Chelsea battle to victory

Wednesday, 02/03/2011

by Joshua Block, Shoot's Chelsea blogger

Chelsea moved back into the top four last night as they produced a powerful second half comeback to snatch all three points from Manchester United at Stamford Bridge. A first goal in English football for David Luiz and a blasted penalty from Frank Lampard were enough to secure the win after Wayne Rooney had given United a first half lead.

While all the pre-match focus had been on the previous encounters of Nemanja Vidic and Fernando Torres, the key clashes seemed to centre on Wayne Rooney and Luiz.

Referee Martin Atkinson was criticised after the game by United manager Sir Alex Ferguson and his assistant Mike Phelan for being too soft on punishing the Blues' persistent fouling, particularly involving Luiz on Rooney. The FA is unlikely to take any action against the pair for these post-match comments, including a refusal to accept the penalty decision, but the truth was that Rooney lost his cool more and more as the game progressed, finally resorting to diving in an attempt to con the ref.

Although Torres was not on the scoreboard on this occasion, his display was much improved on his first appearance at the Bridge against Liverpool by linking up well with Didier Drogba, who replaced Nicolas Anelka in the second half. Vidic, however, continued his unfortunate trait of being sent off when marking the Spaniard, making this his fourth dismissal when facing the former Liverpool man.

After a bright start for Carlo Ancelotti's men scattered with a few half-chances, United had begun to get a foothold in the match. On the half hour mark, it was the league leaders who struck first when Rooney was allowed to turn and shoot from 20 yards under little pressure from the home defence. His low drive just crept past Petr Cech's despairing lunge and inside his right-hand post.

Branislav Ivanovic almost added to his season's goal tally shortly before half-time when a deflected Lampard free-kick fell to him six yards out, but the Serbian was denied by the quick reflexes of Edwin Van der Sar.

The Stamford Bridge faithful found their voices again in the second half, urging their side onwards as Luiz smashed in a priceless volley from Michael Essien's pinpoint cross to level the scores 10 minutes after the restart.

It continued to be all one-way traffic as the second half reached the latter stages and it was the substitute Yury Zhirkov who again displayed his knack for winning penalties in front of the Matthew Harding Stand after being taken down by Chris Smalling.

There was no hesitation for Lampard as he struck hard past Van der Sar into the centre of the net to give the Blues the winning goal.

Zhirkov was unlucky not to get a third when his shot was cleared away off the line by Smalling towards the end, and Vidic's second yellow card of the game was to follow. Drogba was an excellent addition to the second half proceedings as he fought for every ball, kept the ball in the final third and successfully whittled down the remaining tense minutes of the game to secure a deserved and spirited victory for the Champions.

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