Two games, two six nil victories. This has not been the start to the season many of us foresaw after our poor pre-season, yet here we sit just over two weeks into the new campaign with a 100% record, and a goal difference of +12 already.
Ok so our opponents haven’t provided the sternest of testa so far but as the old adage goes, you can only beat what’s in front of you, and beat them we have.
Much has been made of Wigan manager Martinez’s comments that his team were unlucky, he’s been derided in most reports I’ve seen so far yet, up until half time it’s hard to argue against his assertion that Wigan were the better side.
Wigan certainly started brightly pressing as expected down our right flank, giving Ivanovic, who looked ring rusty and with a heavy touch on more than one occasion, the run-around for most of the first 45 minutes.
Chelsea struggled to get any real time on the ball with Wigan pressing hard all over the pitch, first to any second balls and not giving us any time to settle into a rhythm, and it was Wigan who fashioned many of the earlier chances with Figueroa and Rodallega testing Cech, who was thankfully up to the task.
It was against the run of play that Chelsea then put together a lovely flowing move, with some lovely passing that saw the ball worked to Ashley Cole out side, who pulled the ball back into the effort to Lampard, making his customary charge into the box.
Unlike Lampard though, he played a tame shot looking for precision rather than power, which allowed Kirkland to get a hand to the ball and divert it away from the goal, Malouda reacted quicker than anyone and latched onto the rebound to slot it home, and settle the nerves a bit.
Wigan came back and continued to press but nonetheless went in at half time still a goal down, but no doubt buoyed by the performance shown, Chelsea weren’t firing and were in truth fortunate to be ahead, a point Carlo would have made a little firmer than I can print here, and within minutes of the restart it was clear it had worked.
Chelsea kicked off like a different team, the passing was sharper, the movement more fluid and with the team not playing as deep as the first half, it wasn’t long before a goal came.
Mikel received the ball deep in his own half, and with the first touch sent a beautiful pass from inside his own half into the path of the onrushing Anelka, who’d timed his run perfectly, to pick up the ball inside the Wigan area and slot into to the far post past Kirkland with his first touch. Two touches, 60 yards covered, goal. A classic counter attack.
Chelsea’s third came minutes later and it was again Anelka who finished a lovely move, another break saw Malouda latch onto the ball wide on the left, cross to the far post where Drogba was waiting. He knocked the ball back towards the goal and the recently exiled French international headed home, albeit from an offside position that the linesman missed.
By now Chelsea’s tails were up and the team again sensed goals, and it wasn’t long before another came. This time Drogba picking the ball up just inside the Wigan half, knocking it past his man and sprinting onto the ball, whilst his run and movement drew the defenders he unselfishly laid the ball onto the onrushing Kalou who slotted home with ease.
With news pre-match of how Drogba could set a record as the first man to make a ‘hat-trick of hat-tricks’ it was a hat-trick of a different kind he completed, with an absolute peach of a cross from the left beating the defence for Kalou to rise above the Wigan defence and head home, to make it three assists for Didier.
The final whistle approached, yet Chelsea still weren’t done and continued attacking, working the ball out to Ferreira, who’d replaced the tiring Ivanovic on the right, tearing towards the Wigan area and pulling the ball back for substitute Benayoun to strike the ball past Kirkland two minutes into injury time to make it 6-0 for the second week running.
After the game, Ancelotti reflected on the match; “We have a lot of skills, now the best quality is we are able to do a fantastic counter-attack, we have strikers who are fast with ability, so when we have space it is difficult to control for the opponent. Obviously we wanted to win the game and to play well, and we did both.”
“We’ve won two games, played good football and scored a lot of goals but we are focused to play good football. It is impossible to think we are always to score six goals in a game, this is not real football, this is Playstation.”
No Carlo, this is real, very real. If there’s a better, more effective or more entertaining team anywhere in the world right now, then I’ve yet to see them.
Chelsea (4-3-3): Cech, Ivanovic (Ferreira 63), Alex, Terry (c), Cole; Essien (Benayoun 78), Mikel, Lampard; Anelka, Drogba, Malouda (Kalou 70).
Goals: Malouda 33, Anelka 47, 51, Kalou 77, 89, Benayoun 90+3
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