The Magpies approached the away match against Chelsea with a heavy burden of depressing statistics of their last three visits to Stamford Bridge (0: 5, 0: 4, 0: 3), and the last time Newcastle won another 20 years ago (with Glenn Raeder, by the way, as captain). In this regard, the absolute confidence of Jose Mourinho in a positive outcome for his club match, which seemed to be another regular manifestation of arrogance of the Portuguese, seemed completely justified.
However, Glenn Raeder had more compelling reasons for alarm before the match. Even more statistics, the Newcastle injury epidemic is horrifying, sending 13 (!) Team players to the infirmary. If the absence of Owen and Ameobi can be compensated for by, apparently, finally finding himself in the Premier League of Obafemi Martins, then the stay in the infirmary of the four leading defenders of the team - Carr, Moore, Bramble and Bernard - could not affect London. On top of that, Nabbi Solano, who replaced Carr on the right edge of the defense, got a groin sprain in a Saturday game with Blackburn. As a result, Raeder had to resort to the services of 19-year-old Paul Huntington, who made his debut in the Premier League only in the last round (and largely thanks to the aforementioned epidemic). The duet in the center was again composed by not much more experienced Ramege and Taylor, and on the left there was the only “surviving” defender of the base - Celestine Babayaro.
Mourinho confirmed the assumptions of a number of analysts, returning to his “last year” 4-3-3 scheme, which this season resorted to only situationally. Jose left Drogba and Makelele in reserve, apparently emphasizing his attitude to the opponent. In place of the striker, Salomon Kalou unexpectedly found himself a little, and from the flanks he was supported by Robben and Wright-Phillips. The 21-year-old Ivorian began the game very actively, creating in the first minutes dangerous moments for the same Wright-Phillips and Lampard. At the 12th minute, Salomon could have scored himself, but did not calculate the force of the blow after the transfer of Robben. However, later it became apparent that Kalu is good primarily in playing along. This was timely recognized by Mourinho, who threw Drogba into battle and moved Salomon to his native right flank, which in the first half was almost empty for Chelsea. What all this time Sean Wright-Phillips, who was supposed to close it, was doing, it was not clear from the broadcast. For the entire first half, the 24th issue of Chelsea did absolutely nothing that the rumors about its possible sale came to naught.
For the “forty”, Giuseppe Rossi developed vigorous activity on the left flank, which made him forget about Duff’s injury for a while. However, his actions did not always bring practical benefits to the team. Truly dangerous was only his long-range strike from the left in the 35th minute. To match the young Italian, rented from Manchester United, James Milner also began to act towards the end of the first half, however, his efforts were also unsuccessful. The most dangerous moment at the gates of Chelsea took place in the 17th minute when Antoine Sibierski took advantage of a child’s mistake, Ilariu and shot into the crossbar. In general, absolutely all explosive situations in the Chelsea penalty area arose solely due to the eccentricities of the third goalkeeper of the team, who again and again made me regret the absence of the first two.
Having played the second half, Drogba already had a chance to open an account in his 3rd minute, but he didn’t hit his head very well after a cross from Robben from the left flank. The game began to calm down again, which completely suited Glenn Raeder, who played away and also a semi-basic roster, but Mourinho could not allow his team another loss of points. And in the 67th minute again, as in the recent match with Arsenal, the Portuguese replaced the defender with a striker - Jeremy for Shevchenko.
At first, the Ukrainian acted exactly the same as in most matches of the season - he moved a bit apart, delivered an unnecessarily long-range strike, and prevented Drogba, who was a couple of meters from the goal, from breaking through. However, in the end, it was Sheva who co-authored the only goal in the match. At the 74th minute, Arjen Robben threw Andrei into a breakthrough with a thin pass, he performed something in between the strike and the pass to Drogba, and he scored the 9th goal in the championship and scored a victory for the “blue”.
As a result, the Newcastle win-win series ended at the sixth meeting, and Chelsea, as Mourinho promised, reduced the gap from Manchester United to 5 points. Winter in England will be hot.
Chelsea - NEWcastle - 1: 0 (0: 0)
Goal: 1: 0 - Drogba (74).
Chelsea: Hilari, Njitap (Shevchenko 67), Ricardo Carvalho (Makelele 46), Terry, Ash Cole, Essien, Lampard, Wright-Phillips (Drogba 46), Ballack, Kalu, Robben.
NEWcastle: Given, Babayaro, Huntington, Ramage, Butt, Milner, N'Zogbia (Pattison, 44), Sibierski (Luke, 78), Taylor, Martins, Rossi.
Warnings: Essien (62), Ramage (77), Babayaro (90), Makelele (90).
December 13th. Stamford Bridge. 22.45.
Judge: Phil Dowd (Staffordshire).
SEE ALSO:
Chronicle of diving "forty"