Chelsea fingers crossed over Petr Cech injury
By Mark Ogden
Sport.Telegraph, 24th December 2007
Having lost John Terry and Didier Drogba to injuries that will sideline them
until well into the new year, Chelsea will wait to discover whether goalkeeper
Petr Cech faces an equally costly spell off after limping out of this crucial
victory at Blackburn with a worrying hip injury.
Cech, who missed three months of last season with a fractured skull, looked
in considerable pain as he left the field early in the second half after a
heavy collision with the Blackburn forward Roque Santa Cruz. Although Joe
Cole's first-half goal ensured that Chelsea remain in touch with Arsenal and
Manchester United at the top of the Premier League, manager Avram Grant faces
an anxious wait to discover the extent of Cech's injury.
Grant said: "The situation with Cech is one that we will know once he has
had a scan. We need to wait and see. But I cannot lie and say that it is
easy to be without players. It is very difficult to play for such a long
time with so many injuries. I don't like it, but there is nothing I can do
about it.
"Hilario did well when he came on, but Carlo Cudicini's injury will take a
few more days, so I don't have another goalkeeper for the Aston Villa game."
Weakened by the injury-enforced absences of Terry and Drogba, this encounter
with Mark Hughes' Blackburn was always going to be as much a test of
Chelsea's character as the quality of their squad and, after a stern
examination by the home side, they headed back to Stamford Bridge having
answered all of the questions posed of them.
Grant said: "I am very happy with the victory. We showed a lot of fighting
spirit and made two or three chances, but it was important to get three
points with the other teams winning. Six points is not a big gap because the
other teams will not win all their games this season."
Blackburn did not make life easy for Chelsea, however. Their loss of form
may have dimmed confidence at Ewood Park, but Hughes' team remain a threat
to any opponent and they should have emerged with at least a point here.
Hughes' tactical switch which placed David Bentley in a more advanced role
off the lone striker Santa Cruz gave the England midfielder the platform
from which to dominate the early stages, and Chelsea appeared unable to
fathom a way of containing him as Blackburn poured forward inside the opening
20 minutes.
During that period, Santa Cruz and Bentley both tested the Chelsea goal
with two threatening efforts apiece and, without Terry to marshal the back
four, the visitors were clinging on. Bentley's control of the play and the
obvious frailties at the heart of the Chelsea defence begged the question
why Hughes had not started with two front-men.
Blackburn could not translate their dominance into a goal, though, and
Chelsea caught them cold when Cole displayed the clinical finishing lacking
from the home side with a stunning strike to give his side the lead from
their first serious attack after 22 minutes.
A slick break from defence resulted in the ball dropping to Salomon Kalou
inside the Rovers half and his pass to Cole was taken by the England
midfielder in full stride before he left Brad Friedel helpless with a
right-foot shot that arrowed into the top corner.
Blackburn responded by again laying siege to Cech's goal and Steven Reid
forced the goalkeeper to tip a close- range effort on to a post before
Frank Lampard, eager to claim his 100th goal in a Chelsea shirt, hit the
woodwork at the other end moments later.
Cole's goal had taken the sting out of Blackburn, though, and the second-half
was more a tale of the two defences tightening up after their more generous
offerings in the opening period.
A near miss by Michael Essien after 61 minutes, when a perfectly-timed
tackle by David Dunn denied him a certain second goal, raised the tempo
once again and Cech's departure from the action, to be replaced by the
unconvincing Hilario, gave Blackburn the belief they could salvage a
point.
And after seeing the Portuguese goalkeeper make an awful mess of two
Morten Gamst-Pedersen corners, Rovers could scent blood, but just as
Hilario was being written off as a liability, he produced the save of
the game to keep out Santa Cruz's close-range header and secure the
victory for Chelsea.
Hughes said: "We were dynamic, created lots of chances and having David
Bentley off the front man caused them problems. We hit the bar a couple
of times in the first half and, on another day, they would go in. We
were caught by a sucker punch, though. We were wary of Chelsea getting
the ball to feet in dangerous positions because they can set a trap
for you. That's what happened and we got done by it."
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