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.