Chelsea keeps winning

The admirable visiting support teased their opposite numbers for being subdued, but it was pardonable that Chelsea minds should be drifting away from this fixture, writes Kevin McCarra.

After the years of melodrama, this period of seclusion must be to Chelsea’s taste. They opened up a three-point lead in Group B without inspiring bullish predictions that they are set to win the Champions League. No one is fixated with them for the time being. Even the referee Peter Frojdfeldt was not paying much attention when Alex, after perpetrating a short backpass, brought down Schalke’s Soren Larsen in the 85th minute. No foul was awarded, no red card sho wn.

In reparation, Didier Drogba was denied a penalty almost immediately. Despite legitimate squabbles about such events the justice of the outcome is beyond challenge. Chelsea always had sufficient talent at their disposal to win. Their rigour has been depleted to some extent, however, and the club has to hope that this is explained wholly by the absence of the injured John Terry.

Schalke, in the most ridiculous manner, failed to strain Avram Grant’s side. The visitors arrived with a gift of an early goal for convalescent Chelsea. The single home game under the direction of the new manager had been the 0-0 draw with Fulham, but Grant was not made to wait long for a goal.

With four minutes gone, Florent Malouda showed his characteristically tenacious skill to get away from the right-back Rafinha, but his shot was hit straight to Manuel Neuer. There was not any great speed on the ball either, yet it still ran through the goalkeeper’s legs. A blunder on such a scale seemed to make Chelsea’s fourth consecutive win inevitable. At the weekend Neuer had chucked a throw-out straight to an opponent, so permitting Hansa Rostock their equaliser in a draw. Schalke must believe that the fates are pursuing a vendetta. The striker Kevin Kuranyi hurt himself before kick-off against Chelsea and, with the line-ups already submitted, Soren Larsen had to be promoted from the bench.

Nonetheless, the visitors were never completely disheartened. They had won 2-0 away to Rosenborg in Trondheim and occasionally attacked with zest in this match. The intended evolution of Chelsea from the dry rigour of the Jose Mourinho era has got no further yet than an increased vulnerability.

Grant’s side could not deal dependably with crosses and Carlos Grossmuller was wrongly given offside when he tucked the ball home in the 28th minute. There was errant flagging, too, after Joe Cole was released by Drogba six minutes before the interval, but his effort had been saved in any case.

While Neuer coped then there was still every reason to test him. Another Cole effort in the 45th minute was shoved out into the middle of the goalmouth, even if it did not run into the path of a Chelsea player. The match was largely humdrum and Grant, who had not included Shaun Wright-Phillips even among the substitutes, cannot be in the mood for frivolity. Chelsea put the emphasis on getting the ball into the goalmouth in a direct fashion.

Michael Essien was as great a danger as anyone, twice threatening with headers. It was a little odd to see him taking up such a role and Frank Lampard was conservative by comparison. Drogba, of course, is the best target of all for Chelsea and he extended the lead in the 47th minute. Paulo Ferreira’s run on the right was full of good intentions but the forward, who might have been off-side by a hair’s breadth, had to supply true quality, connecting with a diving header to beat Neuer.

Stereotypes about the Bundesliga were reinforced as the visitors looked quite appealing without matching Chelsea’s decisiveness. The opinion, nonetheless, nearly had to be revised when Larsen’s header pinged off a post after Rafinha had picked him out in the 60th minute.

Chelsea, for all that, retained a sporadic sprightliness. Lampard located Drogba with an especially perceptive ball but the Ivorian, for once, could not overwhelm a defence single-handed. That was a rare moment in which the lack of a striking partner for Drogba seemed a disadvantage of the 4-3-3 system, featuring two wingers, so loved by Grant’s predecessor Mourinho

This was an unassuming win. The admirable visiting support teased their opposite numbers for being subdued, but it was pardonable that Chelsea minds should be drifting away from this fixture.

THE RESULTS

October 24: AC Milan 4 (Gilardino 6 & 14, Seedorf 62 & 69) bt Shakhtar Donetsk 1 (Lucarelli 51). Half-time: 2-0; Benfica 1 (Cardozo 87) bt Celtic 0. Half-time: 0-0; Besiktas 2 (Hyypia o.g. 13, Bobo 82) bt Liverpool 1 (Gerrard 85). Half-time: 1-0; Chelsea 2 (Malouda 4, Drogba 47) bt Schalke-04 0. Half-time: 1-0; Marseille 1 (Niang 70) drew with FC Porto 1 (Gonzalez pen-79). Half-time: 0-0; Real Madrid 4 (Raul 2, Robinho 68 & 83, Balboa 90) bt Olympiakos 2 (Galletti 8, Julio Cesar 47). Half-time: 1-1; Rosenborg 2 (Kone 54, Riseth 61) bt Valencia 0. Half-time: 0-0; Werder Bremen 2 (Sanogo 28, Hugo Almeida 54) bt Lazio 1 (Manfredini 82). Half-time: 1-0.

October 23: Arsenal 7 (Fabregas 5 & 58, Hubacek o.g. 24, Walcott 41 & 55, Hleb 51, Bendtner 89) bt Slavia Prague 0. Half-time: 3-0; CSKA Moscow 1 (Jo 32) lost to Inter Milan 2 (Crespo 52, Samuel 80). Half-time: 1-0; Dynamo Kiev 2 (Rincon 33, Bangoura 78) lost to Manchester United 4 (Ferdinand 10, Rooney 18, Ronaldo 41 & pen-68). Half-time: 1-3; PSV 0 drew with Fenerbahce 0; Rangers 0 drew with Barcelona 0; Roma 2 (Juan 15, Vucinic 69) bt Sporting 1 (Liedson 18). Half-time: 1-1; Sevilla 2 (Kanoute 5, Luis Fabiano 18) bt Steaua Bucharest 1 (Petre 64). Half-time: 2-0; VfB Stuttgart 0 lost to Lyon 2 (Fabio Santos 55, Benzema 79). Half-time: 0-0.