That all-singing, all-dancing advert for English
football that has dominated the past week was brought back to earth
with a crash last night. And what a crash it was. Chelsea and
Everton defied the goalfest of the past few days to serve up a game
that was absolutely worthless.
No goals. No winner. And no entertainment. At least
Liverpool’s Premier League challenge ended with a 4-4 bang of a
game against Arsenal. Chelsea opted for a whimper as they handed
the title to Manchester United on a night of drab nothingness at
Stamford Bridge.
The Guus Hiddink revolution was brought to a grinding
halt in a match devoid of any spark. Billed as the FA Cup Final
dress rehearsal, the best this match did was to scare the hell out
of anyone thinking of going to Wembley Stadium next month. OK, both
sides were a bit tired after the weekend’s exertions getting
themselves into the showpiece game on May 30.
But given what was at stake, for the home side at
least, the fans who turned up had every right to expect more than
was delivered. Hiddink has won every league match in his charge at
home but his team showed very little ambition to make this a repeat
performance.
In fact, this match became something akin to torture —
the longer it went on the more painful it got. And no one was
willing to surrender. The nearest anyone got to threatening the
stalemate was in the final minutes.
HIGH-FLIER ... Didier Drogba Drogba attempts
an overhead kick
Chelsea’s best chance of goal came from Didier
Drogba in the closing moments and the striker capped a frustrating
evening with a shot which almost broke the
crossbar.
Other than that, there was, well, not much at all
really. It was Frank Lampard who warned against the Blues’ habit of
not waking up until they were a goal down.
There was little danger of needing to react here even
though his words went completely unheeded in the eighth minute when
Jo was allowed to bear down on goal. Petr Cech raced from his line
and blocked the Brazilian’s shot with a leg.
In reply Drogba tracked to the halfway line only to
wish he had not bothered when Phil Neville hacked him down. The
Toffees skipper was booked. In fact, it took 33 minutes for the
first serious danger when Jo broke on the right and crossed for Tim
Cahill to swivel and get a shot off.
Cech was more than up to the task of blocking the
effort but the sense of malaise which was prevalent in the opening
period never lifted. Lampard was the only Chelsea player willing to
have a pop from distance and it took until three minutes from time
before they really threatened.
Nicolas Anelka broke directly when an Everton corner
was cleared but Tim Howard anticipated his cross. Two minutes later
Jo again found himself in the kind of space strikers usually only
get in training matches.
In keeping with the general standard of play he tripped
and sliced an embarrassing effort wide. At least the visitors
looked more serious about the match after the break. Leighton
Baines fed Leon Osman who cleverly evaded everyone on the right and
pinged in a great cross.
Cahill did enough to direct the ball goalward but Cech
was just as wary and made the save look easy. Chelsea slowly began
to look like a team who realised there was a game and points to be
won.
Michael Essien was willing to carry the ball and also
the attack to Everton. He laid off wide to Anelka whose ball in was
within a hair’s breadth of setting Lampard free on goal.
That flurry was just about as good as it got for the
home support who had turned up with genuine hope of seeing their
team power on in the league. Hiddink effectively threw in the towel
afterwards and no one was in a mood to argue.
Even the Chelsea boss recognised it is futile to
pretend you are fighting on three fronts when no one else believes
you. So one down and two to go for the Chelsea and their flying
Dutchman. It is all about knockouts now the marathon has been won
by United.
Chelsea, though, will look on this match as an example
of how to lose trophies rather than win them.
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