Andrei Shevchenko's nous enough for Chelsea
By Duncan White
Sport.Telegraph, 9th December 2007
Rattled by the news of Didier Drogba's knee operation, Chelsea's support can
hardly have been emboldened by the sight of the faded talents of Andrei
Shevchenko taking to the field. Yet the Ukrainian, the one-time scourge of the
meanest defenders in Serie A, showed that while the legs may not work like
they used to, the goal instinct has not quite been extinguished.
With 23 minutes gone, and Sunderland barely showing the ambition to get out
of their own half, Shevchenko gave outlet to Chelsea's building pressure.
Salomon Kalou befuddled the hapless Greg Halford before crossing left-footed
to the far post. Shevchenko had found space and dived to head expertly past
Darren Ward.
"This has been his job since he was a little child," Avram Grant said. "He
knows how to do it. Shevchenko is a good striker - a great striker. He knows
how to score goals and is intelligent. I think Sheva has scored five or six
this year. Last year he scored 14 and everyone was disappointed."
Well, he has scored four, but near enough. Still, replacing Drogba will take
more than one neat finish, and while Grant believes it is "important" for
Shevchenko to step up in Drogba's absence, it will prove far more difficult
against more trying opposition.
Scoring goals might not come easily if Drogba does not return until late
February; conceding them should not be a problem, however. John Terry and
Alex were masterful yesterday, and with Petr Cech on the cusp of return it
will take serious adventure to get in behind a team who are now 15 games
unbeaten.
While the scoreline remained respectable, this was never really a competitive
fixture. Chelsea swamped their opponents, dominating possession and restricting
Roy Keane's side to the tamest of efforts at goal.
Chelsea buried Sunderland under lashings of early corners, with Kalou heading
a Joe Cole outswinger onto the crossbar with just five minutes gone. Dean
Whitehead bundled into the back of Shaun Wright-Phillips in the area minutes
later and was lucky to get away with it.
Still, after Shevchenko had opened the scoring, Chelsea relented and did not
score again until Frank Lampard converted a penalty 15 minutes from time.
Alex had his shirt tugged by Danny Higginbotham as he tried to reach Lampard's
free-kick and referee Peter Walton was decisive.
Keane said he had not seen the infringement but he certainly was unhappy about
the circumstances surrounding Liam Miller's late red card. Miller challenged
Terry and was confronted by Claudio Pizarro in the aftermath, only for the
Irish midfielder to foolishly push the Chelsea substitute in the face.
"I'm not happy about the way Terry and Pizarro made a big issue out of it,"
Keane said. "It was a foul, yes, but there was no nastiness in it. It is in
the last minute of the game. Of course, if you raise your hands there is no
option but I felt the ref could have stepped in five seconds earlier. The
reaction from Terry and Pizarro disappoints me."
While Sunderland fought hard, only Lampard's late shot against the post
threatened to take the score beyond the bounds of the respectable. They
will also be recruiting in January, to try to haul themselves out of the
relegation mire. "This is the toughest league in the world," Keane said,
"perhaps not technically, but physically and mentally it is so demanding.
We certainly need to strengthen the squad. I've said that about nine
million times this season."
|
|
© Copyright Telegraph Group Limited 2007.
Telegraph Group Limited endeavours to ensure that the
information is correct but does not accept any liability
for error or omission.
Users are permitted to copy some material for their
personal use as private individuals only. Users must not
republish any part of the data either on another website,
or in any other medium, print, electronic or otherwise,
or as part of any commercial service without the prior
written permission of Telegraph Group Limited.
|
| 
