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.
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