Monday, 14 April 2014

Swansea vs Chelsea: Continuing the BA-ttle


"Hold Me Closer, Tony Danza"
If Sunday's early game did anything it was to throw Chelsea supporters into a bit of a wobble as they tried to do some quick math and put personal feelings aside. Which result would be most palatable pitted against which result would benefit Chelsea's title hopes the most. Taking a moment here to curse Pulis' Palace for this decision even having to be made and then moving on.
Mathematically, a Liverpool win was Chelsea's most beneficial result, as distasteful as it felt. If Chelsea went on to beat Swansea (spoiler alert: they did) it would mean that if Chelsea don't Palace it up again and win their remaining 4 (FOUR!) games with City dropping a couple of points in one of their 26 games in hand - we could see Mourinho wear a trophy like a crown once again.

Sounds easy enough. Chelsea have shown time and again this season that they know how to handle a big match matching title challengers and just about every step. The crux of that ,of course, is 3 of Chelsea's 4 remaining games are against relegation fodder. The fixtures that recall the recent trips to Palace and Villa or even the visit from London's Eastenders.

Swansea teeter on the edge of this precipice. They're not exactly a title challenger, but they don't have a big Allardyce shaped bus at that back either. Swansea play with a more fluid passing style. One that leaves space for Chelsea's tiny midfielders to sneak into unnoticed. So all in all, should be a routine day out, right? Right!

Wrong. So very wrong.

Chelsea's lineup for Sunday looked patchy at best. With the little Belgian tending to his injury, Mourinho was forced to play the prematurely signed Mohamed Salah. And if there's one 'why not' in the lineup, why not add another. Step up Demba Ba. Swansea not threatening enough to require the magic of Luiz and Matic together so Ramires got a run out after his suspension.  

Luck was on Chelsea's side early. And by luck I mean Chico Flores looking to smash anyone that came into Swansea's half and him being sent for an early shower -- but not a shower that would damage his George Michael 80s era hair do. Of course, he didn't leave without a fight because he had to have Faith it was 'too early' to see red. The first 15 mins of any football match are a free period for fouling each other as much as possible. Everyone knows that. But that stickler for rules, Phil Dowd, saw fit to see Flores on his way. OR Dowd had a wager on himself issuing the most cards this season and that sending off put him in the lead. Either way, Flores off. Game on.

Swansea. Ten men. The better this match got on paper the worse it got to watch. The less said about the style or shape in the first half the better. These were definitely 11 men who'd not played a match together, and some of them seemed like they may just have met each other. Which is the only reasonable explanation for Salah's continued aversion to passing to a teammate. He simply did not recognise them, so took the task of scuffing shots wide of Vorm's net upon himself.

Mohamed Salah became Chelsea's own version of Schrödinger's cat as he was at once both a threat and completely ineffective all at once. His pace was troublesome for Swansea's back four in that he easily got in and around them, but to no end. He never posed any real danger to Swansea at any point in the match. He may have been out to impress or just didn't recognise the men in blue in his general proximity, but had a touch of the Sturridge's when faced with the choice to pass or take a shot that was never going to go in.
Demba Ba: More goals in the last 6 days
than Zlatan has in the last 3 weeks

Salah of course can be forgiven in not finding centre forward Demba Ba who favoured spending quality time with Ramires. However, that hero of a man did bundle himself into Vorm's box long enough to unprecedentedly score the match winner in consecutive games. His striking style is less fox in the box and more Bambi on ice, but it doesn't have to be pretty it just has to cross the line. And that it did leaving that to be the difference between the sides.

Although Swansea were down to 10 and spent a good deal of time managing the pace of Salah and Schürrle, they did find themselves at the other end of the pitch more often than any of the travelling support would have liked. Matic dealt with just about everything that came past the halfway line, but for the few players that somehow got by him, Cech managed to come up with some big saves and got himself a step closer to setting the PL clean sheet record. Sky may have awarded their MotM to Demba Ba, but Cech & Matic easily deserving of the honour.

jb x

Note: No ballboys were harmed in the making of this blog or in Chelsea's three point. Pats on the back all around

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