Wigan Athletic v Chelsea

Lets hope we bag a good few against them but they wont roll over and i feel they will give us a good fight and not give us time to settle.

I really can’t begin to express the relief I feel right now after that superb goal by Hernan Crespo. A Wigan opener was always going to be a banana skin. They are a mysterious quantity in the Premier League, with much of the Championship side changed, but with players with requisite experience coming in. They came out without respect and without fear and in ArjanDe Zeeuw, they have one of the best captains in the Premiership. Paul Jewel had certainly done his homework and was determined to use this game as a barometer for the rest of their season. On today’s showing, I can’t say all confidently that they’ll stay up, but if they’re going to go down, they won’t go quietly. I’ll quietly be praying for them to stay up, because it gives hope to a lot of no-hopers.

Now, as per Chelsea performance, I cannot say any of our players were awful; but it became more of a mental thing the more the game progresses and the more the minnows began to show that they weren’t going to fold over. Terry was not at his best, Lampard the same, Robben was simply too eager to impress and Del Horno had an introduction to the Premiership that will have him scrambling back to the drawing board. As for Drogba, I just pray he doesn’t get any game like this often this season; otherwise, the Chelsea boo-boys would be justified. On the day, the Wigan boys played better as a team and really did not deserve to lose. Our usual tactical discipline simply flew out the window as the game progressed.

There are two significant points I think we’ll take away from today and both paradoxically are diametrically opposed to each other, but yet are truths in their own right. Mourinho proved that when you have a depth of talent, even in days when you are playing badly, you can always tweak things to get a result. The sign of desperation came in the form of SWP and Joe Cole coming in after half-time for Robben and Gudjohnsen respectively (though the latter was possibly crocked), but even those changes didn’t bring us joy. Then he introduced the ace, Crespo and in the very dying minutes, he produced what so far to me is the goal of the season! It was a get out of jail card of massive proportions and I’m just relieved that we don’t have to play catch-up this early.

The second significant point is a near-opposite of the above. Here was Wigan, rejected by top players because they’re new to the Premiership (They were reported to have made the biggest offer for Scott Parker, for instance; but he rejected them and Chelsea supported his decision). Jewel cobbled together a team possibly costing no more than one or two of the value of the lesser of Chelsea players and still gave us a game we will never forget. Those who think paying big for players or spending big generally can play your football on the pitch need to think again. This is one reason football is THE BEAUTIFUL GAME!

Finally, I think it is good that we’ve been taken to the brink this early by such opposition. This would now concentrate minds. If they had chips on their shoulders crowing they’re Champions, now they’ll have to sit back and reflect. The manager and the boys got some thinking to do before the arrival of Arsenal next week.

Well done Crespo and the boys for snatching victory from the jaws of despondency!

Well how lucky was that, well done to Wigan for putting up a good performance and not rolling over (also for actually trying to win the game rather than defending for a draw).

well i dont no wot 2 say, i thought our performance was very poor, drogs was poo, as was lamps!couldnt belive lamps was but there u go, wasnt impressed with him in the charity shield either.cespo saved us, but we better wake up from now.

todays match was nail biting. the first half, there was no drive in the team. second half, the new player brought some impetus. Lampard for me, is palying below his normal game and robben also needs to focus more on his game and be commited. in this moments, it feels good to have won and like mourhino said, we have got a wake up call without losing! i guess its what champions are made of.

I guess we'll all have to revise our predictions for the season... (1) Chelsea (2) Wigan (3) Man U...

Let's get one thing straight. The performance yesterday is no laughing matter. I was there and i wasn't impressed in the slightest. Yes, Wigan played well, but we were just Sh*t. Lampard was disappointing, Robben wasn't must better and Duff just liked to run round in circles.
Now to the worst players of a truly awful display. Can someone explain to me why Crespo is on the bench when that donkey Drogba keeps starting?
And why does Mourinho persist with Gudjohnsen? The man is a joke of a player. An average Striker and a f*cking disgrace in midfield. Don't think he passed to a blue shirt for his 45 mins and made 1 tackle that resulted in a foul. A certain Michael Essien must be laughing about the so called competition for places, i bet he's quaking in his boots at the sight of Gudjohnsen playing his role.
On this display we'll get hammered by the Arse. Come on Chels, ship up or ship out.

Ease up guys with comments like Arsenal will hammer us. Let's not forget that just days ago we made Arsenal look like a 2nd division team! Actually, the final score was quite flattering to Arsenal.
Not to say that yesterday our play was one to forget, sometimes playing these small teams is a lot harder than playing the big teams, for the simple reason that while the little guys give everything the good team has a hard time to find the right motivation. Soon enough the lack of motivation becomes frustration and then it becomes really hard to play well.
So... thank you, Wigan for waking us up without damage on the points side.
Go Chelsea!!!