Saints vs Chelsea: The One Fraser Forster Conceded A Goal & Another Goal

Man On!!!!

Chelsea’s most recent encounters with Southampton have been overshadowed with a bit of controversy. Last year’s trip to St. Mary’s saw the penalty that wasn’t against Cesc Fàbregas which led to *those* comments about a campaign against Chelsea. Impossible to forget as it was trudged out at any given opportunity. The reverse fixture this season saw Jose Mourinho respond to a single question with a 7 minute rant which stopped just short of him daring the club to sack him.

And we all know how that eventually ended.

While the referee and his assistants did what they could to continue the fine tradition of dramatics after this fixture, they failed to draw Hiddink or Koeman in. Double Dutch were calm, cool and collected. All that remained was an actual match, followed by a boring old press conference.

Chelsea were faced with the unenviable task of getting a goal past the big yellow wall that is Fraser Forster. Since returning from injury he hadn’t conceded a goal. 6 games. No goals. The last time he’d had to pick the ball out of the back of the net was last March — courtesy of one Diego Costa. The masked marauder was unlucky not to be the first player to put another past Forster. He was a force to be reckoned with.

The first half was slightly laboured from Chelsea with Ivanovic and Fabregas being the only real stand-out performers, at least for the right reasons. While Baba Rahman seemed to be doing an okay job, his assist for Shane Long’s opener saw his match cut short. Guus Hiddink made the bold decision of taking him off at half-time to be replaced with occasional full back Kenedy. Following a very early injury to Pedro, it meant Hiddink had now used up two subs in 46 minutes. Would his hand again be forced into an elusive third sub?!

Whether it was a stellar team talk or just the introduction of the young Brazilian, Chelsea looked a much better side in the second half. Of course, I did what I could at half time by leaving an instagram post for Forster requesting him to let us have one — so — you’re welcome. Because for a man who went over 11 hours without conceding a goal, that was a shocker to let in.

Another way to look at it was that Cesc Fàbregas completed so many passes at St. Mary’s that his goal was in fact another pass.* With another bossy boots performance, it was good to see Fàbregas on the scoresheet. Although the buildup to the cross-plus was all Costa: Un-Masked.

With his record done and dusted, Forster was feeling generous and only went and conceded a second goal. Captain Ivanovic popped up for a trademark header that saw him richly rewarded with one fantastic pile-on. They may as well have blown the whistle right then and there as much of the home support decided the game was over and went flooding through the exits.  They should have stuck around to witness a rare occasion - not  only had their big man conceded, but Chelsea actually won consecutive league games! For the first time since May Chelsea only went and won 2 whole games in a row and it was glorious.

jb x

*I definitely pilfered that from somewhere in the social media aftermath — apologies for not remembering who actually made the observation