Claudio Pizarro picks up pieces at Birmingham
By Duncan White
Sport.Telegraph, 20th January 2008
All the attention may have been focused on Avram Grant's first multi-million
pound signing but it was a Jose Mourinho bargain that eventually broke a
spirited Birmingham. Nicolas Anelka, the £15 million arrival from Bolton,
made his full debut amid much expectation but it was Claudio Pizarro, a
summer free transfer from Bayern Munich, who came off the bench to head the
winner, thumping in Juliano Belletti's fine corner.
The Peruvian marksman had been dropped to accommodate Anelka but when Shaun
Wright-Phillips was forced off with a worrying ankle injury, Pizarro came on
to play as a deep-lying striker. He hadn't scored in the Premier League since
the first day of the season when he found the net against the same opposition,
but he came up with the goods and Chelsea have now won six on the spin.
Grant was not optimistic about the injury to Wright-Phillips, though. "It's
not looking so good," said Grant. "We keep losing our in-form players and I
want to get him back as soon as possible." It is also bad news for Fabio
Capello, who may lose the winger for his first game as England manager,
against Switzerland on Feb 6. The only beneficiary is fellow right-winger
David Beckham, who is desperate to earn his 100th cap in that game.
With Didier Drogba away with the Ivory Coast - and seemingly determined to
make that absence permanent in the summer - Anelka has been charged with
becoming Chelsea's chief source of goals. But Pizarro, it seems, may still
have a big part to play in the future of this club. "It was one of his best
games," said a predictably laconic Grant. "He deserved it." Chelsea didn't.
Birmingham, who gave a debut to their own big-money signing in substitute
James McFadden, were dreadfully unfortunate not to score and, for much of
the game, they dominated a strangely lacklustre Chelsea. With the game
scoreless, McFadden even came close to crowning his first appearance since
his £5 million move from Everton with a goal, running onto a
quickly-taken Franck Queudrue free-kick only for his shot to be blocked by
Petr Cech.
By then Birmingham had spurned a series of chances to take the lead,
especially in the periods either side of half-time when they put tremendous
pressure on Ricardo Carvalho and co. Cameron Jerome twice came desperately
close. When Cech, under pressure, hooked a clearance straight at Jerome, the
Birmingham striker could not quite steer his header into the open goal - it
hit the post and squirmed wide. Just before the break and with the Chelsea
defence in disarray his shot beat the prone Cech only to be blocked by the
covering Alex.
If that was frustrating for the roaring home support, then Sebastian Larsson
had them hanging their heads after the break. With Birmingham still on top,
Fabrice Muamba breezed past Carvalho before squaring to the Swedish winger.
Larsson somehow managed to send the ball on a vertical trajectory from
point-blank range.
Chelsea got desperate - no-one more than Pizarro who disgraced himself with
an appallingly obvious dive in the box. He was justly booked but moments
later scored the winner, which made swallowing this defeat all the harder
for Alex McLeish's valiant players.
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