Chelsea vs. Burnley
Stamford Bridge, 29th August 2009.
Forgive me, but I was actually a bit wary of this one. Having had to suffer the indignity of losing to them in a penalty shootout in the cup last year and with the Northerners having recently done over Man Utd and Everton, I was hoping we weren’t in for a shock.
I needn’t have worried. For a start the *legendary* Burnley support that stole the shed in November and profess to bleed their colours, amounted on Saturday to a few hundred half asleep chip and gravy eating (Far nicer with cheese too, Ed.)tourists who didn’t seem up for much of anything.
Malouda and Mikel went out for Deco and Essien as Ancelotti rotated his midfield yet again. We could have had an opener inside the first six minutes when Anelka dispossessed Bikey - the monster we had faced as recently as Reading pre-season. Anelka steamed through but it was collected in the end by Brian *The Beast* Jensen who has probably been in counseling all year as a result of the abuse he faced during the carling cup in front of the Matthew Harding.
It was a sign of things to come though and Chelsea pushed the visitors immediately but Burnley managed to hold us off. Having not seen the outside of their own half at all even JT was lining up shots before injury time commenced and Drogba slipped a pass through for Anelka to get us off the mark. Who said they couldn’t play together?
It was one of those matches when it never felt as if we were going to be in trouble and this was reiterated two minutes after half time when Michael Ballack put a diving header into the net after a great cross from Frank. Goal of the day, though, went to Ashley Cole who will most likely never score another like it in his career. The left back had enjoyed numerous chances to go forward and after a one-two with Lampard he fired the ball into the top corner with ease.
I for one wanted seven, so that Sky Sport News would at least have to pay us a half arsed compliment in the wake of all the “Wengerworshipping” they have been doing of late after Arsenal’s start, but it was not to be. Anelka hit one off the crossbar before Owen Coyle started bringing on defensive substitutes in an attempt to spare the Burnley blushes.
Sitting comfortably as we were, Ancelotti sought to come up with idea for Porto when he took off our suspendees Bosingwa and Drogba. The former was replaced by Juliano *shooooot* Belletti. I for one thought that it would have been a prime opportunity in that position to have seen Sturridge get a decent run out but alas it was Kalou who came on for Drogba.
An Anelka goal was marked down as offside as the game closed out, the result of impressive play from Ballack who was a credit throughout. Job done, top of the league going into the international break.
Twat of the day: At a push, Bikey - because he whined like a little girl and for a bloke that size was very non-threatening.
Chelsea: Cech, Bosingwa, (Belletti 65) Carvalho, JT, Ashley Cole, Ballack, (Mikel 82) Essien, Lamps, Anelka, Deco, Drogba, (Kalou 75)
Burnely: Who cares? It’s Burnley.