Blackborn Rovers 0 Chelsea 1: ANDRE VILLAS-BOAS greeted the final whistle with almost as much delight as Roberto Mancini celebrating a late winner against Villarreal. The relief was almost tangible. Not only had Chelsea avoided falling to three successive league defeats for the first time under the Abramovich regime, the three points courtesy of Frank Lampard's stooping header allowed them to stay in the top four within sight of the leaders.
“We have to keep our challenge right on track,” the Chelsea manager said. “We have two games at home now and then we have all December with just Premier League fixtures where we have to go and get the most amount of points as possible. It might be a decisive month.”
Villas-Boas feels the Premier League is more competitive than ever. “I think there are five teams with enough talent to win the title,” he said. “The two Manchester clubs, Arsenal, Liverpool and us. But then Tottenham are on a fantastic run with a game in hand. Newcastle are in the top three. I’ve never seen it so competitive. Winning every game is almost impossible and it puts more of a price on the fact that (Arsenal’s) Arsene Wenger once won this league undefeated.”
The Chelsea goalscorer can second that. “We knew after two defeats that this was a must-win game in terms of keeping up with the leading gang. It wasn’t pretty but wins like this mean as much as the four- or five-nils when we play beautiful football. We don’t mind winning ugly.”
Blackburn’s marking was at fault when Branislav Ivanovic’s cross reached Lampard at the start of the second half, though they had been unlucky to lose Chris Samba with a hamstring pull just before the interval and ended up playing with two makeshift centre-backs in Gael Givet and Grant Hanley. “I’m not renowned for my heading but I was committed and when the ball dipped I ended up heading it almost off the floor,” Lampard said.
Given the inexperienced Hanley went on to miss the best chance of the game and Ivanovic headed against his own bar in the closing minutes Blackburn were unlucky all round, although Yakubu Ayegbeni might have been expected to finish more expertly from at least one of his two chances.
It was another strange day at Ewood, with Blackburn fans flouting the terrace ban on anti-Steve Kean slogans by hiring a light aircraft to buzz the ground trailing a streamer calling for his removal. A couple of hundred stayed behind to mount a demonstration against owners and manager.
“We minimised Chelsea’s chances and made quite a few of our own,” said Kean. “That’s against one of the most expensively assembled sides around and we had seven lads under the age of 23. All we can do is accept protests are likely to be part of match days but the players are probably becoming disappointed with them and they don’t deserve that.”
- Guardian Service
