Chelsea 1-1 Birmingham : Match Report.

Chelsea’s alarming dip continued as the Blues were held to a 1-1 draw at Stamford Bridge yesterday. Chelsea went 1-0 down before the break only to equalise in the 2^nd half courtesy a goal from their saviour of this season, Daniel Sturridge.

The match began with the away section of the crowd taunting AVB with chants of ‘you’re getting sacked in the morning’.

Chelsea started with a conventional 4-3-3 formation with Bertrand, Cahill, Mikel, Ramires all getting starts.

The fact that Ramires, Mikel and Meireles have never played together in the whole season led to some silly misplaced passes initially in the half.

Both sides looked even in the first ten minutes with no teams being able to trouble the opposition goalkeepers.

Chelsea’s only bit of creativity before going down came in the 15^th minute when Sturridge made a low cross to Mata, who could not intercept.

Soon, the home side went behind in the 19^th minute after some woeful defending after a corner resulted in a massive mix up inside Chelsea’s box. The ball fell into the path of David Murphy who did not disappoint with his shot. 1-0 Birmingham, and as a result, pin drop silence and anxiety at the Bridge.

3 minutes later, Chelsea earned themselves a penalty after Wade Elliot appeared to have tripped Ramires inside the box. With the absence of Chelsea legend Lampard, it was Mata who took the responsibility of taking the penalty, and unfortunately failed to convert from the spot.

Chelsea’s only standout performer of the evening, Daniel Sturridge put in some good crosses to Torres and Mata in the next 10 odd minutes, none of which were properly intercepted.

The fact that Chelsea could not pass more directly due to the presence of Fernando Torres made it more difficult for the midfielders to create any real chances.

Luiz though, earned a free kick a few yards outside the box in the 34^th minute decided to take the free kick himself. His free kick resulted in a brilliant save from Birmingham’s goalkeeper.

Apart from that, Chelsea failed to create any good chances in the entire first half and went 1-0 at the break amidst boos from the Stamford Bridge faithful.

And if chants of ‘you’re getting sacked in the morning’ weren’t enough, chants of ‘Jose Mourinho’ from Birmingham fans surely added more misery and anxiety around Stamford Bridge.

AVB quickly replaced Torres with Drogba at half time, who was welcomed back with loud cheers from the Bridge faithful.

Drogba’s presence up front meant more direct long balls to him instead of diagonal ones to the wingers. And such was the case, with Ivanovic, Luiz, Meireles all bombarding long balls to Drogba, who looked sharp inspite of his midweek arrival from the African Cup of Nations.

Chelsea’s persistence in the 2^nd half eventually paid off and they went ahead in the 62^nd minute when Branislav Ivanovic’s brilliant cross to Sturridge resulted in a header from the youngster that went in.

Chelsea kept testing Birmingham’s resilience all through the remainder of the game but were also caught occasionally on the break.

Lampard came on for Mata in the 82^nd minute but it was too late as his side failed to score the winner and will now have to face Birmingham again for the replay at St. Andrews.

Match Report : Everton 2-0 Chelsea

Chelsea slipped to 5^th place in the table as the Blues slumped to a 2-0 defeat at the hands of Everton last night.

Goals from Pienaar and Denis Stracqualursi ensured that the home team grabbed all 3 points and thereby increased the competition for the final Champions League spot.

Chelsea started the game without the likes of Captain John Terry and Ramires. With Meireles, Lampard and Essien in the midfield, it was a conventional 4-3-3 for the Blues that created absolutely no impact whatsoever to the Everton defence.

Chelsea hardly settled into the game and matters worsened for them when Pienaar sent the Toffees ahead in the 6^th minute of the game with a neat shot past goalkeeper Petr Cech.

Chelsea dominated possession after going ahead but failed to break into Everton’s defence. It was not until the 25^th minute that Chelsea had their first real threat when Mata’s pass from the side to Sturridge resulted in a shot that was well defended by Phil Neville.

Chelsea had their best chance in the 28^th minute when Mata’s low cross was met by Lampard. But his resulting shot with his left foot was just wide of the post. That was a chance missed for Chelsea considering Lampard’s calibre.

In the last minute of the first half, Torres made his way into the box and was ‘supposedly’ tripped. Massive appeals for a penalty by Torres were denied by the referee.

With that, Chelsea went 1-0 at the break, with the 4-3-3 formation proving ineffective yet again.

AVB probably didn’t learn anything from the 1^st half as Chelsea began the 2^nd half from where they left the 1^st, plenty of possession but no real threat to the Tofees’ defence.

Loud chants of ‘you don’t know what you’re doing’ from the away section were heard when AVB replaced Essien with Malouda. AVB probably knew what he was doing. Shifting from 4-3-3 to 4-2-3-1 with Mata in the hole, but the fact that he replaced Chelsea’s best player of the game with possibly Chelsea’s least interested prompted the chants from the Chelsea faithful.

The introduction of Malouda and a change in formation didn’t add any creativity whatsoever and to make matters worse, Chelsea went 2-0 down in the 71^st minute.

This time though, it was Chelsea’s left full back who was at fault. Cole was dispossessed after a hard but perfect tackle by Phil Neville. The resulting ball was picked up by Donovan who’s through ball to Straq resulted in Everton scoring their second and thereby putting the game to bed.

Meanwhile, AVB called for further abuse on himself from the travelling fans when he replaced Mata with Lukaku. The intentions were clear, but the reason why he replaced Chelsea’s only genuine creative player for Lukaku was a mystery.

Lukaku had a half chance inside the box but his left shot was well saved by Tim Howard. That was probably the only real save Howard made all day.

With no more chances being created till the final whistle by both sides, Chelsea slumped to a defeat, and out of the top 4 thereby increasing the pressure on the young shoulders of Andre Villas Boas.

-     Abhishek Easwaran