Chelsea v/s Portsmurth (PREM )

Date : August 25 2007
Time: 7:25 IST

Players for Chelsea:
Chelsea (4-4-2): Cech; Essien, Ben-Haim, Terry (c), A Cole; Wright-Phillips (J Cole 74), Mikel (Belletti 64), Lampard, Malouda; Pizarro (Kalou 62), Drogba.

Players for Portsmurth:
Portsmouth (4-4-2): James; Lauren (Pamarot 82), Distin, Campbell (c), Hreidarsson; O'Neil (Benjani 60), Davis, Muntari, Taylor (Nugent 82); Utaka, Kanu.

Referee Alan Wiley. Crowd 41,501.

With the kind of role the refree played during the last premiership match at Liverpool , from now on I will never make the mistake of not mentioning about the Refree .

We have always done well againt Portsmurth and the last time they defeated us was way back in 1955 when we lost 1-5 at the Stanford Bridge. And looking at our recent record against them ,a similar possibility doesnt come into the picture . :)

With the clock reading 7:25 the match kicks of . Chelsea look sharp from the start with some good work from Malouda and Drogba , Pizarro just wide. Chelsea trying to take control of the game.

within 4 minutes Portsmurth awarded a free kick, Essien handling the ball . Gary O Neil free kick cleared to safety .

With players like Utaka , Kanu,Taylor and Muntari in their side Chelsea have to be careful of their set-pieces. Their first real chance came in the 7th minute,a weak kick on goal by Taylor on the counter- attack Drogba misses a very good chance to score , ball shot wide of goal :(.

Again some good work by Chelsea from the left,Malouda and Cole combining very well , Malouda attempt hitting the side netting .


Till now Chelsea looks like scoring first , but Portsmurth also looks strong on their counter attack,specially when the ball is with Talyor or Utaka.

Again on the counter attack again a good attempt by Taylor , Ben haim not able to handle the pace and trickery possesed by the attacking midfielder.

Then in the 31st minute a great cross to Drogba and with his immense upper body strength sets up for the speeding Lampard.A full blooded strike by Lampard and a slip from James makes it 1-0 to chelsea


from this point on Chelsea upped their tempo with some really good chances created by Phillips from the right , but with the experienced Pompey defence Chelsea couldnt find the 2nd goal.


Half Time : CHELSEA leading 1-0

The blues should have made it 2-0 within minutes to the start of the 2nd half.. but somehow Pizarro misses out on both of them.

Again Drogba created a good chance for Phillips ,the shot goinig just wide .

in the 59th minute O'Neil misses a very good opportunity to make it level after some very good work by the Pompey Midfield.

after this Pompeys couldnt create enough chances to make it level, inspite of the inclution of Benjani .

The Gritty Chelsea defence again blunting the attacking flare possessed by the Pompeys

After 4 games CHELSEA on top of the table with 10 points

Chelsea Goal scorers for the match
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Lampard (31')

Chelsea Goal scorers in the Premiership
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Pizarro-1
Malouda-1
Essien -1
Lampard-3
Drogba -1