Premier League: Chelsea 0 - 0 Blackburn Rovers
Monday, 17 September 07, 12:58 PM · Comments (22)
Match reports
The Observer, Stuart Barnes: "Jose Mourinho has enjoyed the luxury of free-scoring performances in three home league games against Blackburn during his stewardship at Stamford Bridge. Not so this time. The Chelsea manager was left frustrated by his side's failure to win a game they dominated for long spells and angry that what he felt was a perfectly good goal by Salomon Kalou was ruled out by a linesman."
Independent on Sunday, Nick Townsend: "Mark Hughes, celebrating his third anniversary as Blackburn Rovers manager since he relinquished the Wales job and succeeded Graeme Souness at Ewood Park, will have enjoyed this. And not merely because his team continued their fine start to the season at such a daunting location. Jose Mourinho had referred in his programme notes to Blackburn as a "competitive team" who have come here to give us a "hard time". So it transpired."
Sunday Times, Brian Glanville: "Mourinho lamented the absence of such key players as Didier Drogba and Frank Lampard. He had no extra strikers on the bench, he complained. Andriy Shevchenko, the £30m Ukrainian centre-forward who scored unavailingly for his country against Italy last Wednesday, made his first appearance of the season and was clearly well short of match practice. Only at the very end of a previously anonymous performance did he swoop on a right-wing cross from Florent Malouda with a far-post header which brought a glorious save, his second of the match, from big Brad Friedel in the Blackburn goal."
Sunday Telegraph, Duncan White: "With the talismanic Didier Drogba nursing a knee injury and Claudio Pizarro exhausted from a transatlantic flight, Shevchenko was given his first game of the season. His performance made it easier to understand why he is a £30 million fourth-choice striker. He worked hard but played like he had too much to prove. The nerveless assassin of Serie A looked anxious and impotent: twice he missed free headers from close range and in the first half, with his head down and a heavy touch, he wasted a one-on-one with the outstanding Brad Friedel."
Official Chelsea FC Website: "Chelsea deserved to take three points from this fixture after controlling the game and keeping most of the possession in the Blackburn half."
The highlights
Click here for extended high quality video highlights from Virgin Media.
The good
- Unbeaten home record intact; Blackburn weren’t quite the threat we’d expected to our record-breaking run, but given their recent form (and ours), the fact it is still in place is good news.
- Clean sheet; not a performance worthy of a great deal of credit, but for the first time this season I felt that we looked reasonably solid at the back. No real test for Terry and co., but with confidence arguably fragile after the Villa game, a shut-out and a point is something to build upon.
- News that Christopher Samba is OK; Shevchenko’s accidental kick to his head was one of those truly unpleasant moments in football that makes you wince. 8 minutes on the deck and a spinal board is never a good thing to see — the few reports I’ve seen so far suggest he is fine which is encouraging.
The bad
- No goals. Brad Friedel pulled off a couple of excellent saves, but the simple concern remains — no Lampard and no Drogba generally means little trouble for the opposition keeper. Shevchenko worked hard, but the service was somewhat lacking (for which a certain amount of credit must go to Blackburn for their organisation and work rate). Yes, the chances were there which is encouraging, but the inability to put them away is a worry.
- The offside decision: in all fairness to the official concerned, from my reasonably decent viewpoint I thought Kalou was marginally off too, but apparently we were both wrong. Mourinho is probably in for a long wait if he thinks an apology will be forthcoming, making Keith Hackett’s recent grovelling look even more ridiculous...
- Robbie Savage. I’ll stand corrected if it isn’t the case, but football’s favourite hate figure seemed to be doing his level best to make far more of the Shevchenko / Samba incident than the accident it was; he appeared to be more concerned with starting a row with the Ukranian (or anyone else within earshot) than he was his own team mate for a while. Sums him up nicely, I feel.
Man of the Match
Michael Essien.
Final thoughts
In short, this (and much of our early season form) was simply not that of a top 4 side. The absentees, Carvalho, Lampard and Drogba, form a considerable part of the spine of a formidable side, but whilst the replacements are generally still finding their feet the signs were not promising.
My concern is the apparent lack of leadership and drive that we have displayed in recent years; Terry has looked far from his imperious best for some time now, and without Essien’s determination in midfield (and even he was quiet by his standards for long periods), there seemed to be a lack of belief on the pitch which is something we have not seen for some time. Overall, we were generally far too ponderous in attack — almost seeming to doubt our own abilities at times — to trouble a well organised side like Blackburn; the Chelsea of two seasons ago would have dispatched such a team, either with a moment of brilliance or sheer, dogged determination — qualities which both look to be in short supply at present.
Much of this strange and beautiful game we call football is about gut feeling, instinct and belief, both in players and in the fans. For the first time in a number of years, I believe that we are starting to slip away from being the near-invincible side we were during the title winning years and last season’s epic 4 trophy push. As a typically fickle football fan, a couple of bad results can do that to you, but my overriding concern is that the players are now starting to feel the same way too. Much of what we have achieved (as any great side does) has been built upon winning the mental battle — having the opposition almost ‘beaten’ before leaving the tunnel — but on too many occasions this season we have given the impression of being an infinitely beatable side. By no means a soft touch, of course, but some way from being a side that can mount a serious challenge for major honours.
If our collective heads drop and the slide continues, then there is a problem. Mourinho has much to think about over the coming weeks.
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1 point out of 6, 1 out of 9 if United do us at Old Trafford next weekend - not exactly title winning form.
One thing that has been bothering me for a while now is Andriy Shevchenko. Perhaps my judgement is clouded by Sheva's illustrious career, but I feel that Mourinho is at least 50% responsible for Sheva's current situation and form.
The way Mourinho reacted after Sheva missed the one on one with Friedel was out of order. Sheva glanced at the bench and was fully aware of Mourinho's reaction, which is why Mourinho did it. How is this supposed to help Sheva find the confidence that has so clearly been knocked out of him by Mourinho?
We wouldn't have seen a similar reaction if Drogba or Kalou had blasted the ball into row Z which they so often do in similar positions.
Mourinho's veiled attacks on Sheva, even when it appears he's praising him, don't help. I bet if Sheva scored a hat-trick it wouldn't change things. Clearly it must have something to do with the fact that Roman Abramovich brought Sheva to Chelsea.
I'm positive that if you put Sheva in United's side - they need a proper, world class striker - he'd go some way to winning them the title, what with Scholes, Rooney, Carrick, Tevez et al feeding him quality passes and crosses.
Until Mourinho starts treating Sheva with the respect he deserves, and until we start playing to his strengths, we won't see the best of him.
And I think we all know who Abramovich prefers.
Don't think you're far wrong there Nick. Not sure the (uneasy) peace between manager and owner will continue if this carries on...
I watched the game live over here on TV. There were some good points Jonathan did not mention. Firstly, much of the attacking invention came from Joe Cole who looked a lot sharper than on his previous outings. Secondly, Belletti looked the part of an attacking full-back. He posed lots of problems for Blackburn, especially in the first half. Also, Alex looked fairly relaxed in his role along side Terry, with this latter even before moving to centre forward late on, taking the opportunity to move forward, once at least almost to good effect. I was though a little surprised that Malouda played on the right when replacing SWP.
On the other hand, it looked like many of the players were tired - Essien particularly, the result possibly of travelling across one or more time zones this last week. This may explain some of the performance, but not all.
A lot has been said about Mourinho's man management, and it is true he has much improved players like Joe Cole and SWP and even JT though it has sometimes taken time. On the other hand, there are good players who have appeared for a year or two and then leave with all the air of being shell-shocked, Sheva being the latest example. For a player of his undoubted class, he appears nervous beyond belief. The way he constantly looks back to the bench is what one would expect of a teenager, not the player who took Milan to the heights - on the pre-season tour here in the US (also marked with a lack of goals) I thought he was one of the best players on show. It is a pity because Sheva is a good player, full of invention and running, though maybe he has lost a yard or two of pace. He still has more than enough to worry any defense if playing with any sort of confidence. This he seems to be singularly lacking, and the fault has to be Mourhinho's.
Chelsea has not looked all that convincing so far this year, but it is a very long way until the end of the season. I would rather underpar performances now than in March or April. Things would be a lot worse if we were creating no chances at all. Scoring is something that seems to come in bursts. All sides go through patches where they cannot score to save their lives, and then suddenly the goals start to flow again for no apparent resaon. Whatever players we put out, if we create chances, and we do, then goals will surely follow.
In any case, all credit to Blackburn who were a well organised team, intent on getting a draw. On this form, they will do well this year. I think the jury is still out on what we will do.
I think we’ve been in gradual decline since the end of 2004/5 when we first won the Premiership.
Last season we didn’t win games by many goals and won several based on virtuoso efforts from Drogba and, in the event he failed, Lampard would be racing up from midfield to score.
Our problem is we don’t create enough chances.
Saturday was frustrating. I don’t blame the linesman for the goal decision, every other time Kalou touched the ball he was offside so the linesman probably assumed he was offside again. And even though SWP’s performances have improved his final ball was awful.
Sidwell looks like he needs a lot more development and as for our corner taking – it was pathetic.
Might be a tight call now between Jol and Mourinho in the sack race.
Belleti was fantastic as he was in the villa match. Once we get Bridgey and Drogs back the quadruple will be back on. Mourinho getting sacked is an invention of the typical anti chelsea media that seems to dominate the press.
Blame Jose all you like about Sheva's lack of confidence (and it seems he is certainly not very supportive of him at the moment), but the reality is that if we spend 30 Million pound on a striker, he should really be able to take at least 1 out of the 3 gilt edged opportunities he had on Saturday night.
Personally, I think his first touch is currently woeful, and he is getting pushed aside by even the most average centre halves.
I really want to see him succeed but it is looking ever more likely that it isn't going to happen for him at Chelsea.
On the plus side - Solid performances from Joe Cole, Juliano Belleti (even if he only attacked, and didnt have to defend once) and Alex.
I hope we don't come a cropper against Rosenborg tonght, or the pressure will really be on.
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I only saw the highlights which actually made us look pretty good and only a stroke of luck away from a comfortable 2-0 victory. was it really that bad? are we doooomed???
be nice to have derby at home next week rather than utd away...
on the plus side, nobody has looked like they are going to run away with anything this season, so we're in an okay position.
i had high hopes for this squad at the start of the season but there are definitely signs we've gone backwards - basically not having replaced duff, eidur and robben with like talents.
Just something in the body language that didn't seem right to me; hopefully the (usually well suppressed) pessimist in me is wrong but I'm starting to get a little concerned...