Chelsea’s season is back on track today as they go back up to the top of the league (for today, anyway). After a rough week with back-to-back defeats they managed to get back to winning ways as they came up against in-form team Stoke.
With Jose switching the team up a bit by leaving Hazard on the bench, it gave Salah the chance to make his full debut for Chelsea. Lampard, Mati? and Torres also came back into the team as Luiz, Oscar and Ramires dropped out of the team that started mid-week. Ramires was of course serving the final game of his suspension.
It was a bit of a cagey start to the game with neither team wanting to take control. After the first 10-15 minutes, though, Chelsea started to get into the game and created a few chances. With Mohammed Salah already impressing on his full debut and linking up well with his teammates, you would think that he had been in the team a lot longer than he has been.
It was the 32nd minute when the first goal came and with a sigh of relief all round it came the way of Chelsea as a fantastic ball came into the box from Mati? and the aforementioned Salah got onto the end of it to smash it into the back of the net.
The Stamford Bridge crowd went wild and the Chelsea players surrounded the Egyptian, clearly relieved to be leading in the match after a bad week. The confidence levels were now raised and the Blues took further control trying to double their lead.
They actually managed to do just that with defender Ivanovic getting on the end of and scoring from a well-delivered corner from Lampard, but it was then chalked off for being offside and despite their best efforts they went in at half time with a comfortable 1-0 lead.
The second half began the same way the first half ended with Brazilian Willian and Egyptian Salah bossing the game as they linked up well with their teammates to try and get more goals. André Schürrle went off after a slight knock earlier in the game as he collided with Charlie Adam and the Scot stood on the German’s foot, leaving him wincing in agony. Eden Hazard was his replacement and he was influential in the lead up to the next goal-scoring opportunity as he played a ball through to the impressive Salah, who was then brought down in the box by Andy Wilkinson. Penalty to Chelsea and Frank Lampard stepped up to take it instead of the in-form Hazard.
Lampard took the penalty and it was palmed away by Stoke goalkeeper Begovic and back into the path of Lampard, which he managed to stick away at the second time of asking to make it 2-0 to the Blues on the 61st minute. This was Frank LampardÂ’s 250th goal for Chelsea and his 147th league goal, so congratulations to him for another excellent achievement.
It didnÂ’t take long for Chelsea to get on target again as they went 3-0 up on 72 minutes. The goalscorer this time was Willian as he rounded off an excellent performance which won him Man Of The Match. It was a top class goal as he curled a beautiful ball into the top corner. After receiving the ball from Hazard, he shifted the ball a little and struck it perfectly before reeling away as he saw it hit the back on the net.
Chelsea were now cruising and this will surely give them a great confidence boost ahead of their Champions League game against PSG on Tuesday. There were a few more chances before the end of the game, including another penalty appeal from Salah as he was brought down, but the referee wasnÂ’t convinced and the game continued. There were then three minutes added on but no more goals in this game which Chelsea pretty much dominated all game.
A fantastic 3-0 win for the Blues and possibly more importantly a clean sheet as the back four and goalkeeper Cech had a much stronger game than of late. The return of Mati? into the team also made a huge difference as he shielded the back four in the same effective manner that he has done in the majority of games since his return. (Also worth a mention is the excellent forward thinking he also possesses to get the team going forward with some fantastic passes).
The defence was rarely troubled by Stoke and they managed to deal with everything that came their way. This might be the effect of playing at home, though, where they now have a consecutive eight games without conceding a goal at home.
With this stat in mind everyone associated with Chelsea will hope they can carry it on into the next game and maintain it, while also scoring a few goals again like today. PSG will be a far tougher test than Stoke, with all due respect, but if they go about their job the way they did today, we might just manage to get through to the next round in the Champions League. Despite it looking bleak before today, it now seems that there is a bit more confidence about the place.
