register. It’s a tough call but for me it goes marginally to Michael Ballack. If he plays like this all of the time then he’ll have his own song before very long.
Final thoughts
In my view this was our toughest game of the season to date. The old clogging Blackburn still exists, but now it’s behind a coat of flowing, passing football. They should be higher in the league. We were lucky by the end of normal time to still be in it, and some dogged defending and inspired goalkeeping saved us. It has got better, but sometimes the sum of the parts still fails to show muster. Having said that, the extra time performance was amazing and a testament to our desire as much as our longevity and stamina. I hope the extra 30 minutes doesn’t have an adverse affect and we should be looking to put our best out over the next two games against teams desperate to show their worth and in West Ham's case, desperate to survive in the Premier League. The next few weeks will be the longest of this squad's lives but surely now they truly believe they can finish the season in a blaze of glory.
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I have to agree with your thoughts and ponderings. I didn't think that Chelsea fans could have such a balanced view!
However, I have to say I was disappointed with the lack of support you gave your team when we piled on the pressure in the second half. I think a pin could be heard dropping in the West Stand for most the second half.
I will throw this into the mix, and I would expect a fair bit of abuse for it, but I think Chelsea fans expect Chelsea to dominate and win every game. When things are going to well, the fans don't knwo what to do, and just be quiet. I know we didn't sell our full allocation, and quite frankly, that is absymal, as Blackburn is only 30 miles down the road. However, I thought we 'out fanned' by a considerable amount.
Maybe, you only do sing when your winning.
Great game yesterday, really great!!! The fact that Roman and Jose hopefully getting along with each other makes me even more happy!!!
Not going anywhere and not flying anywhere, my wife wanted to make a trip to France in May. The answer was "No dear I am not going anywhere, when Chelsea plays football every three days".
To bloggers on this website. What do you think if we met together somewhere in London to watch FA CUP final together? Shed could be good location to do that.
Tony,
Spot on review as ever, save for one point. I'm not sure my heart could take even substitute performances from Maka next season. Deserves our respect, maybe a hearty goodbye and a long trip into the sunset, but his playing days (for us at least) need to end this season. He still has his one breathtaking 65 yard long ball per game, but everything else has just left him. Take nothing away from what he's given us, but it's time for either Mikel or Essien to own the holding role (I'd like it to be Essien if we buy a decent RB, but maybe thats just me).
Set pieces are becoming a joke. Tyler and Gray were adamant yesterday that every free-kick and corner we had was going to be a threat. To who - the ball boys ??? They're either over-hit, or hitting the wall. Serious work needed.....
Decimus - our vocal support has decreased in direct proportion to our success, but has actually shown signs of getting better this season. Think yesterday it was more a case of it being hard to sing when you are biting our nails cos Rovers were great second half.
Fify - I tend to agree, but was using the appearances from the bench as a way of letting him have some dignity rather than justletting him go. having said that your comments have made me think again and perhaps you're approach is better. Shake his hand, thank him for everything, a decent pay off, glowing recommendations and let him ride off into the sunset. I'm sure others would relish a year or two more from him, maybe Newcastle or Everton, but for me this is his last season unless he undergoes a Lazarus like recovery in terms of form.
Also agree about the set pieces. I don't know why Ballack doesn't do more as he has a fearsome shot on him and would also be my first shout for penalty taker. Work is needed on that front for sure.
JD, you got me. I can't beat you raising me a Boeing. I guess the difference for me is that I won't be able to negotiate any options as the French are notably apathetic to football in bars unless you're in the more...ahem.....exotic areas of Marseilles or Paris. It willbe recorded on my Virgin V+ box of course so that when me and my Brother in Law return we can spend the following Sunday night wife free, drinking and well just pretending its live.
But only if we win.
Decimus - like any successful team we've picked up a lot of new fans who may not be as entrenched in the culture of football. Success seems to breed this, just look at Arsenal, Manchester United and Liverpool, all of whom can be on the hushed side away from home. When we were losing to Arsenal at SB earlier this season the place was deafening as we chanted and got behind the team. When Essien scored the place was in danger of crumbling. I think its an away thing and a partly to do with the lower attendance as well. Nice to hear from you by the way. The reviewers here try to be as balanced as possible without wearing completely blue tinted glasses. Some of the regular commenter's aren't quite like that, but fair play to them for having that level of (unrealistic) belief.
Mark, Drogba is looking a little tired, but when can we rest him. If we had another striker I would agree but with the unpredictable Sheva being so off and on what can we do? Just think where we'd be without him during the African Nations Cup next year (And Essien, Mikel, Kalou and less so Geremi).
On Sheva, and this is no excuse for that appalling miss, but apparently he is carrying quite a bad thigh injury. The medical team didn't want him to play but he begged Mourinho to select him.
Bet he wishes he didn't now!
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Nice one Tony - I'll raise you a TGV and state that I'm booked to be on a sodding Boeing 30,000 feet above Northern Italy when the final kicks off! I shall be calling BA later today to discuss the 'options'...
Great game - not surprised at Blackburn's comeback second half - they were playing for their season after all. Excellent game for Ballack; Joe Cole is back at just the right time - just feel that with him, Kalou and Mikel we might have that little bit extra in the tank in terms of fitness which could be telling. We'll see on Wednesday I suppose.
And never mind the players - I'm bloody exhausted from all this and have aged considerably during the last week!
Football’s meant to be on a knife’s edge and wouldn’t be exciting if we knew we’re guaranteed a win.
Our comeback performances are being repeated so it’s not luck or good fortune but more a combination of good technique, fitness, guts and a desire to win.
Pleased to see Joe Cole go the distance so he must be near full fitness after that. Thought Lampard was back to his best in open play but still wayward from dead balls. Please please please keep Drogba away from taking free kicks.
Splashed out yesterday and flew back and got home at 9:45pm – time to shower and eat before MOTD2!
For the remainder of the season it’s going to be really really tough with two big games per week form here on in and we need to rotate as much as possible. The one area where we lack most options is Drogba – is he going to be able to survive playing all the games?