After the week the Chelsea players had just got themselves through, what with the drain of international duty and the even bigger drain of Fifa making a nuisance of themselves, it was nice to focus on matters of importance again. And yesterday, we had the small matter of a trip to Stoke. Not that I’m suggesting Stoke are a ‘small matter’ of course, we know from last season they’re a resilient side and so it seemed again yesterday, with the Potters proving hard to break down. 

They certainly started bright enough, with James Beattie making the most of an indecisive moment from Branislav Ivanovic, to get a bit of a sprint going and wake up Petr Cech just twelve minutes in. Unfortunately for Beattie, the sugar injections he’d been having to speed up his recovery didn’t seem to have done the job and he went to ground as soon as the ball left his foot, to be replaced by Ricardo Fuller.

Stoke held their own though albeit in a first half of mixed fortunes. Just after the half hour mark, they managed to take the lead when Whelan’s cross found Abdoulaye Faye who’s header was made a whole lot easier by the fact Petr Cech had deserted his goal. Chelsea responded well to going behind though, increasing the pressure on Thomas Sorensen – until he went off injured on 40 minutes anyway.

Not that Chelsea were going to give replacement keeper Steve Simonsen an easy ride though, and two minutes into the 8 first-half injury minutes, Frank Lampard played a beautiful reverse pass through the Stoke defence to Didier Drogba who smacked it into the roof of the net – great finish from the rejuvenated Ivorian. So after much delay we went in all square at the break.

The half-time break hadn’t affected the momentum we’d finished the first-half with and it was pretty much one-way traffic in the second. Whereas Salomon Kalou wasn’t up to much in the first half, the introduction of Michael Essien and Nicolas Anelka showed they definitely were and to say we were battering the Stoke defence is a complete understatement. Fair play to Stoke’s defence though, they held out irritating well as it looked like we’d fail to do what we’d done in our last game against them. Mind you, just as I was saying to someone it was too late to get more than a point – up pops Florent Malouda to lash in a late winner Chelsea thoroughly deserved.

Overall then, whilst I might have been pulling my hair out with frustration the longer the game went on, fortunately the lads were a lot more patient than me. They stuck to their game, showed no sign of panicking and as they continued to dominate the game, seemed to have an innate belief their passing play would pay off – even with only injury time left to play. And they were absolutely right!

TEAMS

STOKE: Sorensen, Huth, Abdoulaye Faye, Shawcross, Collins, Delap, Whitehead, Whelan, Beattie, Kitson.

Subs: Simonsen, Higginbotham, Lawrence, Fuller, Pugh, Sanli, Etherington.

CHELSEA: Cech, Bosingwa, Ivanovic, Terry, A Cole, Mikel, Ballack, Malouda, Lampard, Kalou, Drogba.

Subs: Hilario, Essien, Carvalho, Sturridge, Belletti, Anelka, Hutchinson.

GOALS

STOKE: Abdoulaye Faye, 32

CHELSEA: Drogba 45, Malouda 90

Filed under: Match report