Wembley Beckons!!

We are through to the final of the Carling Cup where we would meet our dear friends Spurs. We love playing against you to be honest because we like winning and you have hardly disappointed us.
Its for nothing that we sing 'Are you Tottenham in disguise?' ....

Back to the game. It was going to be tough match at Goodison but going into the game with a 2-1 lead from the home leg I was pretty confident that we would do a professional job and get to the finals. Before the match a lot was being made of us not able to sell the ticket allocation but anybody who has been at the match or seen the match on television wouldn't disagree that we outsang the 35000 odd Evertonians. The people who went to see the match deserve special applause. There was an announcement midway in the first half requesting Chelsea supporters to sit down for their own safety. The reply from Chelsea fans : 'Stand Up if you love Chelsea' .... Classic. Away support that is what we have been known for and the supporters showed that in the match.

It was a game in which we were pretty much in control barring a few patches and it was overall a very professional performance as expected. Before the game there was a big surprise to see Ballack's name missing from the starting lineup due to calf strain. Sidwell was more than prepared to grab the opportunity. Makelele was captaining the side and Bridge was at left back and it was good to see him there as Bridge and Malouda had linked up so well in the earlier fixture at home.

Anelka had a good chance in the first half when Malouda played him but he was ruled offside. Everton had a good chance in the opening ten minutes when Lescott headed the ball in the six yard box but Cech was able to clear that ball with no Everton player able to capitalize. There were one or two good chances before the break with Malouda shooting high and Johnson shooting just wide of goal(Cech had the near post covered though).

After the break Chelsea had some good chances with Anelka and SWP but none of them could capitalize. On the other hand Cech was having his first day at work as a dad and was making sure that he gets a clean sheet come the end of the match. Twice he made excellent saves to keep Everton at bay. As the match went on it looked like we would hold on to our one goal advantage and progress. However that one goal lead became a two goal lead with clock nearing 70 minutes. Malouda played a great ball from half line towards Joe Cole which he brilliantly touched down shrugging pressure from two defenders and scored a fantastic goal. 'We are going to Wembley' and 'Que Sera Sera' started from the Chelsea faithful who pretty much knew it was game over and a final was inevitable. Moyes the Everton manager tried to bring two strikers in Anichebe and Vaughan but it was all too late. Chelsea was never going to surrender a two goal advantage. Pizarro came on later and had an excellent shot saved. Not that it was going to matter as the boys in electric yellow had done it again. A second Carling Cup Final in two years beckoned.

Team News
Chelsea (4-3-3): Cech; Belletti, Alex, Carvalho, Bridge; Wright-Phillips, Makelele (c), Sidwell; J Cole (Pizarro 82), Anelka (Ben-Haim 90+2), Malouda (A Cole 89).
Scorer J Cole 68
Booked Makelele 65, Belletti 75.

Everton (4-4-1-1): Howard; Neville (c), Jagielka, Lescott, Valente; Arteta, Fernandes (Vaughan 78), Carsley (Anichebe 69), Osman; Cahill; Johnson.
Booked Carsley 25, Fernandes 73, Valente 80, Neville 82.

Player Ratings
Cech: First game as a dad and he kept a clean sheet for his new born daughter. Made some important saves.
Belletti: He is looking good with each passing game. Offensively his game was never doubted and he is also now coming up with good defensive displays.
Alex: Won everything in air and an all round solid defensive display.
Carvalho: We haven't lost since November '06 whenever he has played and he showed yet again why. Good defending from him kept us in the game.
Bridge: Solid Display.
Makelele: The maestro came up again with a MOTM performance. There wasn't a better player on the pitch than him.
SWP: Looked a little bit of steam after picking up that ankle injury but still gave as assured performance.
Sidwell: People were on his backs even before his name was on the team sheet but I though he did well and tackled hard though there wasn't much creativity from him.
Joe Cole: Looked good and did well to track back and help the defence. Great finish.
Malouda: He plays more inside rather than on the wing but his pass was superb leading to the goal.Other than that he wasn't much inspiring though.
Anelka: His movement has been particularly well and it is just a matter of time before he gets his first goal.
Pizarro: Came on late. Had a good shot saved.
Ashley Cole: No time for impact.
Ben Haim: No time for impact

Pizarro always scores ................ only against Birmingham

Birmingham 0 - 1 Chelsea

Three points is what counts at the end of the day and I am glad that we were able to come away from St. Andrews with all three. The conditions kept deteriorating as the match progressed with rain falling incessantly on the pitch but we held on to register our eighth away win of the season.

To be honest it wasn't the best of Chelsea performances you would see but there was certainly effort from the playing eleven. Chelsea started with almost the same squad that started the last game with Spurs. The only change was Anelka coming in place of Pizarro who dropped to the bench. The earlier exchanges of the game belonged to us but there were no clear cut chances to take. SWP twisted his ankled as he landed while going for a header(yes header!!). He tried to continue but after a few minutes he couldn't carry on any further. Pizarro came on for him and dropped just behind Anelka.

Cech had a howler in the first half when Chelsea defence looked seemingly over confident. Alex instead of clearing a seemingly straight forward ball preferred to pass it to Cech who would have cleared it 99 out of 100 times but this wasn't surely one of those 99 times. He miskicked and the ball hit Jerome Campbell's head and his header missed the open goal and came off the post. Chelsea fans were relieved to see the ball going just wide. The later stages of the first half was all Birmingham and they tried to open up our defence. Kapo and Damien Johnson were playing particularly well towards the end of the half. The first half whistle was a huge relief for the Chelsea fans as they could have easily being one goal down. The half time came at just the wrong time for Birmingham who had all the momentum.

In the second half Chelsea tried to keep the ball to themselves with first time passing and not allowing the Birmingham team to close them down. Anelka had a good chance set up my Makelele but referee flagged him for hand ball. He had another good chance when Malouda set him up but a last ditch tackle from Ridgewell and a good save from Taylor kept Birmingham in the game. On 79th minuted came the most important moment of the match when Belletti set Pizarro up from the corner and the Peruvian headed it home. After that it was pretty much game in control and we never looked like going to lose it from there on. Another win another three points.

Chelsea (4-3-3): Cech; Belletti, Alex, Carvalho, A Cole; Wright-Phillips (Pizarro 28), Makelele, Ballack (c); Malouda (Bridge 90+2), Anelka, J Cole (Sidwell 84).
Scorer Pizarro 78
Booked Pizarro.

Birmingham (4-4-2): Taylor; Kelly, Ridgewell, Schmitz, Queudrue; Larsson, Muamba, Johnson (c), Kapo; O'Connor (Forssell 71), Jerome (McFadden 71).
Booked Muamba.

Match Performances :
Cech : Had a howler but apart from that had a good showing and few important saves.
Belletti : Was as good as a threat going forward but he left a big void everytime he bombed forward and put up a lot of pressure on Alex and Makelele to cover ground. He needs to improve his decisioning as when to break forward.
Alex : Had a good game and looked in control however made a sloppy back pass to Cech and if it wasn't Cech's good instincts to rush quickly we might have been picking the ball from the net as Campbell was pouncing on it.
Carvalho : Good performance. Worked Hard. Cleared the balls well and make strong challenges.
Cole : Didn't looked too sharp and had an Ok game.
Makelele : He is still the master.Ran the show for me and if it hadn't been for him we would have been behind a couple of times. Set up Anelka well.
SWP : Unfortunate to go out with injury.
Ballack : Worked hard in midfield but certainly not one of his best performances.
Malouda : Looked out of sorts in this game.
Joe Cole : Tried his tricks but wasn't effective throughout. He had his moments though.
Anelka : Service from the midfield wasn't best but still looked better than Pizarro in the lone striker's role.
Pizarro : Scored the all important winner. Worked hard and gave a good account of himself. He needs to play off a striker to look good but he lacks predatory instincts and is not a natural finisher.
Bridge : Came on late. Nothing of notice.
Sidwell : Came on later. Nothing of notice.

Its Brums against Chelsea

I have reiterated time and again in this blog that I would try to be more regular with my postings. But as I see with little or no comments that I don't exactly have a far reaching audience but still it would be nice to know if there are one or two odd people reading what you are writing.

However getting back to what I feel most passionately about. Chelsea !! right ...
We are going over to St. Andrew's to face the second best club in Birmingham (I am sorry Brum fans but that is the truth. Anyone of you who think you are bigger than Villa must be living in opium eater's paradise). The last time we visited Birmingham we were defeated 2-0 by Villa so I am hoping this time around it would be a better result for us.

How ironic is that the last time the two clubs met it was different managers at helm at both. Mourinho was leading us in hope of another league title while Steve Bruce had just brought Birmingham up and was hoping to keep them safe from relegation however things turned out differently. Jose left the club by mutual consent and Steve Bruce moved to Wigan due to contract issues. In came Avram Grant at Chelsea and Alex McLeish at Birmingham. I have been impressed by how McLeish has gone about with this job. He inherited a good side from Bruce and the players have given strong committed performances in the recent games against United and Arsenal. Two new men arrived at Birmingham in this transfer window with Murphy signing from Hibernian and McFadden leaving Everton.

It would be interesting to see how we are going to lineup for this game. There has been news in some quarters that Pizarro had some injury but nothing is officially confirmed. However with Anelka having a full week in training with the rest of squad I see no problem with him starting the game. He looked good when he came on as a sub last time around against Spurs. It seemed that he was here all along. Shevchenko is also expected to be fit for this match so we may probably see him making a return. Lampard is another doubt however if he returns it would be a tough decision for Grant to leave him on the bench or start him in place of another player. The kind of 4-2-3-1 formation employed by Grant in the last match looked pretty good with SWP enjoying himself in the middle so I am hoping for a similar sort of formation for this game.

I expect a tough game from the Brums however I see us nicking this by a goal or two. 0-2 for me.

Go Blues!!(Chelsea not B'gham)