Chelsea Unable to Capitalize on Perfect Opportunity

If you were watching the Premier League this weekend, then you might have seen a historic rout of Manchester United by Manchester City, as well as Chelsea's dreams of taking second place in the table shattered in an extremely depressing 1-0 loss to Queens Park Rangers. In the Manchester Derby, which took place on Sunday, Manchester City demolished their opponents 6-1 at Old Trafford, the worst home loss in 25 years of Fergie's managerial career. The result highlighted the rapid shift of power between the two Manchester clubs, one of which remains undefeated after 9 games, while the other has experienced a recent drop in form, only managing to obtain 5 points out of a possible 12 in the last four games. 2 goals from the entertaining Mario Balotelli, 2 from Edin Dzeko, 1 from Sergio Aguero, and 1 from the incredible David Silva, who is now widely considered the best player in the Premier League, cemented the win, with United only managing one goal from Darren Fletcher (although it was a nice one).

FINAL SCORE: Manchester City 6-1 Manchester United.

Mario Balotelli celebrates his first goal by revealing this custom-made shirt underneath his Manchester City jersey, and promptly receives a yellow card for his troubles. What a guy. 

The game was thought to be City's toughest match of the season, playing arguably (what everybody thought was) the best team in the Premier League (Manchester United) at their home field (Old Trafford). I honestly have no idea what can stop Manchester City now – they seem to be utterly unbeatable. Well, the game on December 12 should be interesting, to say the least: Chelsea vs. Manchester City at Stamford Bridge.

Highlights of the Manchester Derby.

P.S. A present: http://footballspeak.com/post/2011/10/24/The-A-to-Z-of-Mario-Balotelli.aspx

Now to the Chelsea game (shudder).

It mentally pains me to write about this game because of how perfect the opportunity was to drift into second place that morning. Manchester City's 6-1 win over Manchester United had put them at 25 points, United at 20 points, and Chelsea with a game in hand at 19 points. A win from Chelsea over Queens Park Rangers, at the time sitting in the bottom half of the table, would have put them in 2nd place with 22 points. A draw would have put them level with Manchester United on points and 3 points behind them in goal difference. Instead, an ugly 1-0 loss that featured a reckless tackle by David Luiz in the box leading to a penalty kick; 2 red cards issued to José Bosingwa and Didier Drogba; and 7 yellow cards shown to Chelsea players fractured their dreams of surpassing United in the table. 

FINAL SCORE: Chelsea 0-1 QPR.

José Bosingwa cannot comprehend his controversial red card on Sunday's match. 

André Villas-Boas went with his usual 4-3-3 lineup for Sunday's match, with Mikel in the holding midfield position. Strangely, Branislav Ivanovic did not start the game, and instead came on as an unusual substitute for Daniel Sturridge in the 37th minute. His spot was taken by David Luiz, although after his performance on Sunday it could be quite a while before that happens again. I have quite a few questions about some of the decisions in the game, and I pose them in a list a bit later in the article, so see the question list for more details about Ivanovic and some other aspects of the game.

       Mata (Anelka) -------- Drogba -------- Sturridge (Ivanovic)

   Meireles (Malouda) ----- Mikel -------------- Lampard

             Cole -------- Terry -------- Luiz -------- Bosingwa

                                      Cech

Bench: Turnbull, Romeu, McEachran, Kalou.

NOTABLE CHELSEA PLAYERS:

- Frank Lampard: Continued his hot streak by being the best Chelsea player on Sunday (and arguably the best player on the pitch that day), showing intelligence and creativity with his numerous runs and passes into the attacking zone. 

MATCH OVERVIEW:

In an ugly game full of cards and tackles, the only goal came 10 minutes into the match, with David Luiz giving a slight push to Heidar Helguson in the box, thereby impeding the play and forcing a penalty kick. Helguson stepped up and fired a shot past Cech (who actually got a few fingers on it) to make the score an unlikely 1-0 for QPR. After that, Chelsea took possession of the game, until, in the 33rd minute, José Bosingwa received a controversial red card for pulling down Shawn Wright-Phillips outside of the penalty box. Whether the call was justified or not, it certainly was terrible for Chelsea. After a 37th minute substitution where Ivanovic came on for Daniel Sturridge, Didier Drogba's dangerous two-footed tackle on Adel Taarabt gave him a red card. At that, all hell broke loose. After half time, when Anelka came on for Mata, Chelsea received a total of 7 yellow cards for numerous tackles and disputes. In order, the cards went to Mikel, Lampard, Ivanovic, Luiz, Meireles, Cole, and Terry. In the 71st minute, David Luiz was dragged down in the box by Helguson after an Ivanovic long throw into QPR's penalty area, but no call was given, much to the horror of André Villas-Boas and every Chelsea fan ever. In the 73rd minute, Malouda came on for Meireles, but no avail, when 9-man Chelsea were unable to convert excellent efforts into goals. The utterly depressing game ended 1-0 in favour of QPR. 

MATCH STATISTICS:

                                                QPR                        Chelsea

Ball Possession (%)                   41                               59

Shots (on target)                      10(3)                           15(3)

Corners                                      0                                 6

Crosses                                     24                               30

Fouls Committed                      17                               19

Yellow Cards                             2                                 7

Red Cards                                  0                                 2

Offsides                                     6                                 1

Match highlights.

QUESTIONS:

1. Why was Branislav Ivanovic not a starter?

As I've previously stated, I think that Ivanovic is one of the more consistent players on Chelsea, and I just cannot comprehend the reasoning behind not starting him. When Ivanovic came on in the 35th minute as a substitute, Chelsea's defense (already one man down with Bosingwa's red card) began to shape up and shut down the QPR attackers. However, by that time, the damage had already been done in the 10th minute by David Luiz's nudge on Heidar Helguson which put the home side ahead. 

2. Where does David Luiz fit into the Chelsea lineup?

As far as I can tell, David Luiz seems to be quite the attacking threat, scoring 2 goals in 13 appearances for Chelsea and always going forward and being aggressive. However, his aggressiveness is also a detriment to his team. Reckless challenges gave up penalties against Fulham and Birmingham City last year, and his nudge on Heidar Helguson in the 10th minute of Sunday's match cost Chelsea the goal which lost them the game. As well, his attacking style of play sometimes gets him unnecessary cards, both yellow and red. So I'll raise the crucial question once more: where does David Luiz fit into the Chelsea lineup? Not at left wingback – Ashley Cole is pretty much a permanent fixture there. John Terry, the captain, consistently plays at left center defense. Luiz prefers to play on his right foot anyway, so he wouldn't be taking up either one of those positions. On the right side of the defense, you've got Branislav Ivanovic in the centre and José Bosingwa as a wingback. Since Chelsea cannot afford to have any more mistakes in the centre of their defense, it might not be prudent to have Luiz take Ivanovic's spot. He could potentially stand in for Bosingwa, where his attacking runs could be put to good use. Or he might be better off playing as a holding midfield in place of John Obi Mikel, where he could defend aggressively, not give away penalties, and still have the ability to make runs into the attacking zone. Opinions? Let me know what you think in the comments section. 

3. Bad officiating by Chris Foy?

While it seemed that Heidar Helguson did go down pretty easily on David Luiz's nudge in the 10th minute, I suppose play was impeded and therefore a penalty needed to be given. However, according to many people, José Bosingwa's red card on Shawn Wright-Phillips was unjustified, as John Terry was covering SWP as well and therefore the foul did not greatly affect a goal opportunity. On the other hand, Didier Drogba's red card looked very justifiable, with Drogba coming in with a two-footed tackle on Adel Taarabt, which could have badly injured the QPR player. As well, there was an instance where David Luiz was dragged down in QPR's penalty box and, incredibly, no penalty was given. Because of this, and the numerous other decisions in which did not go Chelsea's way, many people, André Villas-Boas included, are calling foul on the officiating. "The referee lost it – he was card-happy. I'm not happy with the difference in treatment between the teams," he remarked after the game. "We don't have a problem with discipline. We have a problem with the referees applying discipline. The referee was poor – very, very poor. I spoke to him at the end and I was very aggressive to him. I don't care if he's okay or not." Villas-Boas has accepted that he will likely receive an FA fine for his comments, but does not seem to care. "I'll expect Mike Riley's call," he said, "It won't make any difference." 

André Vilaas-Boas' post-match interview.

So there we go. A very happy day for Manchester City, and disheartening losses for both Chelsea and Manchester United. On Saturday, October 29, Chelsea host Arsenal at Stamford Bridge, and that game should be very interesting. Hopefully we'll walk off with a comfortable win there. 

Have a great week!

~Matt