West Bromwich Albion 2 - Chelsea 1

Summary:

A near-capacity crowd left the ground singing after a determined performance by Albion produced a second succesive home win over Chelsea and lifted them to fourth place in the table. With Ben Foster still recovering from surgery, Boaz Myhill kept his place in goal while Gabriel Tamas played at centre half in place of the injured Gareth McAuley and Billy Jones kept his place despite Steven Reid being available to start on the bench.

Whether Roberto Di Matteo was thinking too much about their Champions League game in midweek or whether he simply underestimated Albion we may never know, but with Terry injured and Cole, Mata and Oscar starting on the bench it took just ten minutes for Albion to weather the early pressure and take the lead with a superb header by Shane Long from James Morrison's cross. Despite the visitors having more of the game, Albion could have doubled their lead had referee Michael Oliver been more generous after Long was impeded by Gary Cahill in the box.

Instead, Chelsea equalised shortly before the break through Eden Hazard, albeit thanks to a deflection off the head of Billy Jones - though Albion took the lead again just five minutes into the second half when Morrison fed Long to cross for Peter Odemwingie to copy Long's first half header.

Chelsea brought on reinforcements to try and get something back, and it made for a nervous last 20 minutes or so, but Albion's performance was typified by Odemwingie tracking back 30 yards to win the ball in midfield to cheers from the crowd. Superb performances by Myhill and Tamas showed that Albion have a little more strength in depth these days, and few teams are likely to underestimate them from now on.

oshawabaggie:

Another brilliant result from a courageous all round team performance. There were no weak links for me, but some standouts that I will talk about below. Our second goal epitomized the cohesion of the team - a 12 pass move involving 7 players from Tamas's defensive clearance to Peter O's header into the back of the Chelsea net.

There may be some who argue this was not the strongest Chelsea side RDM could put out, but it was still formidable and cost 20 times our squad, if not more.

It got a bit scary when they brought Mata and Oscar on and memories of Man City made for a nervous last 20 minutes or so. Sturridge had a couple of great chances to tie it up - But he didn't take them and it would have been a little unjust if he did.

It's almost unfair to talk about individuals because we have come to expect that players like Olsson, Mulumbu, Yacob, Gera and Morrison turn in great performances week in week out, but I will mention a few; Myhill was fantastic today. I feared the worst when I heard Foster was injured, but Myhill kept us in the game, especially towards the end, with some great instinctive saves. Long was massive, once again, with his incredible work rate, not to mention scoring and laying on the second goal. Peter O. put in a surprisingly solid defensive performance to go with his great goal. Tamas, not everyone's favourite, put in a real strong defensive shift. And Mulumbu, stuggling with a pulled hamstring after all the subs had been made, stayed on until the end despite the obvious pain, which typified our brave performance.

I keep staring at the league table - 4th!! Good times indeed.

Steve Fereday:

Have not posted for ages but thought I would today. Just read the prat Malcolm Folley's match report from today's Mail on Sunday. It should have been titled 'Poor Chelsea, lucky Albion'.

I tried to send the prat my email below, but it kept bouncing back to me. If any of you has an email address for him, can you pls forward it on for me. It would keep keep an old man very happy. The arse.

Interesting article Malcolm about how poor Chelsea were yesterday. Also interesting that you don't mention much about at times Albion played them off the park. Does a score line have to get to something like 4 or 5-1 against a top 4 team before it warrants a mention that the opposition played really well?? And also no mention that the assembled Chelsea team on display yesterday cost about 20 times more than Albion's??

However (and no doubt luckily you may perhaps write), as an Albion fan I do know real value.

[ I think you'd be wasting your time, Steve - "big" clubs losing make more news and always will. I scanned a copy of the Telegraph this morning and it was four paragraphs about Chelsea and RdM before Albion got their first mention (though it did rightly point out what a waste of space Torres had been). Same story with Norwich's win over Man United. Take no notice! - Finbarr ]

Baggyjon:

It took the media a long time to recognise the great Albion side of 1979,the catalyst being the 5-3 win over you know who.

I fully endorse the comments regarding the Daily Mail. These were compounded by that genius of the football pundits, Graham Taylor, who when asked to comment on Albion beating Chelsea and Norwich beating Stretford Utd. stated that the Premier League is producing it's fair share of shock results this season.

When is it a shock that a team consistently in the top ten and placed fifth beats a top four team at home?

With arguably the best squad in 30 years playing in an organised fashion not seen in a generation this team could arguably finish in the top six.

The downside, of course, and something that has to be accepted for a club our size is that the squad without the massive depth that others can afford will be pressurised to maintain it's position by the fans expectation even when injuries and suspensions take their toll. Another factor are the poachers whose ambition will inevitably put pressure on the players to move to clubs who promise mega riches to play in half the games.

In the long term the club should concentrate on consolidation as a top ten side and then perhaps we could enjoy a few cup successes.

I cannot praise too highly the Chairman, management, staff and players who who over the past 10 years have brought the club to where we are. Football is a game of unpredictability and I know that circumstances change very quickly, Waterloo Rd Wanderers know that only too well. However if the club can remain ambitious but prudent I am sure we are in for more good years than bad.