Soccer/English FA Premiership/Chelsea 1 West Brom 0: It takes patience to be champions. Chelsea had to put up with their failure to kill off a purposeful West Brom quickly as Didier Drogba squeezed one goal into his extensive collection of misses before being injured in stoppage time.
The Premiership leaders now need a maximum of 17 points to clinch the title.
Ticket prices are sometimes graded by the category of fixture and managers, too, occasionally provide a rating of their own on the team-sheet. Chelsea's Robert Huth, for instance, started here for the first time since January 30th while the renowned Ricardo Carvalho settled down on the substitutes' bench.
Arjen Robben, more intriguingly, can only have been sitting in the stands. The winger was expected to make a comeback but he was still in discomfort from his broken foot at the time of Chelsea's game with Barcelona last week. Was it that Jose Mourinho decided not to put him to the test here, in an examination his side were bound to pass without him?
West Brom might have appeared to be acquitting themselves fairly well before Chelsea took the lead, but there had been a gentle stream of opportunities. Joe Cole had crafted one cross with his left foot from the right that eluded Drogba by inches.
With his season splintered by injuries, the performances of the striker have not had the smoothness he showed at Marseille, but he always taxes defenders. When he beat the offside trap in the 23rd minute Russell Hoult had to close him down speedily to prevent a lob from going over his head.
Drogba was bound to profit eventually, particularly once Chelsea started to concentrate on exploiting Martin Albrechtsen's unsuitability as a right-back. After 26 minutes, Damien Duff feinted to go back towards the halfway line before spinning away from the Dane to chase a through ball from Frank Lampard and the Irishman's low cut-back was converted by Drogba.
West Brom did enjoy moments of hope and players like Zoltan Gera could show, sporadically, they are more than just toilers. A miniature revival has also been sufficient to have the manager calculating the target for survival, and Bryan Robson reckons that five or six wins will do the trick.
It all sounds plausible until you remember this was the first of only 10 league games that remain for a West Brom team who have only harvested three victories so far.
West Brom, with time running out, have no need to shun risk-taking. The team featured three forwards, with Nwankwo Kanu returning to the starting line-up. While Chelsea did not teeter under any sort of onslaught, Robson had reasoned that a little attacking would at least interrupt Mourinho's schemes.
The Portuguese, in view of his obsessiveness, will have been well aware his side have not kept a clean sheet in five matches. Meetings with Barcelona and a League Cup final against Liverpool excuse wobbliness, but West Brom were trying to stop Chelsea from feeling fully at ease again.
The leaders remained relaxed enough at the opening of the second half for Claude Makelele, in his own area, to attend to an attack by controlling Paul Robinson's cross and playing a one-two with Lampard. Chelsea were given a glimpse of how matters could go wrong when Gera came in from the left and put a curling shot a yard wide.
The Stamford Bridge side should also have been rueful about their failure to seal the win. In the 62nd minute Makelele tackled, Lampard passed and Drogba went round Thomas Gaardsoe only to scuff beyond a post. The same striker missed again with a header in the 71st minute although Cole's cross had found him unmarked. Almost immediately Huth had to head Kanu's strong volley over his own bar as, to Chelsea's regret, the game grew interesting.
Guardian Service
CHELSEA: Cech, Paulo Ferreira, Terry, Huth, Gallas, Makelele, Cole (Kezman 86), Lampard, Duff (Smertin 90), Gudjohnsen (Jarosik 74), Drogba. Subs Not Used: Ricardo Carvalho, Cudicini. Goals: Drogba 26.
WEST BROM: Hoult, Robinson, Gaardsoe, Clement, Albrechtsen, Gera, Richardson (Greening 86), Wallwork, Horsfield (Earnshaw 83), Campbell, Kanu. Subs Not Used: Scimeca, Moore, Kuszczak. Booked: Clement.
Referee: N Barry (N Lincolnshire).
