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Chelsea arrived in Cyprus last night with a depleted
squad for tomorrow’s Champions League group match against Apoel,
but rather than the absence of Michael Ballack and John Obi Mikel,
it is the fallout from last weekend’s Barclays Premier League
defeat away to Wigan Athletic that continues to trouble
them.
Petr Cech accused Phil Dowd, the referee, of failing to apply
guidelines that were circulated to Premier League clubs at the
start of the season by sending off the goalkeeper for bringing down
Hugo Rodallega, while Didier Drogba described the 3-1 defeat as the
worst performance the striker has witnessed in five years at
Chelsea.
Cech was willing to concede that Wigan deserved a penalty after
he caught Rodallega with his left leg at the start of the second
half at the DW Stadium, but claimed that the presence of Ashley
Cole covering behind should have saved him.
“The complaint is not about the penalty because you can see why
it was given,” Cech said. “The player clipped my leg and fell down,
which you see given many times. The surprise was the red card,
because before the season started, referees came to the training
ground to explain which cases would be red or yellow cards.
“You see some cards given as reds and some as yellows. On the
same day there was a penalty for Cardiff in the Championship, the
goalkeeper [Peter Grant, of Sheffield Wednesday] made the same
contact and got away.”
Drogba was less willing to offer Cech’s sending-off as an excuse
for Chelsea’s first defeat of the season. “We didn’t play very
well,” he said. “We lost all the battles, all the duels. We didn’t
win anything and were poor. This is the worst game I have played in
since I have been at Chelsea. We need to think about it, correct
what was wrong and try to go again.”
Drogba will not have that option against the Cypriot champions
tomorrow as he serves the second game of his three-match ban and
calf and ankle injuries to Ballack and Mikel respectively leave
Carlo Ancelotti short of options in midfield.
The Italian could give Joe Cole his first Champions League start
since December, but is more likely to employ Juliano Belletti in
the holding role behind a three-man midfield of Michael Essien,
Frank Lampard and Florent Malouda, with Salomon Kalou and Nicolas
Anelka up front. Ashley Cole should be fit after suffering a knee
injury against Wigan.
