CHELSEA 2-0 STOKE

If anything, you’d have thought yesterday’s game against Stoke might have been yet another set-piece disaster for us but as it turned out, after a few nerves with a Delap throw-in at the start, we never looked in any real danger. That was thanks in no small part to Alex, who was quite rightly awarded Man of the Match after a pretty outstanding performance coming back into the side to replace Carvalho.

We had a bright start to the game and to be fair, dominated play for the most part anyway. Fair play to Stoke for their resilience in defence but they offered little threat. The early moments of the game saw relief for Hilario as Sidibe flicked one over the bar and another effort blocked by Alex, before Mikel, who’d wisely looked to seek guidance on where he should position himself for another Delap throw and been pointed in the direction of the line, ended up in exactly the right spot to stop Whitehead’s shot going in.

We otherwise seemed pretty comfortable to play in and around the Stoke goal and our opening goal probably took a lot longer to come than it should. Anelka could well have had that opener just before the half hour mark, although hit it wide of the post from a tight angle.

Alex again showed why he should play ahead of Carvalho this season when another great tackle put a stop to Tuncay in our penalty area. We were soon back in the Stoke goal though, this time with the ball in the back of the net as a Malouda corner was laid off for Lampard by John Terry, for his 16^th of the season. Drogba, who – quite apart from going back to dodging his sniper at times – seemed to have a better defensive than attacking game, could have made it 2-0 just before half-time although Sorensen was up to the shot, so we had a marginal – although fully deserved – lead at the break.

The second half saw our chances mounting up, with an Ivanovic throw to Lampard going over the bar, a Drogba free-kick came to nothing and Anelka again put a shot wide before the hour mark before having another cleared off the line. A second goal always looked on the cards though and it came from John Terry in the 67^th minute. Again it was a Florent Malouda corner, this time finding the Chelsea captain’s head.

Overall then, a much more solid performance although it’s hard to say whether the changes in personnel were responsible defensively or whether it was Stoke’s lack of threat up front that made it so comfortable. Ferreira certainly did ok coming back into the side, Ivanovic for me gets better all the time and Alex had an outstanding game for us, making all the difference when it came to dealing with the set-pieces. I suppose the trouble is, we really weren’t under much of a threat and yet Hilario still looked too vulnerable.

It’s going to be a difficult few weeks ahead but from this game at least, we’ve set up another FA Cup semi-final and we’re going to Wembley!

TEAMS

CHELSEA: Hilario, Ferreira, Ivanovic, Terry, Alex, Malouda, Lampard, Mikel, Kalou, Drogba, Anelka.

Unused subs: Turnball, van Aanholt, Matic, Deco, Kakuta, Sturridge, J Cole.

STOKE: Sorensen, Abdoulaye Faye, Wilkinson, Huth, Collins, Delap, Whelan (Pugh, 45), Whitehead, Tuncay (Lawrence, 60), Fuller, Sidibe (Kitson, 61)

Unused subs: Simonsen, Davies, Amdy Faye, Moult.

GOALS:

Lampard 35, Terry 67

Filed under: Domestic Cups, Match report