Blackburn 1-1 Chelsea
By Nikhil Parchure.
Disappointed, no other word can describe what Chelsea fans are feeling right now. After a bright start to season, after not losing a single game when the African cup of nations was on but now dropping important points which will see Chelsea’s Title Hopes damaged.
Even Carlo Ancellotti will not be able to tell what exactly went wrong in the Blackburn game, did Chelsea create enough chances? Have we scored early? Have we defended well? Have we taken the game to the opposition? The answer to most of these questions is YES. Apart from the incident where Ferreira was caught napping the rest defence was ok considering early the exit of Ivanovic.
Injuries are taking there toll on Chelsea, despite having a very strong squad more than 6 injuries can hamper the performance of any team. When Influential players like Ashley Cole, Essien, Cech, Ballack, Carvahlo, Bosingwa are missing then your team will always be vulnerable. It’s like taking out Rooney, Ferdenand or Vidic out of Man Utd or take out Torres, Gerrad from Liverpool or take out Fabregas and Arshavin from Arsenal. Loss of big players always makes an impact and that is what is happening with Chelsea. The media as usual is blaming the players, manager and owner for the poor run but they are ignoring the real problems.
One big reason is that Chelsea again failed to use its full backs, this is one reason coming into the picture again and again. After fantastic performance’s week in week out from Ivanovic, now he is not able to create quality balls in the six yard box. Chelsea scored many goals this season from such crosses and explosive runs of Ashley Cole. In the game against Inter as well Chelsea failed to use their full backs and this point is now exploited by all teams.
Carlo Ancellotti has to devise a way to involve the full backs, the current 4-3-3 is not allowing RB and LB to go full throttle ahead as there is one player less to cover in case of counter attacks. With the players available (Many key players injured), Ancelotti should use 4-2-3-1 with Anelka on top. This may sound crazy but this will work as Drogba can create moments of brilliance, use his physic to win long balls and Anelka can use his pace up front to get behind the opposition defense. With Lampard and Malouda on both Sides and Mikel and Ballack holding This will give a lot of confidence to Ferreira and Zhirkov to go ahead and try to create scoring opportunities.
Cech
Ferreira Alex Terry Zhirkov
Mikel Ballack
Lampard Drogba Malouda
Anelka
We all know what Anelka did when Drogba was not there, how Malouda has suited well in the winger position and Lampard will have lot of room to roam around the box and have strikes at goal.
Chelsea need to be calm and look at what they can achieve this season rather than what they can not achieve. They have to concentrate on next few games, get a couple of good results and suddenly they will have confidence to believe they can win the title again for sure. Big matches like Chelsea Vs Man Utd will be massive as this could decide who is going to lift the cup this year. If it’s a Draw then Arsenal will be hot favourite’s.
I know this is not the right time to draw conclusions as football is a game that is full of surprises.
