Premiership: Middlesbrough 2 - 1 Chelsea
Thursday, 24 August 06, 04:21 PM · Comments (19)
Match reports
The Guardian, Michael Walker: "Andriy Shevchenko's first Premiership goal, allied to a composed all-round Chelsea performance, appeared to have given Jose Mourinho's team a second consecutive win but Steve McClaren's Middlesbrough beat Chelsea here 3-0 six months ago and there could be no doubting the players' commitment to try and repeat that for Gareth Southgate."
The Independent, Simon Rushworth: "In the aftermath of the champions' second successive League defeat at the Riverside, Mourinho apportioned collective blame and shed little light on whether a decidedly nervous defensive display would accelerate [Khalid] Boulahrouz's debut. However, it seems certain that the imposing centre-half will replace the disinterested Ricardo Carvalho at Ewood Park on Sunday."
Daily Telegraph, Henry Winter: "Substitute Mark Viduka was the hero of the hour, scoring a stoppage-time winner after Emanuel Pogatetz had cancelled out Andrei Shevchenko's first Premiership goal for Chelsea, for whom memories of last season's 3-0 defeat at the Riverside were revived in dramatic fashion."
The Times, George Caulkin: "Chelsea’s defence of their 1-0 lead had been a masterpiece of its kind, efficient and uncompromising. After Andriy Shevchenko had opened his account in the Barclays Premiership with an early goal, they approached ruthlessness and while Middlesbrough often appeared lightweight by comparison, they battled gamely until the death. It turned out to be a triumphant quality."
Official Chelsea FC Website, Neil Barnett: "If you don’t take your chances, and you can’t defend your goal, you lose games like this."
BBC Sport, Saj Chowdhury: "Shevchenko was a joy to watch. He was clever without over-playing, and when he did come under a challenge, there were no histrionics."
The good
- Chelsea had more than enough chances to win the game. Andriy Shevchenko again showed his class and scored his first Premiership goal; his 30-yard freekick was superb (take note Didier Drogba) and would have beaten the majority of 'keepers, only Middlesbrough's Mark Schwarzer was in fine form all night; and his speedy run down the left and subsequent cross for Frank Lampard to head against the woodwork (Lampard should have done better) was equally brilliant.
- Wayne Bridge. Impressive for the second successive game. Great interchange with Michael Essien before supplying the cross for Shevchenko's goal.
- Claude Makelele. Considering this was his first outing since the World Cup Final, the diminutive Frenchman was his usual composed self.
The bad
- The defence in general seemed below par and a tad hesitant, but Ricardo Carvalho in particular was out of sorts: he was all over the place on occasions. The defending at the freekick that led to Boro's equaliser (awarded after an unnecessary tackle on Stewart Downing by Paulo Ferreira) was quite simply appalling.
Jose Mourinho refused to criticise the defence, instead apportioning blame on the team as a whole. "I don't think it was a problem with the defence," he said. "Overall the team didn't play well enough and there are no excuses. For me it was our attitude and overall their attitude was much stronger than ours."
Match of the Day's Alan Hansen reckons Chelsea need Petr Cech back in goal as soon as possible, his reasoning being that Carlo Cudicini's indecision at crosses and high balls causes hesitancy in the back four. He may have a point.
- Chelsea's failure to put the game beyond Boro during long periods of ascendancy. Even Boro - renowned for their comebacks after last season's UEFA Cup exploits - would have found it difficult to come from two down.
Man of the Match
Andriy Shevchenko. Wayne Bridge was in with a shout until Boro scored their late goals.
Final thoughts
Mourinho: "For me I am very disappointed. I have been a manager for five, six or seven years and this is not a Jose Mourinho team."
Rest assured that we're more than likely to see a proper Jose Mourinho team at Ewood Park on Sunday.
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It was bound to happen where we take an early-ish 1-0 lead and then cock-up the grinding out of the victory. We have done it some many times in the past, it was inivitable that someone would come from behind to win. The main problem is that we dont create many chances once we score a goal, we stop stretching the play.
I think the problem lays with playing Drogba and the three central midfielders.
Without Drogba, we could play Shevchenko alone through the middle (instead of cutting in from the wing) with Robben and SWP/Cole providing the width. I think there is room to play Lampard, Makelele and Essien/Ballack in the same midfield as long as the width comes from the forwards.
Willam Gallas is the best defender on the planet bar none. Why is that situation not being sorted out?
It’s certainly not very convincing if you lose the second match of the league, when you’re the favourite to win the title. Just like the match FA Community Shield match against Liverpool, just when things seemed fine, goal conceded after 80 minutes and one more in the 90th minute.
Elsewhere, Man Utd once again came out with a thumping 3-0 victory, this time over Charlton. Good for them. But it’s funny to see people saying that Man Utd maintain their 100% victory record! Come on, they played two and won two.
Mindlessbore was in the game only in the first 10 minutes and the last 10 minutes of the match. But, out of these 20 minutes hey just did what they were supposed to. Both the goals score by them were high quality goals and especially te one by Mark Viduka in the dying minutes was just too good.
Earlier Chelsea looked very rusty and started with a scratchy game. After a quarter hour, they started showing some quality and slowly changed gears and upped the tempo. Bridge was once again brilliant. He played as if he wanted to show to all that we need not be looking out for a certain left back from Arsenal. And Essien, once again played beautifully and he replaces Makelele so well that I didnt quite miss him. Anyway, it was a relief to see Maka back on the pitch.
Once again, a goal conceded in a set piece. Something’s wrong somewhere. During both their goals, there was clear lack of concentration. If you see in the last 15 mins or so, you could see a certain amount of lethargy and complacency in the defence. Poor defence has once again let down Cudicini. It was very unfortunate that Carlo has let the goals in, because of inefficient defending.
If I have to see the brighter side of things: (i) Wayne Bridge is brilliant (ii) Essien improves on his influence on the game (iii) It was an away match.
Now, all non-Chelsea fans can unite and have a party and say things like “forget the titleâ€, “falling apartâ€, “money didnt buy you successâ€, “you wont progress in the champions league†etc. Fine, go ahead. Exhaust all that today as you wont get such a chance too often. Since when league title is won in August?
Every dog has its day!
It wasnt surprised at the result of the match against middlesborugh. We lost and we deserved it . Though Morinho complained about the lack of fitness of the team but in this case it is not an excuse because the whole blame should be carried by Him in my own opinion . I don t know what Robben should be doing on the bench for 90 minutes when he is not injured . Robben should have started ahead Kalou. Robben suppose to have been the one to have entered during subsitution for Kalou not Makalele. During the second half of the match , the midfield was taken totally due to the below parformance by our midfield players. So we need an attacking player like Robben that can do the damage when it comes to counter attacking but to my surprise Morinho did not make a change until 80 minutes and he finally made a wrong substitute by putting SWP. Swp is still improving and i don tthink he can catch up at chelsea.
We should hope that our injured players come back so early and we need to do everything possible to retain Willy G and Wayne Bridge even Ashely cole is coming . It is not a good sign to be losing at the start of the season and we can see Man U firing on all cylinder . I hope we dont lose too on sunday . Maybe JM should Khalid Bolaurous at the RB with Calvaho, Terry and Brigde should start at the back then at the midfield we should have Makalele, essien and lampard while at the front with drogba shevy and robben. and the team should be focused not to allow complacency which cost us at the last match.
We have been paied with Barca again and i think it is okay for us in the sense that we can still qualify in the group even be at the top of it , though it is a tough group but we have the chance to avoid Spanish champions till final . I hope all our players should fit and without any injured player we will have a good competition in europe this season. Before doing that we should be focused on domestic challenge first. Up Roman Army. True Blues.
I wasnt surprised**
Look our problem is as simple as this......CHANGE THE FORMATION.
All of our power is in midfield:
Essien,Lampard,Makelele,Ballack.
That midfield would crush teams as it is. Right now we are taking out one of them, and replacing them with Drogba, which in itself says something, to win games we need to use where we are strong which is midfield. with a team consisting of :
Cech
Ferriera John Terry Gallas Brdge/Cole (Ideal Defense if gallas/cole got sorted)
Makelele or Essien
Ballack Lampard
J.Cole Sheva Robben
You tell me who is gonna stop that team???? That to em is the way forward. all our power is in the middle, in sheva we know he will score whatever the formation with or without drogba. This is what we need, 4-4-2 taking out ballack or essien for drogba doesnt make sense, drogba is too inconsistent right now to play in our system. and we have no other back up forwards either. This game against boro proved that, drogba was diving and me personally am getting fed up with his poncing about. Its bringing our club down and that needs to be seen by managment. honestly does anyone care that most of our goals come from midfield with 4-3-3? i dont, and the only reason it did was because last year drogs missed chances that were easier to score than miss. dont get it wrong i like drogba, but would i sacrifice ballack,essien for him??? NEVER. Hope this gets sorted soon
Come on you Blues!!!
CHEERS
Richard
19 Comments · Add yours
Good summary. Think this was unfortunate but nothing that can't be put right on the training ground and with a little more luck in front of goal. Not worth getting too excited about, but confirms what we already know – this season is going to be a lot tougher than last.
Everyone is blaming the defense yet the chelsea midfield did not perform.
we played a 442 or as others now call it 4132 formation. This formation worked well when we had Robben and SWP on either flanks stretching the game. However, to play Essein and and Kalou on either flanks really limits the widths, Kalou keeps cutting in and thus it really becomes impossible to play thro the Middlesborough.
I picked up a few things which i though should be addressed in the next match.
1- if you are playing with two strikers, then you must have 2 players who can carry the ball forward with their speed. At the moment, essein, makelele and lampard are not players who can run with the ball. This isolates the strikers and limits the team to long balls.
Now this really begs the question can Essein and Makelele play in the same team, that has two strickers ? I personally don't think so.
With Ballack, Robben, Cole due to come back and lampard who seems certain to start, is mourinho going to stick to the 442?
2- Carvalho, was at his best fouling, pushing and tugging shirts. He was poor that night and in his heading, in his marking, in his tackling. He has not been consistent enough last season and his showing signs of inconsistent performances this season.
This must be addressed, by either playing Boulahrouz or sorting things out with Willy G.
3- Am still not convinced by the 442 formation, i still perfer the 433 formation. With Ballack, Lampard, Cole, Robben and either maka/essein on offer, our midfield will one be solid defensively, fast on counter, great in distribution.