Match review: Chelsea 1-0 Everton - Lucky Chelsea!
John Terry celebrating the goal
John Terry nudged home the winner for Chelsea this afternoon in the 93rd minute to take an all important three points against Everton but you cannot help but think we were lucky today.
Chelsea were nowhere near their scintillating best at all in this one. Our first half performance was slow and laboured once again, similar to the Man City game last week and Everton must have been surprised as they had it easy.
Chelsea really couldn’t get going and anything we tried to do either never came off or we lacked the final pass. Oscar really struggled in the half and as a result was replaced at half time by Ramires.
Everton’s disciplined defensive shape dealt with anything Chelsea tried to do. But for one save Tim Howard had to make from Samuel Eto’o, Howard found himself watching the game with little to do.
It was Everton’s half and Petr Cech was called upon to make a good save tipping the ball over the bar from a Leon Osman volley. Time and time again, Everton found space in midfield and in the final third, luckily for Chelsea, they wasted possession in those areas.
Jose Mourinho made the change with Oscar off and Ramires on looking like also switching our formation to 4-3-3. Once again though, we couldn’t make the better possession we were having tell. We get to the final third and again looked like we lacked ideas.
Jose made two more changes replacing Willian for Fernando Torres and Samuel Eto’o for Andre Schurrle as Chelsea poured forward looking for a breakthrough.
Tim Howard made two fantastic saves within seconds of each other to deny Ivanovic from close range in particular as Chelsea began to dominate the game.
However, once again it looked like Everton were dealing with anything we were trying to put together and looked dangerous on the counter attack. There were one or two moments when it looked like if they had played the right ball at the right time, they would be in on our goal. It never happened.
As the game moved into five minutes of injury time it looked like this would end all square but then came the controversial moment if you are an Everton fan.
Ramires picked up the ball in midfield and drove forward. In doing so knocked the ball past Jagielka and was brought down with the Everton man picking up a booking. It looked like a foul all day long despite the Everton protests.
Frank Lampard stepped up and played a cross into the box towards the back post and there was John Terry who had shrugged off the attentions of his marker and sticks out his leg and knocks the ball passed Tim Howard and into the corner to win it for Chelsea!
It’s a massive three points for Chelsea knowing that we had not played well at all but it’s results like this that could mean so much at the end of the season.
Chelsea were lucky but who cares!
Carefree & KTBFFH!