Rampant Chelsea condemn Manchester City
By Roy Collins
Sport.Telegraph, 28th October 2007
The Special One? Who needs him when Chelsea have Avram 'The Alchemist' Grant,
who erected a Big Top in SW6 before encouraging his entertainers to fill it
with more goals than in any match during Jose Mourinho's reign as manager,
gaining the added reward of inflicting the highest professional defeat on
humiliated City manager Sven-Goran Eriksson.
What a contrast to Grant's only other Premier League home game, a goalless
draw with neighbours Fulham, when supporters grieving for Mourinho turned
this place into the Bridge of sighs.
Yesterday, it was overflowing with goals, which prompted delighted home
supporters to chant, "Boring, boring Chelsea". After the sacking of Mourinho,
owner Roman Abramovich demanded enter-tainment.
And what Roman wants, Roman gets, without Grant even needing to send in the
clowns. Why, he even teased a first Premier League goal of the season from
Andrei Shevchenko, who hardly got a look in under Mourinho.
Eriksson, after changing most of his team at the interval when manager of
England, was famous for summing up lopsided games by saying: "First half
good, second half not so good." Here, it was a case of first half pretty
average, second half bloody awful.
This was another spoonful of reality for high-flying City; no, make that
a ladle, and an even bigger one than they got in their first visit to London
this season when beaten 1-0 at Arsenal. There really is no place like home
for City, who have won all six league matches at Eastlands but have now lost
three times on their travels, or should that be travails?
Chelsea fans still seem reluctant to acknowledge Grant, which he weakly
explained was because "it's not easy to sing my name".
The fans went through the rest of their repertoire, however, as Abramovich's
trademark half-smile became almost a belly laugh high up in the West Stand.
John Terry, Chelsea's injured skipper, also looked pretty happy as he and
his wife cradled their twins in the stand, while it was child's play for
his team-mates on the pitch once Michael Essien had scored the opening goal
from Frank Lampard's dissecting pass.
It was remarkable not to see Lampard's name on the scoresheet after a result
like this but he was still man of the match, running the show from central
midfield and clocking up two more assists, his diagonal through-ball to set
up Didier Drogba the most exquisite of all.
All afternoon, City, who have earned praise for their attacking football,
found Chelsea players running through huge gaps to run at their young
goalkeeper, Joe Hart, much to Eriksson's disgust. He said: "We completely
failed to defend today. If you do that against Chelsea, they will kill you.
And they killed us.
"For five of the six goals, it was a Chelsea player alone against our
goalkeeper and that is not good enough for the Premiership. Hopefully, it
is a one-off. I am very disappointed but we will start working on it tomorrow
morning."
Eriksson's previous worst managerial defeat was a 5-1 thrashing by Arsenal
in the European Cup-Winners' Cup when in charge of IFK Gothenburg in 1980.
Chelsea had not hit anyone for six in the league since thrashing Coventry in
2000. But supporters sensed something special when Lampard's shot rebounded
off Hart's right foot early in the second half and Drogba, the arch predator,
sucked up the rebound and thumped it into the net.
Joe Cole was next up as the City defence waved another one through after
Drogba had flicked on an overhead clearance from the mighty Alex. Then
Essien, a powerful presence in midfield, sent Salomon Kalou galloping through
to squeeze a shot through Hart's legs.
There was still one precious moment to come for the Chelsea faithful.
Shevchenko, who almost melted Abramovich's smile by losing the ball a couple
of times in promising positions, finally made a telling run to pick up
another Essien pass down the right to end another one-on-one with Hart in
Chelsea's favour. "He is a great player with a great attitude," cooed Grant.
For Chelsea, who almost came unstuck in the final minutes of that Fulham
game, it was normal service restored at the Bridge, where they are now
unbeaten in 68 games. This was also a fifth successive win for Grant,
steering Chelsea on to the heels of the Premier League leaders.
Despite the injuries to Terry and Ashley Cole, Grant still found no room in
his squad for Shaun Wright-Phillips as he shapes the team in his own image.
Most notably, instead of the twinkling feet of Claude Makelele in front of
the back four, there is now the imposing presence of John Obi Mikel, whose
control in that department allows Lampard the freedom to roam and destroy.
Shock and awe you might call it.
Mourinho, who never believed in scoring more goals than necessary to win
a game, will wrinkle his nose when he hears this result, no doubt dismissing
it as a hockey score. Eriksson, however, is the one facing the stick, a
position he is not unfamiliar with after his time with England. Grant said
it was important to win with style which proved that, unlike his predecessor,
he was listening to His Master's Voice. Much more of this and he will surely
soon be honoured with a song of his own.
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