Blackburn 1 Chelsea 1 - Blues draw to give away advantage
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EL OF A WEEK FOR ANCELOTTI'S BRUISED BLUES
Blackburn 1 Chelsea 1
TOWERING: Diouf rises to steer home a headerA NIGHTMARE week for Chelsea only got worse when El Hadji Diouf leapt prodigiously to head Blackburn level at Ewood Park.
After wins for Arsenal, with ten men against London rivals West Ham, and Manchester United, against their fiercest of foes, it was expected by many that Carlo Ancelotti's side would follow suit.
But there is a fragility to this Blues line-up that was never apparent in Jose Mourinho's tenure.
Injuries aren't helping Ancelotti's cause and, if Branislav Ivanovic had still be on the pitch, maybe Diouf wouldn't have been able to climb so impressively to nod home Michel Salgado's deep cross - as he did against Paulo Ferreira.
But there was no blame attached for the goal to Ross Turnbull, who is still deputising for Petr Cech and Hilario.
And Chelsea looked every inch title challengers inside the opening few minutes and the entire duration of the first half.
Didier Drogba had already shot wide when an incisive move cut Rovers apart after a move for the home side broke down on the left wing. Nicolas Anelka galloped away, profited from some naive defending by Phil Jones, and laid the ball back to Drogba, who was lurking with intent.
The Ivorian needed no second invitation to guide a classy left-footed finish wide of Jason Brown.
Salomon Kalou headed over the top and Florent Malouda tested Brown as Chelsea looked comfortable but Jones, only 18 and compared to a young John Terry afterwards by Sam Allardyce, grew in stature as the game wore on and is a decent prospect.
Morten Gamst Pedersen mustered a couple of attempts for Blackburn, one from a free-kick, and the visitors lost Ivanovic after he was hurt by a challenge by Diouf.
Allardyce got into his side at half-time and there was an increased air of expectation around the stadium once the action restarted.
LEVELLER: Diouf wheels awayBlackburn are in good form at the moment and only a goalline intervention from substitute Yuri Zhirkov denied Chris Samba from a Pedersen throw-in and spared Turnbull's blushes as he looked less than convincing.
Frank Lampard burst into life to blast a 25-yard drive just off target but Chelsea started to show a worrying lack of conviction as the hosts asked more questions of their own.
With 20 minutes remaining, Salgado's cross was despatched quite brilliantly by Diouf, who towered above Ferreira to show his desire to meet the ball.
There was an inevitable late spell of pressure from Ancelotti's team but Samba and Jones were excellent in restricting the amount of work Brown needed to do.
Lampard did have a half-hearted penalty shout waved away after a decent tackle by Pedersen and the home fans, who jeered their manager when he took off Nikola Kalinic, celebrated wildly at securing a point against their aristocratic opponents.
The damage to Chelsea's title assault is still repairable but they cannot afford another slip-up against doomed Portsmouth in midweek.
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ferreira really cmi.
anelka has gone 10 matches with a goal. why did ancelotti take kalou out instead of anelka?
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Originally posted by dragg:
ferreira really cmi.
anelka has gone 10 matches with a goal. why did ancelotti take kalou out instead of anelka?
it's 11 :)
but he took nicolas off for daniel mah
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Originally posted by Poignant:
it's 11 :)
but he took nicolas off for daniel mah
yes. but that was the 90th min.
anelka played badly and should have been taken off much earlier.
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nicolas suffering a dip in form at the most important point
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Anelka was bad. Drogba always moaning for Free-kicks.
Kalou was on the field?!?!?
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still gt one more matches on tis week
must win -
for those who watched the game, are there really >5 stonewall penalties that were not given??
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samba clear cut dragged down anelka when last man but outside penalty box.
samba shld definitely have been red carded. instead he goes on to win the man of the match award?!?
the rest are 50-50 chances. not clear cut penalties. depends on the ref mood i guess.
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Chelsea has run out of steam liao. look at what happened when cech is out for a few weeks, out of CL and drawn at BB.
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Originally posted by mrwonderful:
samba clear cut dragged down anelka when last man but outside penalty box.
samba shld definitely have been red carded. instead he goes on to win the man of the match award?!?
the rest are 50-50 chances. not clear cut penalties. depends on the ref mood i guess.
well.. aiyo.. it is never good when the ref's decisions are shrouded and undebatable.