Chelsea 4-1 Cardiff City; Blues struggle to win as Mourinho is sent off

Chelsea moved to 2nd place in the Barclays Premier League table after a rather nervy 4-1 win against a bogey Cardiff side. While the scoreline may suggest otherwise, Chelsea were stretched considerably by Malky Mackay’s side over the 90 minutes and 4-1 is just blowing the Chelsea performance out of proportion. The Blues had an off day but some monumental blunders by Cardiff keeper Marshall helped the home team gain the upper hand, late in the second half.

This match had everything in it from howlers to belters, but the one which beats em’ all is the sending off of Jose Mourinho. The Chelsea manager was instructed to leave the dugout after a furious rant at the referee, by the Portuguese. The fans in that section of the stands had an unforgettable experience as they celebrated their team’s win with ‘The Special One’. Some improvisation from the Stamford Bridge crowd brought out a new chant line for their manager, ‘He sits where he wants…’.

Mourinho was confident with his team as he confessed of preparing for the game before the international break, and it was to be an easy ride for the Blues with a seemingly lowly opposition in Cardiff. Surprisingly, Chelsea struggled to weave successful string of passes into a meaningful attack in the first half. Cardiff looked dangerous at times, but statistically, it was the home team leading the way.

Oscar scored a wonderful goal to put the game to bed.

There wasn’t much life in the match in terms of tactics but there surely were plenty of talking points which bring out many deficiencies in the current Chelsea side, and some positives too. Lets first take on the negatives.

Ref Anthony Taylor and Co. get the beating

It was a disastrous day for the referee team at Stamford bridge as they got a few key decisions wrong, ones which could have had impact on the game. The first one was, spotting of the Cardiff keeper handling the ball outside the D box, which the linesman didn’t as he was way off his pace to keep up with the play. Keeper David Marshall caught the ball outside the box as the Chelsea players closed in on him, but he was told to continue with the game rather than being sent off for such a clear offense. With a man down, it would have been almost impossible for Cardiff to maintain the scoreline at 1-0, and Chelsea would have had a field day.

When Chelsea were trailing, Samuel Eto’o nicked the ball from the grasp of David Marshall as he was bouncing it. The referee ordered the play to continue and Eden Hazard scored the equalizer in that move. According to the rule book, the goalkeeper cannot be challenged while bouncing the ball as it points to him having the ball under his control. But the referee Taylor, had other ideas. Cardiff manager Mackay was critical of this decision in the post-match interview.

The third act of Taylor was to send Mourinho to the stands. The Chelsea manager was furious at the Taylor when he ordered Ivanovic to take the throw without wasting time. Mourinho was arguing about the time wasted by Cardiff till that point in the match, and was eventually sent off.