Business as usual for Chelsea at Wigan
By Duncan White
Sport.Telegraph, 4th November 2007
Chelsea find themselves increasingly alienated from the hype of the Premier
League's gravitational centre and on a weekend when Arsenal and Manchester
United were celebrating the resurrection of their ascendancy in locked combat,
Avram Grant's side were exiled to the division's least glamorous outpost.
Yet while attention was focused on events at the Emirates Stadium, Chelsea
went about their ruthless business in Lancashire, dispatching an inferior
Wigan team without flinching, the game redundant as a contest after early
goals from an in-form Frank Lampard and full-back Juliano Belletti. It was
their seventh-straight win and took them third, just three points behind
the joint leaders.
"Our eyes are only on our own team," said Grant. "We have won again and played
well, especially in the first half. For us it is important what we are doing,
not what others are doing." That inward focus is largely directed at
controlling the garrulous Didier Drogba. Last month he was quoted in a
French magazine expressing a desire to quit after Jose Mourinho left the club
and yesterday details emerged of further controversial comments from the Ivorian.
A DVD charting Drogba's career has been released in France, in which he talks of
his "disgust" on signing for Chelsea in 2004 and of how he had hoped he would
fail the medical to spare him the transfer. While it transpires that these
statements may be several years old, and that his feelings were largely about
the wrench of leaving Marseille, it has further frustrated Grant, who naturally
would prefer attention directed on to the success he is coaxing out of this
squad.
Squad is the right word: Grant is not quite Rafael Benitez in the rotation
stakes, but he is working a system that shuffles his attacking players. In
came Florent Malouda and Shaun Wright-Phillips and out went Salomon Kalou
and Joe Cole. The change reaped immediate dividend. Wright-Phillips was
outstanding, giving evidence that he has not lost the form that has earned
him a place in the England XI. Further good news for Steve McClaren – who
doubtless needs it – was Wayne Bridge's first Premier League start since May.
These changes were far from disruptive and Chelsea were swiftly into their
rhythm.
It took just 11 minutes for them to pry Wigan apart. Wright-Phillips, who
tortured Kevin Kilbane all afternoon, scooted past the Wigan left-back on
the inside, picking up Drogba's lay-off and curling a pass across the
penalty area and into the stride of Lampard. The England midfielder made
simple work of the finish.
Seven minutes later Chelsea doubled the lead and Wigan were in danger of
submitting completely, haunted by the six-goal collapse of Manchester City
the previous weekend. Wright-Phillips kept what had looked a lost ball in
play with an acrobatic back-heel midway in his own half and Belletti
collected. The Brazilian right-back strode 50 yards into the Wigan half,
skipped past Denny Landzaat and, with the Wigan defence backing off, hit
a forceful shot from 25 yards that blurred past Chris Kirkland in the
Wigan goal.
The second half was not the polarised affair of the first as Wigan rallied
admirably and began to compete. Marcus Bent was barged, albeit fairly, by
Ricardo Carvalho on the very edge of the box as he closed on goal early in
the half, while in the game's closing stages Antione Sibierski, on as a
substitute, brought out a decent save from Petr Cech.
Still, this was Wigan's sixth straight defeat, casting them into the
relegation zone, and with trips to Tottenham and Arsenal to come this
month, the future does not hold much optimism. Wigan supporters will have
to cling to the hope that Emile Heskey, two weeks away from fitness after
breaking a metatarsal, rejuvenates a side on the slide.
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