Tuesday, May 11, 2010

CHELSEA - CHAMPIONS 2009/10

Chelsea read the script, learnt it and performed it perfectly.

There simply cannot be any better way to seal a league title than with a club's record top-flight win and in doing so, Carlo Ancelotti's magnificent side not only secured the club's fourth championship but did so with a Premier League record number of goals scored - smashing the century to move onto 103 league goals for the season - a new club record in any division.

Any tension in this game soon evaporated when Nicolas Anelka fired in with just five minutes gone. Three more goals, a Frank Lampard penalty and strikes from Salomon Kalou and another from Anelka, were netted before Didier Drogba even found the net.

He ended the day with a second-half hat-trick to take the Premier League Golden Boot with 29 league goals and 36 in all competitions.

By that stage Wigan had long played with 10 men, Gary Caldwell having been dismissed half-an-hour in conceding the penalty that led to the second goal.

Ashley Cole completed the scoring and if there was a disappointment, it was that Petr Cech only shares the Golden Gloves! Liverpool's 0-0 draw at Hull means both he and Pepe Reina end the season on 17 league clean sheets.

As promised, Ancelotti named an unchanged side. The opening minutes of Chelsea's play were a little edgy but then Kalou took the initiative and embarked on a 50-yard run straight down the middle of the pitch. He was nudged in the back 10 yards from the Wigan area and we had our first chance to test Mike Pollitt in goal. Heavily-criticised Serb international keeper Vladimir Stojkovic had been dropped.

Drogba claimed the right to take the first dangerous free-kick of the game and it was struck cleanly but hit the very top of the wall. Bouncing back up field, it was Lampard who headed back into the danger area where he struck gold - Malouda, on the shoulder of the last defender, able to chest down for Anelka's cleanly struck half-volley inside the near-post and into the Shed End net. There were only five minutes gone.

It was the start everyone who cares about the Blues had been dreaming about for the last seven days. Stamford Bridge, already ringing with song before kick-off, upped the decibel level considerably.

Another free-kick 15 minutes in nearly led to a second clear chance when Terry's muscular aerial challenge prevented Gohouri clearing properly. The ball dropped just out of reach of the Chelsea skipper's shooting boots.

Wigan, who adopted a three-man defence with Melchiot and Figueroa as wing-backs, were actually enjoying their fair share of possession, Chelsea more or less playing on the counter-attack like an away side. There briefly looked danger when a ball forward split the Chelsea defence but its recipient, N'Zogba, had run offside.

Anelka, as lively as anyone on the pitch, drilled a low ball across the six-yard box from the right on 27 minutes that was just inches too far behind Ashley Cole. TV pictures showed Roman Abramovich in his box in the West Stand almost attempting to turn the ball in himself.

Three minutes later came the penalty that eased any remaining nerves, won and scored by Lampard. He had taken Drogba's return pass and surged into the area where he was stopped by Caldwell who grabbed a handful of the front of his shirt. The officials didn't miss the foul, dismissed the defender and so with his 10th league penalty of the season, Lamps scored his 27th goal in all competitions - striking the ball low into the bottom left-hand corner of the net.

Alex Ferguson has said in the build-up to this weekend that his team would give it their all, at least until Chelsea were 2-0 up. News that Manchester United had now matched our score in their game at Old Trafford felt totally irrelevant down at Stamford Bridge which was busy with the biggest and best 'bouncy' yet, all four sides of the ground joining in.

Chelsea were out early for the second half and had time for a prolonged group huddle.

Within 90 seconds we hit woodwork when a stretching Lampard toed a Drogba cross on target. Pollitt tipped it onto the crossbar but the flag was up anyway, although replays suggested it was the nearby Anelka rather than Lampard who had strayed offside.

The news came through that Man United had made it 3-0 just as Chelsea matched that score thanks to Salomon Kalou.

Running into the area on the right, he and Lampard zig-zagged passes and controlling with his right, the Ivorian finished his left for his 12th of the season. He was booked for a shirt-off celebration and was soon subbed for Joe Cole, Belletti also given a piece of the action in place of Ivanovic.

We only had to wait another three minutes for goal number four and the quality of the strikes kept going up and up - Anelka from out wide volleying Ivanovic's crossfield ball with perfect precision across the goalie and in.

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