Great bit of play there from JT taking on 2 Blackburn players next to the touchline. He is such an inspirational captain.
Kalou off for Drogs. Would have rather seen one of the midfielders come off... Notice it was Mr Carvalho 'marking' McCarthy on B'Burn's last chance
Was this the starting line-up 1 Petr Cech 9 Khalid Boulahrouz 6 Ricardo Carvalho 26 John Terry (c) 18 Wayne Bridge 4 Claude Makelele 5 Michael Essien 13 Michael Ballack 8 Frank Lampard 7 Andriy Shevchenko 21 Salomon Kalou And someone please keep me up to date with the score.
I think we're trying a little more in this game, although, the Mourinho staple of defending the lead first and foremost is quite evident.
In a position where Drogba could have easilly have gone down, and taken a foul..... He battles, maintains his balance, and puts it in the back of the net! Tres Bien!
Nothing but pure, raw, power from Drogba. Never even thought of going for the penalty - which he would have got - and lashed it into the net.
That was a hardcore goal. Strength to get the chance and then a spot-on shot to beat the keeper...very well done Drogs!
Welcome to English football, Andre Ooijer Drogs as an impact sub = great move. I'd like to see more 4-5-1 with a switch to 4-4-2 around the hour mark once Robben and Cole return.
Normal service has resumed. A very nice away win against a Blackburn team that played well and had its chances at various points in the game. Glad to see the midweek hiccup was just that.
3 points, no goals conceded, got better as the game went on, quality result. Sky sound gutted. Might as well have had a few United supporters commentating throughout.
Glade that was one is over. I was tired of hearing about what happened last time and how Chelsea is not going to win again this year. All that because of one lose
My MOTM is Petr Cech. We simply didnt have width today, all the attacks are from the middle. Essien keeps looking good yet his passing should have been better. Ballack doesnt impress me, I think it takes time to adapt to the Prem and he just comes back from an injury. Our passing in the midfield is poor today, but I can see what Jose's trying to do - short + quick pass through the middle, instead of high balls.
Dare I say rotation, but I think only 3 out of the 4 Lamp, Mak, Essien, Ballack really should be on the pitch at once. Don't like the diamond no room to pass the way we carry it off. Kalou not convincing again nor was SWP in his limited time. Drogba, love when he plays like that, was likely sitting early because of missing the marking on boro's first goal. The cannibal looked mostly solid nice physical lad Carv played much better today. Cech makes a difference. Funny we mostly played better than boro and lost yet were mostly worse today and win.
Well, thats that then, untill the window closes. Gallas is missed in the back line, Cech, as was evident, is also missed, but has returned. Time will tell what will happen I suppose. A Cole certainly is not needed.
You have to wonder about Sparky starting on the right back of his defense one guy new to the Premiership, Ooijer, playing his first match of the season, and Emerton, normally a midfielder. Sheva camped on Emerton all second half, waiting on the counter. Totally natural. Emerton was a rock, however, and never conceded a thing and got out into the attack regularly. Ooijer was just a panicky disaster, starting in minute 4 with that needless free kick he conceded near the box. In the Tale of Two New Dutchmen, Boulahrouz wasn't much better, sloppy early and then never tested as Gamst-Pedersen had one of his worst matches since he emerged as a major talent in the league. On other matters, I love that light blue floppy notebook Obi Mikel was being shown before he checked in. You could see that it was Polaroids shot from above, just like NFL quarterbacks get on the sideline.