The Chelsea striker Fernando Torres, left, had plenty of space
to exploit but again failed to make his mark on the match.
Photograph: Tony O'Brien/Action Images
Beaten at home by Liverpool and held at Craven Cottage in their
previous Premier League
matches, Chelsea somehow
overcame their faltering form to contrive a morale-restoring win
over the leaders, reviving their almost extinguished hopes of
defending the title and spoiling a historic occasion for Ryan
Giggs, who managed to collect a rare booking while equalling Sir
Bobby Charlton's league appearance record for Manchester
United.
It was a very English match, the ebb and flow interspersed with
bruising collisions that would have halted the action in any other
major European league but were allowed to pass by without action
from the referee, Martin Atkinson, who nevertheless made the key
decision of the match when he judged Chris Smalling had felled Yuri
Zhirkov late in the second half.
David Luiz had brought Chelsea level soon after the interval.
The Brazilian, who cost just under half of Fernando Torres's fee,
is looking not just the better buy but the more effective striker.
The first-time shot with which the centre-back laid the foundations
for victory was hit with an alacrity that the Spanish striker must
have envied. And with his weaker right foot, too.
A "must-win game", John Terry called this one in his programme
notes, suggesting that a victory over United and another in their
game in hand would push Chelsea into third place in the table. As
calls to arms go, this one was sounding a little less than
effective on the half-hour as Wayne Rooney turned through 180
degrees outside the home penalty area before striking a superbly
accurate shot between Petr Cech and the near post.
Terry's words, surely boosted by the knowledge that United had
not won in this part of west London for nine years, were looking a
lot more substantial 50 minutes later when Frank Lampard smashed a
penalty down the middle to give Chelsea the lead. Zhirkov had
pushed the ball through the legs of the otherwise immaculate
Smalling and gone to ground with little visible assistance. It was
Atkinson's 11th penalty and 10th red card of the season, the
highest totals on both counts of any Premier League referee.
On the fifth anniversary of the death of the much-loved Peter
Osgood, the initial focus of attention, at least among those not
preoccupied with the need to howl "Shoot!" every time the ball
reached the hapless Ashley Cole, had been on Chelsea's strikers.
Once again Didier Drogba found himself consigned to the bench, not
a place he believes to be his natural home. His haul of 93 goals in
191 league appearances compares favourably with Osgood's 105 in
289.
Torres, Roman Abramovich's £50m purchase, took his place in the
starting line-up, yet to score a goal in Chelsea's colours although
destined to celebrate a league win for the first time. On form, he
would come closer to the ideal of Osgood – upright, elusive,
velvet-footed, with an inventive eye for a strike and a shrewd,
economical ability to link the play of less gifted men – than many
of those who came between them at Stamford Bridge. With Nicolas
Anelka spending most of his time stationed on the right wing, and
Drogba having to wait until the hour mark to replace the Frenchman,
Torres had plenty of space to exploit, but he again failed to make
a mark on the match. "I don't ask him to score," Carlo Ancelotti
said afterwards. "I ask my strikers to play for the team."
Some Chelsea anxieties will be alleviated by this
adrenaline-fuelled victory, but the result is unlikely to obscure
the evidence that too many of Ancelotti's players have lost form
with a mystifying simultaneity. Where has Frank Lampard, the
30-goal-a-season midfield player, gone? Trapped in the swamp
between defence and attack, and receiving scant assistance from a
Michael Essien seemingly shorn of his prodigious power.
The real Lampard would have scored not just from the penalty
spot but with a free-kick in the 40th minute, struck low and hard
from outside the area, provoking a fine double save from Edwin van
der Sar. The real Essien, driving towards the United area five
minutes later, would have found a way round, past or through
Nemanja Vidic's cold-blooded obstruction, for which the Serb
received the first of two well-merited cautions. Florent Malouda's
virtues are simply lost without trace, making Ramires, an object of
scorn earlier in the season, the most dependable figure in a
spluttering engine room.
At least the athletic David Luiz was providing a spark of hope.
In the early stages he made his presence felt on both sides of the
pitch, evoking the memory of Ricardo Carvalho, Terry's previous
partner, as he shepherded a fast-breaking Rooney on the left and
deftly halted the trickster Nani on the right a couple of minutes
later.
Booked after 60 minutes for a foul on Rooney, the Brazilian
newcomer showed further signs of rashness as the match boiled up
and might easily have preceded Vidic into the dressing-room for a
couple of indiscretions that evaded Mr Atkinson's attention. This,
however, was a night on which Chelsea rode their luck, and galloped
home.
