Blues back in business!

What a start! Did I predict the scoreline? It was just another day in office for Chelsea. A very good first game against a not-so-easy opponent. When the game started, you could realise that the Chelsea players are to yet gain full fitness and sharpness was still lacking. Somehow, I believe that Chelsea would peak by October or so, by which time, all would be fully fit with better understanding of each other’s game and the team strategy.

Meanwhile, Man United scored a very interesting 5-1 victory over Fulham. I did expect Man United to kill off Fulham, but to score 5 goals in the absence of Ruud and given the current relations between Rooney and Ronaldo, was magnificent. There were pictures of Rooney and Ronaldo sharing a laugh in the goal celebrations. It was very nice and heartening to see them making amends to their recently hyped up collision at the World Cup. So there is some promise that these two great players (I hate Ronaldo’s dives, though) would still play together.

Coming back to our 3-0 regulation victory, it was very much the expected first eleven. Jose started with SWP and Bridge. Kalou, Obi & Diarra came on around the last quarter. It was again a rusty start, until John Terry headed his first goal of the season. Chelsea’s game improved much after the first goal. All the while, yet again, Shevchenko was very much in the action despite being marked very well. When Sheva sees the video of this match, he might understand that he should have score or assisted at least one goal.

Lampard’s goal scoring has started this season despite claims that would be scoring less due to Sheva’s and Ballack’s presence. His powerful shot took deflection and it was soon 2-0. Now before anyone starts giving me the ‘Lampard scores off deflection’ crap, let me tell you that he played well in the first half and he bloody shot the ball when he had the time and space. That’s always Chelsea’s hallmark. When you have the time and space and position in front of the goal, just shoot instead of passing meaninglessly to claim you’re playing beautiful football. In the second half it was much better performance by Chelsea especially in winning the ball and playing more in a more attacking manner. Drogba, who was pretty average, then powered the header for the third. For me, the man of the match is Wayne Bridge. He was simply superb. It looked like he was sending a message out to everybody, in the times of the search for a left back. He certainly has improved a lot during his loaned out period. It is nice to see Wayne playing well and Boulahrouz being signed. All this should only worry Ashley Cole.

Man City was in fact playing well and defending well. They had a couple of good attacks either of which could have resulted in goals on some other day. I felt that Corradi’s red card was little unfortunate. His second yellow was allright but his first yellow could have gone just with a piece fo advice from the ref. Once they were down to 10 men, there was no way back for them. SWP was okay but made some poor decisions after some good
forward runs. Essien and Robben were very impressive. Once again Kalou and Obi were brought quite late in the match. I wish they had more time, atleast 30 minutes, to really make an impact. The ref didn’t notice a handball when Sheva shot one from inside the box which rebounded off the defender’s arm. That should have been a clear penalty. There were in fact, couple more handballs, which were quite debatable.

Once again, as always, Chelsea meant business. Three points in the bag and a winning start to the title defence.