Blues 1 Chelsea 3

Last updated : 16 March 2003 By Richard Barker

Goals from Gianfranco Zola, Eidur Gudjohnsen and Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink had the home side 3-0 down before Robbie Savage hit a late consolation from the penalty spot. In truth, Blues were the better team for the first half, but once Chelsea took the lead, there was only going to be one winner.

Steve Bruce continued with his 4-3-3/4-5-1 formation employed to some degree of effectivness against Manchester United on Tuesday night. However, in the only two changes to the team, Stan Lazaridis and Geoff Horsfield came in for Stern John and Clinton Morrison. As a result, Christophe Dugarry occupied the central striking role, with Lazaridis wide left and Horsfield wide right.

Blues started the game well, with Dugarry his usual self - causing all sorts of problems for the opposition defence. Horsfield too was having an impact on the right, providing a good foil for Dugarry and doing well in an engaging battle with William Gallas. At the back, Matthew Upson and Kenny Cunningham were both looking comfortable, and besides a long range Graeme Le Saux effort that Nico Vaesen comfortably held, Chelsea posed no real danger.

As Blues confidence grew, so one or two chances were beginning to be created. Carlo Cudicini (of future England goalkeeping fame... perhaps) was forced into two excellent saves from a Lazaridis volley and a dipping right foot drive from Jamie Clapham. Whilst both saves looked good, Cudicini is rightly considered as one of the best 'keepers in the Premiership, and it would have taken much more to have beaten him.

Moments before half-time, as no doubt Bruce was preparing a fairly positive team-talk along the lines of 'more of the same, lads', Chelsea took a surprise lead. Slack Blues defending allowed Emmanuel Petit to cross from the right, and Zola was able to make his final contribution to the game. The little Italian had been limping for at least five minutes prior to the goal, following a Damien Johnson challenge, but was still able to hit a sublime volley past Vaesen whilst swivelling his body in the air. Arguably the Premiership's greatest ever foreign import only made his injury worse, and never appeared for the second half. He had done his job though.

The one thing you begin to notice about the real top teams in the country is that when they take the lead, they begin to work twice as hard. Chelsea were no different to Arsenal or Manchester United in this respect. They'd endured 45 minutes of relatively intense pressure, yet not been hurt. They've then took the lead through a moment of opportunism, and then they begin to work like Trojans so that first of all, at the one end, they make sure they don't concede, and at the other end, thet try and get more goals to secure the victory.

It took just 4 minutes of the second half to score a goal that took them a step closer to three points. Dugarry tried one turn too many in the Chelsea half, and was disposessed. A flowing Chelsea move ensued, ending with a Jesper Gronkjaer cross that picked out Icelandic International Gudjohnsen perfectly for him to dispatch a neat header past Vaesen to make it 2-0.

By now, Blues were trying too hard to make things happen, and the visitors looked comfortable, and ever dangerous on the break. With a bit of common sense, Blues may have been able to mount some dangerous attacks - after all, there was still some 40 minutes left to get a couple of goals - but Chelsea's defence stood firm, and Blues began to lose patience, all too often attempting to find Dugarry and expecting him to do the rest on his own. Through no fault of his own, Dugarry at times is becoming a liability to the team, as his team-mates are all too ready to shirk responsibility themselves and look to the talismanic Frenchman to create something out of nothing. Perhaps one or two people have to realise they still have to work as hard for him and around him as they would if it was Stern John or Jovan Kirovski there.

After 68 minutes, the game was all over. Hasselbaink (who had replaced the injured Zola at half time) went on a run in the Blues area and Savage tripped him. There were no arguments from the Blues players, and Hasselbaink picked himself up, dusted himself down, and thumped the ball past Vaesen. This was now the sixth time this season that Vaesen had to stoop down to pick the ball out of his own net following a Chelsea goal.

Bruce threw on the likes of Morrison, Paul Devlin and Poland captain Piotr Swierczewski (making his debut) in the hope of getting something from the game, but Chelsea were too good in defence. Blues did, however, get a consolation goal after 87 minutes. Morrison, who looked lively following his introduction, did well to get in behind Emannuel Petit. Morrison was honest and stayed on his feet despite Petit's shirt tugging, and hit an attempted lob at Cudicini. However, the referee's assistant flagged and called referee Mark Halsey over, and Halsey duly awarded the penalty. Whether the assistant would have done so had the score been 0-0 remains to be seen, but we must give him the benefit of the doubt and applaud him for getting involved when many (Phil Sharp of Worthington Cup Final fame springs to mind) would have been quite happy to let the referee make such a decision, and keep quiet should they disagree. Interestingly Petit stayed on the pitch despite having already been booked, plus this shirt-pulling offence, which, according to the rules is a bookable offence.

Following an exchange of views between Savage and Devlin as to who should take the penalty, the Welshman stepped up and scored with a little assistance off Cudicini's right hand post. It wasn't enough to spark an unlikely Blues revival, however.

Blues may have one saving grace this season, and that is that there are probably three worse teams than themselves. It is beginning to look increasingly likely that 34-36 points might ensure survival, as opposed to the universally decreed 40 points. Blues should still have enough games to make sure that Chelsea will be visiting St Andrews again next season, but there is no doubt that the current run of defeats is a worry. Credit to Chelsea though, who did a similar job as United did on Tuesday night, and should comfortably qualify for the Champions League.

PLAYER RATINGS:
Vaesen - Couldn't help the goals
Kenna - Struggled
Clapham - Tidy
Upson - So so
Cunningham - Assured
Savage - Battled well
Clemence - Not quite as impressive as tuesday, but ok
Johnson - Another stupid booking
Horsfield - Good comeback
Lazaridis - Struggled against Melchiot
Dugarry - Gave Desailly torrid time, but was at fault for second goal

SUBS:
Swierczewski - Some neat touches
Morrison - Lively
Devlin - Little time to make impact