Chelsea still stalk Man Utd and Arsenal
By Patrick Barclay
Sport.Telegraph, 13th January 2008
Doggedly, Chelsea continue to stalk the Premier League's leading pair.
Arsenal and Manchester United may be the only teams to have beaten
Chelsea under Avram Grant, but they cannot pull away from the erstwhile
champions, despite the absence from action of (to name but a few) John
Terry, Frank Lampard, Didier Drogba and Michael Essien.
Due partly to the African Cup of Nations, Drogba and Essien will not
be back in a hurry, and nor will John Obi Mikel or Salomon Kalou. Yet
the signs are that Grant's squad contains enough quality and spirit
to cope and keep the challenge alive until the return matches with
the top two are staged here in March and April. The arrival of Nicolas
Anelka, whom only a magnificent save from Pavel Cerny and a centimetre
of crossbar denied a couple of goals on his debut as a £15 million
substitute, serves only to enhance the impression that the third horse
can stay in the race.
A Chelsea defence screened by Claude Makelele so restricted Tottenham's
threat that Petr Cech had only one tricky task: to block Steed
Malbranque's volley in the first half. In attack, meanwhile, Grant
had devised an interesting formation which was almost like the old
W-shaped forward line, with Claudio Pizarro (later Anelka) at centre
forward, Joe Cole and Florent Malouda on the wings and Shaun
Wright-Phillips and Michael Ballack acting as sort of inside
forwards. It produced some bright stuff, especially in a second half
during which Wright-Phillips sparkled and scored, if less spectacularly
than Juliano Belletti had done in the first.
At Wigan in November, the Brazilian right-back had run from the
halfway line before lashing the ball home and this has encouraged
Chelsea's fans to yell "Shoot!" whenever he takes possession, even
if the range is demanding. Here it was 30 yards, but he obliged them,
letting fly with one that moved a bit but essentially beat Cerny,
who had seen it all the way, through pace. Amid an explosion of blue
glee, Spurs' deposed England goalkeeper, Paul Robinson, watched from
the bench.
Cerny's attempt to stop Wright-Phillips's shot also caused some
comment, albeit not from Juande Ramos; the Spurs manager merely
said goals were conceded by the team as a whole. He also deflected
questions about whether a goalkeeper was top of his shopping list
for the rest of the winter window. Unless something was lost in the
translation from Spanish, his general impression of the match was
sheer twaddle.
"It was evenly balanced," said Ramos, "with dominance passing from
one side to the other." The only difference had been that Chelsea
struck twice from outside the penalty area.
Grant made more sense, saying he was pleased with his team's results
and also the manner in which they were playing. Asked to elaborate,
he said: "We don't play long balls but pass in a more organised way,
with plenty of combinations."
He was also delighted to have overcome a side as good tactically as
Ramos's, praising Wright-Phillips for not only his contribution in
midfield but his adaptability in moving forward late to claim his
"fantastic" goal, the opportunity for which was expertly fashioned
by a lively Joe Cole.
Anelka, Grant observed, would not have appeared but for an injury
to Pizarro. "Normally he would not have been in the squad because
he had not trained with the team [after signing from Bolton only
on Friday night]. But despite that he got used to the style of the
team very quickly." Indeed. Within 90 seconds the Frenchman was
receiving a cleverly backheeled reverse ball from Wright-Phillips
on his chest, turning and, with a smooth low shot, bringing the
very best from a diving Cerny. In the last few minutes, he seized
on a slip by Michael Dawson and belted a left-footer against the
underside of the crossbar: a vibrant end to another good Stamford
Bridge day.
For all the tactical expertise to which Grant referred, Spurs had
been unimpressive, notably at the front, where Ricardo Carvalho and
Alex prevented Robbie Keane and Dimitar Berbatov from exhibiting
their often splendid partnership. Berbatov did have one chance in
the first half, when he needed to make firmer contact with a cross
from Aaron Lennon, but for most of the afternoon Chelsea gave an
excellent demonstration of how to defend as a team. No wonder Grant
was happy. "Even without so many players, and with some of those
we do have playing out of their normal position, we are playing good
football and winning."
The most pleasing sight for Ramos must have been the form of his
captain, Ledley King, without whose class the match might have been
lost by half-time. There is so much talk of the future of Berbatov,
but the fitness of King is just as pertinent to Spurs's fortunes.
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