Chelsea 2 - West Bromwich Albion 2

Date: Wednesday 13th January 2016 
Competition: Barclays Premier League
Chelsea:
4.9
WBA:
7.8
Myhill 6.4, Dawson 7.2, McAuley 6.9, Olsson 6.2, Evans 7.1, Brunt 5.1, Yacob 5.4 (Berahino, 59 6.3), Fletcher 8.5, McClean 6.8, Morrison 5.7 (Gardner, 6 7.1), Rondón 6.3 (Sessegnon, 67 6.4)
Unused subs: Foster, Chester, Anichebe, McManaman
Manager: Tony Pulis 7.8
Scorers: Gardner (33), McClean (86)
Referee: Anthony Taylor (Cheshire) 6.1
Attendance: 40,945   Home Fans 4.2   Away Fans 8.1

oshawabaggie:

This was an excellent team performance in a game we could easily have won. It was all the more pleasing because the pre-match team sheet suggested we were in for another dour defensive battle with us trying to hang on for a nil nil draw. Nothing could have been further from the truth.

We were on top, having created a few decent half chances, when Chelsea took a surprise lead. But rather than wilting under Chelea pressure we struck back through the 'one sublime strike a year' Gardner, who was on for the hamstrung Mozza.

Chelsea's second goal should never have happened. We had forced a corner at the other end and when the ball bobbled to Maclean he flicked it at goal only for it to glance off a defenders chest for another corner. Or at least it should have been, but the ref gave a goal kick. Chelsea broke out quickly and Willian's low cross skidded in off Gmac's knee.

It speaks volumes of the team spirit that despite that blow so late in the game, we had the will to fight back for the equalizer. - off the right peg of McClean no less.

Some random thoughts: Fletcher had a stirring game and has looked much fitter in the last four games. Evans has been a great signing. McClean is a decent addition if only he can be kept under control. Yacob is a liability. I can't see anyone forking out 20 million quid for Berahino - this might still be to Albion's advantage if only he can regain his touch and fitness. Since Ashworth left we have made some awful signings. Ideye, Anelka, Chester, Lambert to name a few. Rondon may be another to add to that list. I hope he proves me wrong.

Finally, a grudging word of praise for Pulis; he's the only coach in the league to pick four center halves and get them to play attacking football.

Brendan Clegg:

Any away point in this league is a good one - against a side with the resources of Chelsea even better.

It was an entertaining game but an odd one. It was a good performance but with some conflicting individual displays.

The best way I can sum it up is that we showed fantastic effort, commitment and executed the tactics well but in terms of quality and decision making sometimes we were absolutely dreadful.

And I think this was the most vulnerable Chelsea side I have seen for many years. They deserve their position in the league. Terry and Ivanovic are "legs gone", Azpilicueta is a total myth of a player (who just happens to score against us), Fabregas is playing like a player who has won everything in the game and doesn't need to try anymore, Mikel is Mikel and Costa, although still a threat, lacks the pace to really hurt you in behind and is playing the game against his own demons as much as the opposition.

We created a lot of chances and situations throughout the match - we could have been 2 or 3 up had there been players on the pitch with a goal instinct instead of really good opportunities falling to McClean, Rondon, Fletcher, Dawson,Brunt and Gardner, all of whom managed to make messes of their chances or situations.

Fletcher was our best player by miles giving a performance that rolled back the years. I have been critical of him but he was excellent in every aspect - reading the game to win the ball back, tackling, game management, bursts of energy to join attacks or instigate them. I even thought his use of the ball was really good - he really tried to keep it rather than hit percentage balls for Rondon to chase.

Rondon did his usual gladiator act of leading the line well and helping us press them high which was followed up very well by Gardner, Fletcher and McClean.

Brunt struggled on the right wing - apart from the Pulis obsession with height in the team, surely a player to attack the Chelsea weak fullback here might have been a gamble worth taking? Save Sess for Newcastle and give McManaman a chance perhaps? Indeed it was Brunt at fault for the first goal - criminally going to sleep at the back post when he had a 10 yard start. McManaman at least has the pace to get back.

I thought it was almost perfect in Pulis-world that McClean and Gardner got the goals. Here were two players who on the night worked their socks off and gave everything but in terms of quality and decision making were absolutely abysmal. Honestly, they were so bad.

Gardner seemed to give the ball away every time he got it - right before his goal he had a great opportunity running through on goal in the box but pretty much fell over the ball. I can;t be alone in thinking that in a straight choice between Gardner having a one-on-one run on goal or Gardner having to shoot from 25 yards under pressure I'd choose the latter every time. It was a great hit and great finish.

McClean was in full on all-effort-no-brains mode. Rampaging around but giving the ball away badly, making a total mess of worked crossing opportunities and managing to get another petulant booking. Always on a knife-edge; that he and Costa didn't meet in a situation that would cause conflict was probably for the best although would doubtless have been entertaining. And then after all this he caressed the ball into the bottom corner from the edge of the box with his normal standing leg with the grace and measure you'd expect from a Bergkamp or Zola. Madness I tell you. Madness.

I thought Pulis did OK - the starting 11 he chose and his in-game decisions and timings were not what I'd have done but he got the result and he at least spotted that Yacob was another whose decision-making was not to be trusted any further having got a booking and then given the ref every opportunity to give him an early bath. As always I'd have liked a bit more ambition but the plan was clear enough - Chelsea had a small side and we looked to exploit that all over the pitch. I just hope we are a smidgen more adventurous against Newcastle as they are really poor, and as I maintain we should have been at Swansea who were easily beaten at home by Sunderland!

  • Myhill - 6 Did well enough but his position for the 2nd goal was wrong by a foot or so which allowed the ball to creep in at his near post.
  • Dawson - 7 Did pretty well. Sometimes he has all the grace and poise of a rhino but he did well defensively and supported our attacks well.
  • GMac - 7 Had a pretty good game - was unlucky for the 2nd goal as he was the only player in our back 5 who did his job.
  • Olsson - 7 Also had a pretty good game. For the 2nd goal he also got his positioning wrong by a coulple of feet and so wasn't able to block the cross at the near post.
  • Evans - 7 Moments when his quality on the ball and tacklign were realyl good - looked to be talking to the bench for their 2nd goal and didn't recover. Looks a better defensive midfielder than he does a left back.
  • Brunt - 5 Wrong position for him. Not fit enough to get up and down anymore and not quick enough to get back onto his left foot. Was a bit better when he switched to a deeper role on the left.
  • Yacob - 6 Was doing well but the moment he got the booking he was a problem. Rightly subbed.
  • Fletcher - 8 I can't recall a better game he's had for us, opposition considered. Best player on the pitch.
  • Mozza - No marks as not on long enough but I cannot believe we haven't offered him a contract yet. Very alarming.
  • McClean - 6 The goal gets him an extra mark, you cannot fault his effort or commitment.
  • Rondon - 6 Did well and was unlucky with the effort in the first half that wasn't far away. I'm not having that he's no better Ideye - he is a miles better player and we don't play in a way that creates lots of chances for him, but he absolutely needs to start finding the net more somehow.
  • Gardner - 5 Great goal, great effort, poor quality.
  • Saido - 6 Clearly unfit but does give us that goal threat and is a different proposition to defenders. McClean got in the way of one very good chance.
  • Sess - 6 Caused them problems when we got the supply through to him, but final ball could be better as always.

Athz:

From my position in the stands at the other end of the pitch to the Baggies faithful, we had a support high on decibels and wit - "you're going down with the Villa!" was especially enjoyable for me. Meanwhile, Chelsea's fans soon turned negative after our equaliser, and became increasingly angry with Yacob, Olson and Myhill. Fletcher, was indeed the best player on the pitch.

Full credit to the team spirit that kept us in the game. If only Rondon had put his powerful shot away before half-time, up until then I was very disappointed with his apparent lack of pace and energy.

Overall, a deserved result. Well done lads.

Kev Buckley:

As matches between lower-mid-table, one-eye-on-relegation, clubs go, this was a highly entertaining one to watch, even sometime after knowing the result, and courtesy of Cheslea TV.

Pulis clearly sees Olsson as a better centre-back than Evans and the latter, nominally a centre-back, was always going to have a head start for a left-back run out over Brunt, a left-footed midfielder, so the return of the giant Swede afforded, as a counter measure to the lack of threat down the right side from an injured Hazard, our manager the wide-right option of Brunt, ahead of Sessegnon, McManaman or even Gardner, who's normally nailed on for some time out there during a match.

As one might expect, with five of the six players currently in the frame for a back four start out on the pitch, the bench was awash with late-in-the-game-introduction attacking potential, and so, when Morrison pulled up lame after just five-and-a-half minutes, seven minutes before Fletcher reportedly first touched the ball, it was perhaps no surprise to see that late-in-the-game potential maintained, as Gardner got the call, although as he was clearly not going to usurp Brunt on the right, Gards would find himself having to remember what he used to do when lining-up in centre-mid.

Whether Gardner, as accustomed as he now is to playing wide-right would have kept a better eye on the Chelsea full-back on that side than Brunt did, as Azpilicueta tip-toed past him to get onto the end of a cross from the Chelsea full-back on the other side and then tap-in, is something we'll surely get to judge on another occasion, because Gardner went on to put in the kind of centre midfield performance that has traditionally earmarked Albion's central midfield players as natural choices for a deployment out wide.

With Albion finding themselves in the "sod it: the let's keep it tight plan's failed" mode once again, McClean assumed a Gera mantle, in arriving at the back post to steer a header from a free kick goalwards around the 25 minute mark, whilst Rondon, five minutes later, could easily have been mistaken for Horsfield as he battled three Chelsea players under a long punt with no other Albion player in camera shot.

Sandwiched in between those ghostly echoes came the double foul on Costa, firstly by Olsson, secondly by Yacob, that clearly left Costa so incensed that the referee hadn't booked both, that he would go on to be a petulant tosser for the rest of the game, however before he would get his first chance to show just how worked-up he could get over the referee having the temerity to blow for half-time as he was advancing downfield, Garnder, revelling in the return to his no doubt almost forgotten traditional area of the field, seized on a loose ball, advanced into space and then let fly, from outside the box, with the kind of strike that will give him a 'can hit them from all angles" symbol in commentators' notes for seasons to come.

Yacob should probably have known better than to give Costa the chance to invite and accept a foul that might have earned him a second yellow but, to the amazement of the Chelsea TV folk, he stayed on the pitch and so got to see Rondon's good turn in a tight area on the edge of the box create his own opportunity to fire just wide enough to see the home team's first half performance rated as merely dominant by their commentary team.

Yacob should probably have known better than to give Costa the chance to invite and accept a foul that might have earned him a second yellow but, to the amazement of the Chelsea TV folk, he stayed on the pitch and so got to be subbed off near the hour mark, shortly after which Brunt refused to pass to McClean, as the latter made a great run into space, and then Chelsea TV identified Sessegnon's replacement of Rondon as a defensive move, a move which clearly failed to achieve its end as, ten minutes later, our left-sided centre-back, sorry, our left-back was exposed and McAuley was saved from a sending off, as he blatantly tried to foul the attacker who had got ahead of him, by virtue of deflecting the ball into his own net whilst dragging his opponent down.

Sessegnon's replacement of Rondon had also led to a rather bizarre booking, with Dawson cautioned for time wasting after he took more than two minutes to put on the boot that had come off, challenging Costa, just ahead of the substitution. Albion's on-field leaders could clearly be seen trying to make the case to the referee that, as time taken to make a substitution is allowed for at the end, Dawson hadn't wasted much time at all, and was even within his rights to wait to make a start putting the boot on, until after the substitution had been made - after all, how can a player who wants to waste time, waste time that will be allowed for later on: it's a waste of his time to bother doing so, no?

A minute after the "let's keep it tight plan" had failed for a second time, Myhill kept us in the game with a fine save, shortly after which a masked man wearing a shirt that said Matic, with the mask looking identical to the one worn by a man who had been playing in a shirt that said Azpilicueta, came on for a man in shirt that said Fabregas, but this wasn't called as a defensive substitution by Cheslea TV, although perhaps they didn't recognise anyone?

Anyroad, their defensive substitution failed, as the Albion moved their time wasting and physical approach up the field to the extent that Gardner, no doubt considering the irony of finding himself out on the right wing, played a slick ball across the edge of the box to Sessengnon, whose back-heeled attempted to nutmeg a defender saw the ball ricochet to McClean, in a similar position to that from which Gardner himself has levelled, and with his wrong foot, he calmly struck the ball into the side netting on the other side to Gardner, which suggests to me that the Chelsea keeper is a gnat's crotchet too short at full stretch, no matter which side he has to dive to.

Costa was clearly as determined to go off at full time as he had been when flying off the handle at half time, although I didn't see what caused the bout of handbags after the final whistle, let alone him reportedly picking a fight with the wall in the tunnel.

A highly entertaining game them, and one in which, despite being the away side, we lost no ground to our closest relegation rival, although perhaps it's too much to hope for more of the same in the next game, which has all the look of another mid-table mediocrity match-up, although after that we're into the excitement of the Cup, all the fun of a local derby, against a team bottom of the division, and two more games against sides in the bottom four, along with the heightened expectation of seeing where Gardner will be played next, and the end of the transfer window too.