Tim Cahill cracker stuns Chelsea
By John Ley
Sport.Telegraph, 12th November 2007
Two Tims from either side of the planet blunted Chelsea's attempt to
edge closer to the Premier League zenith, with an American goalkeeper
and an Australian midfielder dampening blue spirits on a frustrating
afternoon.
Tim Howard had produced a succession of outstanding saves to obstruct
Chelsea before Tim Cahill stole a draw with a spectacular 89th-minute
equaliser, cancelling out Didier Drogba's opening goal.
In restoring parity, Cahill also succeeded in becoming the first
player to breach Chelsea's defence in the Premier League for a minute
short of nine hours.
Having been repeatedly thwarted by the brilliance of Howard and the
dogged belligerence of the Everton defence, Chelsea will also feel
aggrieved at wasting chances. They may be trying to play attractive
football, but that sometimes comes at a cost, with Chelsea ultimately
exposed late on as they pushed for a second goal.
"We lost two points today and that's disappointing," said manager
Avram Grant. "We want to win every game and we want to play good
football."
As all the Englishmen appeared to come through unscathed it was an
American who stole the show. Howard has been key to Everton's success
and, against a Chelsea side keen to match their 6-0 thrashing of
Manchester City in their previous Stamford Bridge league outing, the
early signs pointed to another dominating home performance.
When Frank Lampard's volley was blocked in front of goal by Nuno
Valente, Everton survived for the first time. But it was a save after
half an hour which most impressed. Juliano Belletti fed Lampard, who
side-footed a volley which Howard saved, changing his direction before
tipping the ball around his left post.
It was a breathtaking save, following soon after another block, from
Shaun Wright-Phillips. Howard then saved again, on the line, from
Drogba's header.
In first-half added time, an error by Phil Neville saw Wayne Bridge
set off on a 60-yard run before finding Wright-Phillips. The winger
fed Drogba - who proceeded to kick air in front of goal. The quality
of both the sublime move and faltering finish summed up Chelsea's half.
Everton manager David Moyes, sensing Neville and Yakubu were showing
signs of fatigue following Thursday's 2-0 Uefa Cup win in Nuremberg,
made two brave changes, with James McFadden and Victor Anichebe
offering fresh legs.
Howard continued to impress in the second half, tipping over a Lampard
chip, while Tony Hibbert cleared off the line after Alex's shot had
deflected off Joleon Lescott.
Soon afterwards, Leon Osman was the subject of a high, crunching
challenge from Michael Essien. The Chelsea midfielder was booked and
Cahill later claimed that the Ghanaian would say sorry. "He's known
for a few dodgy tackles," said Cahill.
"I heard the crunch, so if he's gone in a bit high he'll know about it
and apologise later."
Chelsea finally got their breakthrough in the 71st minute when a corner
from Salomon Kalou was met by the head of Drogba at the near post.
But with just a minute remaining McFadden's shot came off Belletti and
spun up high. Cahill responded with an athletic and mesmeric bicycle
kick to steal a draw for the visitors.
Steve McClaren may have chosen Stamford Bridge yesterday to check on
Frank Lampard, Joe Cole, Shaun Wright-Phillips, Phil Neville and Joleon
Lescott, but he will have left contented with the performance of another.
With Liverpool's Yossi Benayoun ruled out of Saturday's European
Championship qualifier between Israel and Russia, the performance of
Chelsea defender Tal Ben Haim could prove decisive in Tel Aviv. That
the Israeli enjoyed more than an hour of action after coming on for
the injured Ricardo Carvalho, will have given McClaren considerable
satisfaction. It was only his second participation since September,
so Ben Haim needed a game and he showed he could prove to be a hurdle
for the Russian strikers. Dror Kashtan, the Israel coach, may be
concerned that Ben Haim has struggled to hold down a regular place at
Stamford Bridge but fellow Israeli Avram Grant, the Chelsea manager,
said: "We have a different back four from a month ago, but that shows
the strength we have in our squad.
"The fact that Chelsea have Alex, Carvalho and John Terry was always
going to affect his chances of playing, but in terms of his ability
to aid Israel - and England - he showed little to concern McClaren,
who will also have been impressed with Lescott, whose performance
alongside Joseph Yobo was imposing."
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