Premier League: Chelsea 4 - 3 Bolton Wanderers
Sunday, 12 April 09, 02:41 PM · Comments (23)
Match reports
The Observer, Dominic Fifield: "Chelsea's title challenge flashed before their eyes in the closing stages. What should have been a breeze against opponents who had apparently wilted around the hour mark ended with the hosts desperately hacking loose balls from their own goal line as Bolton threatened the unlikeliest of comebacks. Chelsea's pursuit of Manchester United has been maintained, though only just."
Sunday Telegraph, Trevor Haylett: "To the astonishment of all, the home team conceded three goals in nine minutes – a repeat on Tuesday and Liverpool will discover a Champions League reprieve."
Sunday Times, Brian Glanville: "Cruising, or so it seemed, to a facile 4-0 victory against an unadventurous Bolton Wanderers team, Chelsea suddenly and astonishingly collapsed in the last 20 minutes. Bolton got back three of the goals, suddenly dominated, even ridiculed a Chelsea defence whose keeper Petr Cech was hopelessly and helplessly at sea, and all but gained an equaliser."
Independent on Sunday, Jim Foulerton: "Anything Liverpool can do, Chelsea can match - or better. At least that was how it looked when Guus Hiddink's team led by four goals with a one-sided match seemingly about to draw to its natural conclusion. Bolton, though, didn't see things that way and gave Chelsea the fright of their lives, scoring three times inside nine remarkable second-half minutes."
Official Chelsea FC Website, Andy Jones: "Chelsea clung on to three very valuable points at home to Bolton despite a spirited comeback from the visitors."
The goals
40' Ballack 1-0
48' Drogba 2-0
60' Lampard (pen) 3-0
63' Drogba 4-0
70' O'Brien 4-1
74' Basham 4-2
78' Taylor 4-3
The preamble
It’s hard to know what to say about games like this. Correction. It’s very easy to know what to say about games like this. And most of it is unrepeatable in decent company. There was an air of expectation about Stamford Bridge yesterday after the midweek demolition of the so called ‘best team in Europe’. The expectation was of two flavours. Those who wanted Wednesday night’s team to show up and those (like me) with a more cynical perspective who thought it was more likely to be an ‘after the Lord Mayor's show’ type of game.
In the end we got both.
A perfect display of the sheer bipolarity of Chelsea FC.
The match
Bolton Wanderers are renowned party poopers at Stamford Bridge. They almost seem to revel in coming to London to ruin our day and yesterday was no exception. Set up to try and stop us from playing they succeeded for the first 20 minutes or so, showing little evidence of the stereotypical long ball game they seem to have garnered a reputation for. They also seemed to have the better of the early chances as our midfield minus Essien and defence seem to think this game would be a walk in the park. Even the sight of the returning Carvalho didn’t seem to generate much in the way of confident and flowing football.
But then Michael Ballack woke up and everything started to flow rather nicely. Ashley Cole, now looking the ultimate left-back, was making good darting runs and linking up well with Kalou and Malouda. Thirty minutes into the game one sensed a goal might just be forthcoming. As the domination increased from Chelsea Bolton seemed to retreat into their shells and again despite their reputation as Northern Cloggers, they weren’t particularly fearsome in the tackle. It seemed to me that they had switched into a defensive mode with the sole intention of frustrating us and getting to the half time break intact.
When the breakthrough goal came it was engineered and finished by the mightily impressive Ballack. I know he appears languid and laid back on the pitch but this belies a fearsome distance running ethos, and these runs often drag other opposition players with him freeing up space for others like Frank to do some damage. Ballack's pass found Kalou on the right and Kalou then found Ballack storming into the penalty area for a clinical drilled finish. Half time beckoned and once again it was beer ‘o’ clock.
The second half got off to a flyer with a goal within three minutes for the seemingly rejuvenated Didier Drogba. Kalou again on a marauding run down the right was tripped outside the box and from the resulting free kick the first one onto the ball was the gig Ivorian. Simple, but effective and we were on our way to Cloud 9.
Frank slotted home a rare home penalty, so rare in fact I am wondering if we’ve had one all season. I’m sure the good commenters of Blogsville will correct me if I’m wrong. Drogba followed up with his second and our fourth and the key was firmly in the door of the entrance to Cloud 9.
And then Guus made two changes on 65 minutes and the wheels, as they say, came off.
Welcome to the dark side...
Off came Drogba and Lampard to be replaced by Anelka and the single most useless thing to come from Portugal, the utterly lazy good for nothing Deco. Yes, the key to Cloud 9 was wrenched away and tossed in a bin. Within eight minutes from the 70th onwards a kind of collective malaise took a grip on the team. Three goals conceded suddenly made the one time formality into a nail biting, hair loss inducing, squeaky bum fest of the highest order. We went from cruise control to Keystone Cops and I doubt there was a single fan in the ground for those last 12 minutes who wasn’t thinking the previously unthinkable – that Bolton looked the most likely to score. Top class players like John Terry, Branislav Ivanovic, Riccy Carvalho and Ashley Cole became gripped by pub football fever. Hashed clearances, sloppy passing, unforced errors giving up possession and ineffective tackling all pitched their tents up for the men in blue. Frankly it was terrifying to watch – real x-rated stuff. The most worrying thing though must be why two substitutions could apparently disrupt the flow and balance of the team so dramatically. Anelka seemed to slow the game down when he came on but was unlucky not to score, however Deco was anonymous when he wasn’t surrendering possession. He has to go, the Premier League is just too much for the bloke. He’ll probably do okay somewhere like Italy where time and space on the ball are afforded with regularity. The Premier League never affords such luxuries no matter who you play.
The final whistle after a two corner Bolton salvo couldn’t come soon enough.
The culprits
Was Guus to blame for the substitutions? I can’t blame him for taking precautions, but for me, 65 minutes was 10 minutes too early. At 75 and potentially four goals up then I think the miracle recovery might not have been so likely. Was it Deco’s fault then? Hmmm... he is ineffective, slow, lazy and blunder prone... useless is the term that springs to mind. Another Shevchenko getting a decent final pay day in a tailing off career. But he could hardly be entirely to blame for the house of cards collapse.
No, I hereby name the chief culprit as Petr Cech. For each of the three goals he could and should have done better. The first would have been prevented by holding onto the ball in his box. The second was because he didn’t come and take the ball... flapping around like Dale Winton after he’s spotted George Clooney in his swimming trunks. Bolton's third was route one, but a better, more alert and commanding goalkeeper would have taken the ball from the initial punt. He had a stinker.
Player ratings
- Petr Cech - 3/10 - Had barely anything to do for long periods but was at fault for all three of Bolton's goals.
- Branislav Ivanovic - 7.5/10 - He has his own song! Steady and reliable.
- John Terry - 7.5 - Steady overall but must be furious with the three goals conceded.
- Ricardo Carvalho - 7/10 - A little ring rusty but a good return.
- Ashley Cole - 8.5/10 - A contender for Man of the Match.
- John Obi Mikel - 6/10 - Not at his best.
- Michael Ballack - 8.5/10 - Commanding and assured. Great work for the opening goal.
- Frank Lampard - 8/10 - Another decent performance. Well, what did we expect from Mr Reliable.
- Florent Malouda - 7/10 - Another decent if unspectacular performance.
- Salomon Kalou - 8/10 - Clearly improving and we look better with him than without.
- Didier Drogba - 8/10 - Two goals... what more can we ask for?
- Deco (sub for Lampard) - 3/10 - Will be despatched in the summer. Crap.
- Nicolas Anelka (sub for Drogba) - 6.5/10 - Looked a bit ponderous but was unlucky not to score.
- Overall team performance - 8/10 - Until the 70th minute and then 4/10 from that point on.
Man of the Match
Ze magnificent German, Michael Ballack.
Final thoughts
I have rarely felt so ill as I have done today so I’ll keep it short.
For the neutrals, great. For me it was more terrifying than when I watched The Evil Dead alone and had to leave every light on in the house throughout the night.
In the pub we were talking about the unlikely chance that Liverpool would score the three they need on Tuesday to progress. After all, we agreed, not many come to Stamford Bridge and score three.
And then came Bolton...
Let's hope lessons have been learnt. Liverpool may have got some hopes up after seeing our capitulation, but I have faith that the manager and the team will not allow that sort of thing to happen again.
Three points in the bag, but it could have been so much worse.
Keep the Blue Flag Flying High!
Related links
Like this blog? Help spread the word: 
23 Comments · Add yours
A weird and scary last 20 minutes indeed.
A bit harsh just to blame Cech, I think TG, as Ricky, JT, Ivanovich, Malouda and Cole all played their parts in a communal switch off for the goals.
I've been trying to recall a previous occasion when we collapsed so disastrously from a huge lead to almost snatch defeat from the jaws of victory and can only think of the Full Members Cup Final in 1986 when we went from 5-1 up inside the last 10 minutes or so to 5-4 by the end.
At least that side had the excuse of being knackered since virtually all of them had played Southampton 24 hours earlier because we'd not been allowed to postpone the scheduled league game for that weekend.
I guess it was worth enduring if it has driven home to the team that we can't take next Tuesday for granted.
Incoming bi-polar comments of the maximum kind (a 5 rating):
New chant:
“That’s why we’re bi-polar,
that’s why we’re bi-polar, etc
Agree with just about all that Tony. I’m actually glad I wasn’t there. Due my never-leave-before-the-final-whistle rule, I would have been forced to endure the unedurable. As it was, I was able to switch off the internet stream (from Russian, with two commentators happily chatting away in Russian over the action, only occasionally noticing the football when a goal went in when they would start laughing…totally weird experience) and go for a walk for twenty minutes and come back to peek through my hands at the result; and that from someone who toughed it out on Wednesday – even after Torres scored. As torturers and their victims always testify, every man has a breaking point. No shame is attached. I reached mine when the second Bolton goal went in. On Tuesday I’m undecided what I’ll do.
One thing: Drogba. Just before the hour, he had tracked back to our left wing and won a tussle for the ball by the corner flag, winning a free kick from an apparently lost situation. He then trotted up the field and stuck the fourth goal in. The man, when his mid is right and his fitness good, is unplayable. Taking him and Lamps off changed the game. Simple. Guus made a mistake. He subbed them too early and Butch should have known he was ripping the heart out of the spine by doing so. I hope they feel chastised and will not take anything for granted about our next game. Torres will score – it’s inevitable. The Poo will contrive a second, somehow. Knowing us, we will gift them a third. The result will rest on how many we score. I don't know if I can watch...
I think at this stage I'm committed. I have my ticket for Tuesday and can't now weasel out of the Lovercraft-like terror that now seems inevitable.
Superficially, one could interpret the Bolton thing one of two ways:
1) A lurking crapness has been exposed and the 'Poo will exploit it pitilessly. Our goalie's form has worried most of us for a year or so and has now deserted him altogether, just in time for the visit of one of the best strikers in the multiverse. Our confidence will be shot, and once the early Torres goal goes in the defence will panic and disintegrate.
OR
2) At 4-0 up everyone stopped caring. We can't possibly surrender three goals in two successive home games. And it's the ultimate assault on any lurking complacency.
But after thinking hard about these alternatives, and pondering the way this season generally has been going, I think the truth is in fact
3) No one has the shadow of a clue what the **** is going on. It's nothing to do with the managers. It's nothing to do with off days or on days or what's likely or what's unlikely. Anything could happen, and nothing we say about the absence of Essien or the substitutions or the return of Mascherano makes a gnat's fart worth of difference. The Chelsea universe is ruled by a blind madman who directs our fate like, um, floaty things tossed to a gale. Was it Blue_MikeL who went through that phase of quoting Shakespeare? "Like flies to wanton boys are we to the gods;/ They kill us for their sport."
Thanks limetreebower, that actually makes me feel a lot better. I'll be a man and face it out. That which doesn't kill us makes us stronger. Might as well accept it and not try to second guess the blind madman who indeed makes babbling idiots of us all.
[that should have been 'Lovecraft-like' not 'Lovercraft-like' -- probably makes equally little sense but there you go]
@danny -- me too -- strangely it really helps knowing others are suffering the same way.
Relax - I have it on good authority (LINK) that lightning never strikes the same place twice; so the laws of nature will determine we can't give away a big lead at the Bridge again.
Reply to limetreebower:
Spot on.
I think everyone has become far too complacent these days, expecting a two-horse race or outright dominance in the league.
Yet look around football, and you can see that it is not only the Prem that is topsy-turvy.
In the Bundesliga, a team that had leapfrogged directly upwards from the third division was leading the league in mid season, only to lose their top striker. Bayern has been shown to be Ribery + a house of cards, and the gap between 2nd and 5th is 3 points. Oh, and Wolfsburg is leading the league.
In Italy, Inter is running away with it, 10 points ahead with 7 matches to go. Uncharacteristically, no Italian team remains in the CL. And, Genoa in 4th?
Unsurprisingly, the French teams are out of the CL (Barca will do that to your team), but 6 teams are within 5 points of the lead in the league with 7 to go, even... PSG? Want a better team? Just add Makelele...
The Dutch league is upside down, as Ajax is 3rd, and PSV 5th.
Spain has some semblance of order, with Barca on top, 6 above Real. Valencia might squeak into the CL, and my pet team Deportivo might crack into the UEFA cup...
For ho hum, you have Celtic, Rangers and Hearts on top of the SPL.
In the Prem, nothing can be taken for granted. There is numerical order at the top, but to get Shakespearean, "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy." Everton look more likely than Villa now to be a contender for the top 4, Arsenal could be the strongest Prem side right now, rather than a 5th place disaster, Man U's record-setting inevitable quest for the dodecatuple now appears firmly derailed, saved only by a stolen 17 yr old Italian, Rafa might not be a tactical genius, and they might win nothing rather than the double...
... and Chelsea is bipolar. Or schizophrenic? Could it be multiple personality disorder? 5 managers in 5 years? Good/Bad Drogba? Non Le Sulk? Malouda reborn? Magnificent and abysmal Deco? What is happening?
I think your ratings for Cech and Deco is quite harsh. I think you are being very harsh with Deco with the 3 rating I would give him 6 as he did nothing wrong but just didn't have an impact. I think Carvalho was at fault with the last two goal actually he got easily beating in the air by Kevin Davies both times to create both goals. So Carvalho should be 5 and Cech 5 as was at fault with the firstt Bolton goal. He may have been hesitant with the Bolton crosses but he wasn't completely awful to get 3.
In response to Tony's question, Lamps' penalty against Bolton was only our third all season, and our first since September - the other two were away against Portsmouth in the Carling Cup third round and in the first league game of the season at home against the same opposition. Something tells me we're a little hard done by...
How does Ivanovic's new song go? I haven't heard it yet! I personally think that yesterday's result will lend a bit to both of limetreebower's suggestions for Tuesday - we'll concede the first goal to Liverpool and then start to panic, but claw it back to 1-1 and then see out the rest of the game.
With Mascherano back for them, Liverpool will be more difficult to cut through at the Bridge. I would settle for a dire 0-0 now - we've done the hard work already, and now the Scousers can see what it's like to sit through 90 minutes of boring and ultimately fruitless football... As if you can't tell, I'm still a bit bitter about 2007!
Oh! Considering we don't appear to be looking beyond Tuesday at the moment, there's another rather big match against the Arse on Saturday, isn't there?!
This coming week's actually quite massive in determining our season in general; if we somehow survive both games, expect the 'Guus to stay' camp to get much larger and louder.
Strangely, i thought this ended up being the perfect game for us. It firstly showed that we can score goals and dominate a game when we're concentrating and have got our big players out there. Didier and Lamps are in great form at the moment and with them in the side, we can beat anyone in the world (i should probably include Barca here but i'm still not sure who can stop Messi). This also showed that our wingers are gradually becoming more effective and fully deserve to be keeping Anelka out of the side with Nico looking like a weak and lazy backup at the moment, when compared to Didier. I also think that conceding 3 goals when 4-0 up is just the thing this side needs. Ever since the Jose years and even when we were winning titles, we've had a strange obsession with strolling around either from kick-off or when we're ahead. We saw it on numerous occassions under Avram when we regualrly gave up precious leads and even in Jose's 3rd season we had to come from behind in many a game. So before the Liverpool game, this streak of complacency should have alarmed Guus and he'll now know that he still needs to focus the team. Despite having 3 away goals in the bag, Chelsea of all teams are able to screw it up and this result should have shocked them into getting the job done.
I did have some worries from the game though, just like you Tony:
1. Cech - Lately i thought he'd been improving. We've had 19 clean sheets in the league this season and he hadn't made a major mistake for a while but yesterday he looked awful for about 20 minutes. Their first goal saw Cech at his flapping best, he left the ball for the second instead of simply punching it away and fo their third he refused to come for it. Stranger still was that he did come for all Bolton's long balls after their 3rd goal and caught or punched all of them away. I hope he just lost his concentration and i still feel that he's become a worse GK since Lollichon replaced Silvino Louro.
2. Our back-ups - I thought Mikel, Deco and Anelka were all poor yesterday. Mikel hasn't yet fulfilled his potential and has dramatically fallen away from his early season form and deserves to be on the bench. And when Deco and Anelka arrived, we seemed to lose all momentum and failed to keep the ball. Anelka seems to slow our game down as he constantly drop deep whilst Deco has now dropped below Malouda as the worst player at the club. He offers us nothing and i wonder where he'll be next season - my bet is probably at Porto.
But despite these negatives, we should still definitely go through on Tuesday and roll on to the Wembley encounter with Arsenal with great confidence. As i said earlier, Chelsea are the masters of clutching defeat from the jaws of victory but us fans have been disappointed on too many occassions lately. We've had to endure so many shocking results in the title race thanks to Avram, then a Carling Cup final defeat to Spurs and then the ultimate pain of a CL penalty shootout loss. Virtually no-one offers Chelsea fans any sympathy thanks to our money and because of the success of the Jose years but i think it's time we enjoyed some success again if that isn't too much to ask for.
I am surprised Deco and Cech picked up a 3. I think you were very kind to them. It is time Petr decides whether to come for the ball or not. This flapping is getting us nowhere. As for Deco, he should join the infamous club of Bogarde, Sutton, Kezman, Mutu, Crespo and Sheva.
i don’t intend to open a Pandora’s box here, however, did we just realize that the bumbling good for nothing Alex might be some good? i mean did we win any long balls defensively?
ma first post here=)
first I wanna say I love this site, KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK!!!
I dont think Guus did anything wrong. Even if he subbed a midfielder and a striker the back four shouldnt be this sloppy. The main reason why we let them score 3 goals in a 9 min span is cause of CECH. He gifted them the first goal. and the second, my gosh, I think he either thought the dude wouldnt reach it or he was afraid to get a knock, since we were leadin 4-1.
All in all we learned what happens if you stop playing before the final whistle. For most of the game we actually played really well. I was really impressed wit that. DD looks like the unplayable we want him to be. and the whole team are starting to believe we can actually go on and win titles.
now I cant wait for tomorrows clash wit the scousers....
Hi,
Can anyone enlighten me as to Branislav's new song?
For my two pence, I think Ashley Cole has been absolutely awesome recently, and Mikel has been badly off the pace since Guus dropped him a few games ago.
Also, did anyone else think about fifteen games ago that Ballack had finally past his sell-by date? Enter Mr Hiddink, and he is back to ze imperious German we have grown accustomed to. Yet another bit of evidence that Scolari really didn't have what it took for Chelsea.
Great blog as always.
KTBFFH
Just two Easter eggs will do for tomorrow...0-0 ...I would be a happy bunny! :-)
The most frightening thing about the last 20 minutes of this game was not the Bolton goals, but the tentative, shell-shocked way we played after the goals were scored. Passes to nowhere, no pace on the ball, wild kicks to no one in particular. This was a team that felt it was clinging on for dear life. My fear about tomorrow is that we go into the game looking to just defend, Poo score once, and then we retreat into a shell and it all ends horribly.
Or to put it another way, I am utterly cowardly, and I will be recording the game on ESPN and trying to keep my mind on other things until it is over. Suggestions for how to do that, gratefully received.
To the tune of "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious"... (probably not worth attempting if you've had too many pre-match ales...)
Branislav Ivanovic is ****ing dynamite,
He scored a brace at Anfield and put Chelsea out of sight,
He’s now a ****ing legend to the boys in blue and white
Branislav Ivanovic is ****ing dynamite!
Up diddle diddle up diddle-aye
Up diddle diddle up diddle-aye
Up diddle diddle up diddle-aye
Up diddle diddle up diddle-aye
Sung in the tune of the Salomon Kalou song:
We left in an early goal
Oh- no, Oh-no!
But up stepped our serbian
Hero, Hero!
Ivanovic, he scored a brace,
You should've seen Rafa's face
ps found this on the net.
Have to disagree with most of the responses. Think the reviewer was spot on about Cech. He was dismal - every time they punted it up field I could barely watch. If he flaps about like that again tomorrow we are facing disaster.
The only plus might be that it is an early wake up call and they have got the whole defence in for extra training today!
I'm very amused at everyone blaming Cech for all the goals. The first one was blatantly offside, and you have to wonder if Bolton would have bothered with a comeback had that one not counted. The cross-field pass for the second one looked offside as well and Cech was also being fouled. Yes, we had a few minutes of madness and panic, but it was more a series of little errors (and poor officiating) than the catastrophe some people are claiming. It's probably a good thing because it will remind the boys how important it is to keep concentration all the way through every game for the rest of the season.
Don't forget we did get the three points in the end and got to rest key players--the sky's not quite falling just yet!
Reply to Neanderthal:
Can we replace Crespo with someone else, eg Fleck? Hernan played well for us, he wasn't a flop.
As for this week - no probs against the Scousers tomorrow night, then bring on the Arse on Saturday. Happy Days.