West Ham 1-1 CHELSEA: Another Opportunity Missed?
Yet again we failed to take our opportunities in the first half and ended up scrapping for a point.….sound familiar? Wasteful.
We started well enough, with a Lampard shot (yes, he obviously had a compass in his pocket yesterday) stinging the keepers hands just over five minutes in. But it was clear West Ham had come to give us a game, with plenty of argy-bargy and a physical encounter looked to be in the offing, particularly if the Hammers’ initial attempts to get up close and personal with Kalou in the box were anything to go by.
We didn’t have a bad first half though, in fact considering the Hammers seemed to have the distinct advantage of using both hands and feet, we were the one’s piling all the pressure on – we just had a touch of amnesia once it got past the pressure stage. Our defence again showed it’s uglier head, with confusion reigning between JT and Cech, Carvalho hacking from behind and Ashley Cole giving away a penalty all before half-time.
Petr Cech, who actually had a better game than of late, was as consistent as ever when it came to the penalty though – diving the wrong way to see West Ham go in a goal to the good at the break. Mind you, Dean somehow found 4 minutes to add on before that break came although no doubt had trouble actually seeing his watch if the blatant penalty he’d failed to spot for us was anything to go by. Still, we did eventually go in a goal down, with the home support celebrating as if they’d taken three points already.
Ancelotti didn’t hang about making changes, bringing Sturridge on for Kalou and Mikel on for Malouda after the break - obviously didn’t want either of them to embarrass themselves any more than they already had.
The second half saw more of West Ham’s determination and work rate although Didier Drogba did wake up briefly to chase a lost cause walloped up the field, not only getting hold of it but almost converting it into what would have been one of the goals of the season. Carvalho decided to test Cech’s nerves with a slightly enthusiastic backpass and fortunately our keeper’s nerves stood that particular test.
Michael Ballack, who’d played like a man in dire need of enforced rest, looked as if a sniper had duly obliged although Mike Dean (who by the way, wouldn’t know a free-kick if it bit him on the arse) clearly gave the German less than 5 out of ten for artistic impression. And just when I was busy venting my spleen on that exact subject, Dean finally gave us a decision – albeit one the linesman had got completely wrong. Sturridge, who was causing West Ham a few problems since his arrival went down under a fair challenge from Upson and Frank Lampard got the opportunity to remind Mark Hughes just how much bottle he has from the spot. Well, he got three opportunities to be precise, with the jobsworth with the whistle unhappy to see so much company in the box.
The equaliser seemed to wake us up a bit – with the exception of Ballack who looked about ready to put his teeth in the jar – how he stayed on was a complete mystery. We still looked off the pace though, with the sort of passing you could only forgive if you were watching the under 11s. Our only saving grace was the substitutions, with Sturridge and Zhirkov (on for a tired looking Joe Cole) both looking lively – the latter going close with five minutes left on the clock.
West Ham had their chances as the clock ticked away too and how they didn’t get a penalty with Ricardo Carvalho all but throwing Franco to the floor in the box was anyone’s guess. Having said that, since Green had done his best to dislocate Kalou’s shoulder in the first 45, it can only be assumed Dean isn’t averse to the odd physical challenge. Didn’t seem to do Franco any harm either, with the West Ham man only failing to finish us off because Cech was having one of his better days.
3 minutes added and everything but the kitchen sink thrown at the game – ok, so I exaggerate, it was actually bottles the home support was throwing in Frank Lampard’s direction, not that his performance warranted the Lucozade on offer but there you are.
So, a disappointing performance and not the sort of game that’ll have our rivals anything to worry about, yet again guilty of not taking our chances. And whilst some will point to Essien’s absence as a factor, I’d have to say it was Nicolas Anelka’s injury that had a bigger effect on this game. Ironically, after all the questions around whether they could play together, Didier Drogba looked seriously out of sorts without him.
What’s more worrying though is that if we hadn’t been gifted a dodgy penalty, we might not even have got a point from this one. And whilst United’s players will slowly start coming back from injury, it won’t be long before ours are of to ACON – somehow, when it’s us dropping points, I can’t see them giving us such an easy ride.
Filed under: Match report
Collectively the squad is too old…mentally the squad is not strong enough and not focused properly…we need new exciting young blood and now!! Not players who intend to prioritise the need to stay un injured so that they can play in their last world cup! …Me cynical? nah!
We need hungry young players ready to bust a gut for the club at every opportunity..not ageing over paid players who’s retirements are already nicely sorted thankyou..Oh and I want to be a manager too!!!
Keep Ancelloti..he is not the problem…let him buy well in January with young and pacey world class players and let’s have a replacement for Cech too as I,ve said on this blog before…come on let’s get real or we will be like the Gooners with nothing to show year on year…
Come on this is Chelsea!! bit of pride please
Previously I’ve commented on chelseablog the importance of unleashing our academy products kakuta and matic especially and now i would like to add sturridge to the list simply because he show dynamism down the flank n center.its always a danger playing against teams in relegation dog-fight.to be fair to west ham we might as well lost the game to serve as a wake up call to mr.C that sometimes by decorating the team sheet with big names wont scare off a relegation threatened team.in italy teams in that positions would hv raised the white flags n bury themselves.the way Mr.C plots his selections is somewhat similar to serie A’s mentality. mind u this is the epl. even relagated teams playing their last game would put up a fight for honor.hence the dynamism we clearly witnessed from a whole-hearted set of west ham players including zola who was filled with intensity like a 12th player.our midfield juz died.it could be due to old legs or fatigue as claimed by Mr. C.if its fatigue then why not some fresh n ready legs in kakuta,matic, sturridge n borini?if anelka was affordably left out why not also ballack n lampard?should carlton cole n zavon hines play we would hv been hammered 3-0 as what fulham did to MU.i m sad to see dynamism that is there to put to great use was not picked to counter west ham’s dynamism.continue with the same line up n birmingham, who can afford to lose will definitely go all out on us.it seems like Mr.C is happy with draws draws draws only.that does not make champions.chelsea hv lost its free flowing, fluid attacking football all of a sudden n its a pain to watch.zero connections in passes n surely, zero dynamism.
i’m a die hard chelsea fan right from zola days. i hope there is no offence or bad feelings in my west ham vs chelsea ratings. my heart bleeds on every letter i type and its hurting me so much and all i m asking for is a quick solution to bring back our attacking football. let me hear the commentator say : here they come again! because that is how we r going to beat birmingham next.
Kalou - lost his touch running at defenders n almost a forgotten man.
Ballack - wild passes that connected no one n clearly was chasing shadows.made no effective interceptions like essien. forever losing possessions.
Lampard - hesitant when approaching penalty area n gave clueless passes not the man we used to know who either let fly a long shot or a defence splitting pass.
Joe Cole - only gave us 20 minutes n faded off for reasons known only to himself.
Drogba - seemed to miss anelka n had to work so hard to gain possession by himself because no one is triggering any quality passes to him. striker like drogba needs at least 3 - 4 chances to convert 1 into a goal. cant really blame him for wasting 5 or 6 half chances
Malouda - he completely turned off his turbo-runs. short of the number on his shirt i would hv thought its deco.
I leave the defenders out because they were ok. except that sometimes they dropped too deep due to ballack. we clearly missed a dynamic train like essien who always drag our defenders into opponents’ half.
if this is the same midfield + strike force going to birmingham sir alex will toast his finest wines soon because compared to us he will be quietly winning easier games in hand if any of us bother to check his schedule.
Put dynamism back into play or go on fighting to be number 2 or 3 year after year.
All your points are spot on.we are in desperate need of energy in the middle of the park & some pace on the flanks .I saw how we can be completely flawed at man citeh.if dont get our passing game on, we are slow at chasing the ball.its been be like this for the past 3 seasons we go from good to bad while it works vice versa for man u.old legs & fatigue kick in ‘cos of our failure to buy and rejuvenate the squad.we have the quality but lack the endurance.our academy players are ones for the future and cant expect a lot now.we are missing an age group of 22-28 youth & experience.gourcuff,schweinsteiger,podolski,dzagoev,aguero will all make welcome additions but we wont buy.
kalou(give him time),borini and studge arent ready.anelka amplifies the 2nd striker role,turned it into his own with his movement and provides the service for drog.aguero could work in a great front trio.it will allow variation and versitility.
thanks for yr support blueblood, amidst all the hoo-haa on the wish list january is definitely a panic buy n my suspicion is always towards a new player’s adaptation time no matter how big a name he is. if mr. C can shake off his ego a little n trust his young academy players even if we do lose games at least we die trying. give the big names a rest. n a kick in the backside. let the hungry young lads to come on n show us how bad can we play with them. because clearly now with the big names we r not playing well at all. but so far the only manager brave n sane enough to trust youngsters is on another side of London. i m sure arsene is watching in disbelief the way we waste away our quality young talents n continue to pray for a turn-around every next game with faded stars n walk away happy with a miserable draw.lose 2 ‘next’ game n we r repeating history all over again. let them play. how hard is that?
for sure rob.our best product is definetly Stoch.maybe we dont need new players but at least an injection of pace.We could use stoch & sinclair’s pace in those tough away games when we need to stretch play.width’s essential.at least bring sinclair back. . .
The problem is carlo wont change the system.the best way to blood youngsters is to play them alongside the seniors.think our best squad was that of combination of strength,energy and the pace of duffy,robben & joey terrorising defenders.