Chelsea 5- Portsmouth 0

 

Blue is the Colour……

After disappointment of weekend where Chelsea dropped two points to Blackburn, Chelsea needed to bounce back. They had perfect opposition to do so bottom of the table club Pompy. But twist in the tale was bottom of the table team was managed by none other than Mr Grant who almost gave Chelsea its first UEFA Champions league title.

Chelsea was expected to be nervous, not confident and edgy and they were that until a gift from David James was converted to goal by Drogba. Then it was a one way traffic. Chelsea just showed the class and finished Portsmouth to 5-0 score line. Drogba scored again to make to 30 Goals this season and Malouda’s double was also special. It was nice to see Lampard score this will surely give boost to confidence.

Major talking point was selection of Daniel Sturridge over Anelka. Anelka has not scored in last 10 games and this was a reminder for him that if he fails to perform his place can be easily taken by anyone else. This was symbolic move rather than just a squad rotation as informed by Ancellotti. As expected and predicted in my earlier post Ancellotti made two holding players where surprisingly Lamprad took the holding place. Drogba alone at front gave him clear diktat that he is the one who should score and that helped overall play. Malouda was impressive over past few months and he again scored to give Chelsea comfort of second goal that was lacking in Blackburn game. This really opened them up. Injection of pace in form of Joe was also welcomed and results were immediate.

Third goal from Malouda was very good reaction and it finished the game but this side is hungry for goals. This season Chelsea are not only trying to win matches but are also scoring lot of goals. I am not a great admirer of Mikel as he lacks vision and strength shown by Essien. But the pass he gave to Drogba was worth applauding, shown great vision and precisely found the target man. Fifth goal was a comical one according to me as Goalkeeper was watching the game instead of jumping and catching the football. It gave Lampard his 17^th of the season and he is again on course to get 20.

For Chelsea this was a great result, result that was must for a team low in confidence. But this was certainly not the test of Chelsea. Portsmouth bottom of the table and in all sorts of mess was never expected to put up a fight. This game only ended bad few days for Chelsea. Players and Manager must be relieved but Challenges are ahead and they are tough one. Aston villa approaching at Stamford Bridge will be real test. I feel Ancellotti will stick to his formation on Portsmouth game and replacing Sturridge with Anelka. Two Holding midfielders are must against fast and furious Aston Villa.

For me formation will be little bit shuffled and I will like to see squad playing as below. This will be good success against Villa. I am 100% sure that Ferreira and Zhirkov will need cover in this game and Drogba require great service if Chelsea wants to Score.

Anelka and Malouda will be very fast on counter and magic of Deco can be there for long passes. Drogba again a single striker will hit the net for sure.

Unlike 4-2-3-1 it is required that Deco remains little behind to help defend as it will take a lot to avoid Villa goal. You as a manager cannot take chance with a vital game which will decide whether Chelsea remains in race for title.

--------------------------cech--------------------

Ferreira-----------Alex------------Terry-----------Zhirkov

----------Mikel-------------------------Lampard---------

------------------------Deco---------------------------

Anelka------------------------------------------Malouda

--------------------------Drogba----------------------