PL Recap: Chelsea 4-0 Bolton

By: Devin | January 24th, 2011

article-0-0CE4C928000005DC-23_634x582 GOLAZO!

For weeks now, we’ve waited for a sign. A moment that would signal the return to form for the club, and serve as a definitive period on the statement of malaise we’ve left on the pitch for the last eight weeks. Tonight, there were many such moments that could qualify. Didier turned back the clock and served up a wonder-strike that’s got to be in contention for Goal of the Month honors. Nico, clearly buoyed by playing against his old squad, had a spring in his step and poached early and often, finding the net once. The backline was imperious, led by EBALJT and BAWSE putting in tremendous shifts. Obi Trice (real name, no gimmicks) returned to the Starting XI and brought a steadying influence, and provided some beautiful forward passes that helped unlock the Bolton defense.

But no moment stands out more, in my mind, than the strike and celebration that capitulated the evening. Ramires, who has been dogged by many for his inconsistent displays, capped his best performance to date with an excellent goal and a celebratory scrum that was filled with hugs and all that other lovey-dovey stuff you didn’t expect to see from a team that many in the media suggest has been off the pace and suffering from internal discontent. You could see it on their faces, the jubilation overflowing, that this was a team letting go of its demons. Whatever it was that has been plaguing us for the last two months, we shook it off tonight. It was vintage CFC, and it was damn good to see them play with purpose once again.

A return to the free-flowing attacking philosophy that Carlo refuses to abandon? Check.

A swagger that’s clearly induced by confidence? Check.

An imperious defensive backline? Check.

We may not know just yet what the future holds for us, but three wins in three efforts, all clean sheets, all commanding performances, leads me to believe we may finally have turned the corner for good this season. Brace yourselves folks, methinks the best is yet to come from this lot.

The Rundown:

The statistics don’t indicate it, but we dominated possession. Had them on the back foot the majority of the match.

Didier looks healthy- at last. Maybe he’s finally over that bout with malaria, but he had a jump in his step and was showing some flair on his passes. We’re a very different team when the big man up front is dialed-in like this. More please. I very much enjoyed watching him torment the Gary Cahill/Zat Knight combination. Which by the way, let’s all just thank the stars that we didn’t go after Cahill in the window. Doesn’t look terrible, mind you, but clearly not the commanding presence the media would have you believe.

Ramires was an absolute beast today. He took the most hits, but kept his head down and continued to work. The guy never complains, doesn’t make a meal of his challenges (unlike Obi), always works hard to make the extra pass, and was finally rewarded for his most composed performance in a Blue kit with a well-deserved goal. He’s a lightning bolt flashing across the pitch. Me likey. I didn’t know how I would react when he finally opened his Chelsea account, but suffice it to say I had every one in the office staring at me like I lit myself on fire as I ran in circles fist-pumping and screaming with joy. Yeah, I’m THAT guy.

Bolton’s turgid attack was exposed for what it was today- Kevin Davies and a whole lot of nothing else.

Chris Foy should be ashamed of his performance today. No cards? He missed about three blatant leg-crunching tackles, including an awful foul by Robinson that should have handed the Blues a penalty. Dismal stuff.

The Second Half – My my, was that fun to watch. 45 minutes of relentless attacking football, you could just see it in their eyes that the lads were relishing every opportunity to get forward. Whether it was Anelka getting down the flank, or Drogba dinking a back-heel pass, or Malouda cutting inside, this was what we as fans have been so desperately waiting for. This was cathartic in so many ways, for fans and players alike. To finally shake off the doom and gloom and put in a performance of this quality, was just excellent. Kudos to the traveling support, who were loud, obnoxious, and ever-present today.

Player Ratings:

Petr Cech

A good strong showing from Big Pete. Came out on aerial challenges, and had a finger-tip save in the first half to deny Taylor an early equalizer. Rarely troubled in the second half, but was poised throughout. 7

Jose Bosingwa

Had his legs under him tonight, and stuck to his defensive responsibilities with aplomb. Didn’t join in the attack all too often tonight, but clearly still figuring out his role with this squad. Remember, he barely played two months under King Carlo last year before going down, so he’s got to find his niche with this system. Still, played a good game. 7

Branislav Ivanovic

Not his best game in a Blue kit, but he handled the defensive problems posed by Bolton well. Looked tired late on when he began misplacing back passes. Could have been subbed out, but regardless, a fine performance. 7

John Terry

A commanding performance. Inspiring, solid, sturdy, reliable. To think, he almost couldn’t make the match. A true leader. Got into the tackle hard, and held up against the bulky Davies. 7.5

Ashley Cole

Got into the attacking mix all night, and did a nice job of pushing Taylor onto his left foot. No major mistakes, and plenty of strong tackles. Against a team like Bolton, you worry that the physicality will catch up to Ashley and his knees. But he, like the rest of the defense, held firm. 7

John Obi Mikel

Good to see him back in the squad. Opinions on his worth are truly mixed, and in a sense he’s like Kalou. Either you love him or hate him. But on this night, he did his job soundly. Picked up possession in the midfield, pushed the ball forward, and made the simple pass until being substituted in the second half. Still has to find match fitness but nothing terrible to report. Did well to find Malouda for the second goal of the night. 6.5

Ramires

Beast. 8

Michael Essien

Much like his season, full of up’s and down’s tonight. Misplaced passes on two successive counter-attacks before picking out Malouda who centered for Anelka to slot home Chelsea’s third. Stood up to the physical play and tackled hard all night. The Bison seems to be getting into rhythm at long last. 7.5

Nicolas Anelka

Nice to see you again, good sir. Where have you been for the past two weeks? Vacation? Well are you back now? Right good, then we look forward to seeing you do this on a weekly basis once again. 7.5

Florent Malouda

Nice to find a goal in that 1st half scrum. So much of our success depends on his ability to spread the ball from the left forward to our attackers, and you could see as the game grew and our confidence rose, Flo was the fulcrum to our attack. 7.5

Didier Drogba

Didier, I want to apologize. For weeks I’ve been secretly assuming that this was the end. For your career in a Blue kit, and for your future as a footballer. I ran the numbers and figured since you’re 32, we’ve come to see the best already and this was the commencement of the slide. Then you contracted malaria, and pretty much disappeared for two months. So it’s natural then that we sort of wrote an obituary for your career and assumed that you’d just kind of fade into the background, right? I AM SO SORRY FOR MY TRANSGRESSIONS! IT WILL NEVER, EVER HAPPEN AGAIN! Just promise us you’ll play with this kind of vigor, and none of us will have any right to judge when you loaf around the shed end against Blackpool, ok? 8 MOTM

Josh McEachran

As we’ve come to expect from him. Sound, composed beyond his years, mature, and smooth. Had some lovely passes in the midfield that make any true Blue fan’s heart melt. The future looks so bright every time I watch him play. Clearly due for a start sometime soon in the EPL. 6.5

Sala Kalou

Didn’t get a huge chunk of time on the pitch, but still managed to fire a warning across the box that nobody could connect with. 6.5

Some Related Chelsea Posts:

Category: Chelsea Team News

« Rant Box: Bolton v. Chelsea | Home | The CO would like to nominate a replacement for Andy Gray… »

Anony

i think Manu will still win the league. 10 points ahead of chelsea.
Taimlos

The clincher for me, did you notice that almost all the lads came off the pitch without their tops (at least the ones I saw). They went to the fans and handed over their tops, it was like reaching out to the fans to say sorry. Rrrrreally cool.
Jamie

After the match, JT said the reason he gave his shirt away was because a family was there who had just lost their son in a car accident. He had been Chelsea through and through and the family was at the Bolton match, someone told him about it, and he made sure to go over and give them his jersey.
Ray

Earlier when we were having the bad run and the focus was on the bench , Carlo said that its difficult to give opportunities to youngsters in such tough conditions ...but yesterday it was the perfect opportunity!We were 3 ahead at the time I think and Kalou still gets the call ahead of Sturridge??What more could Danny do??
Ray

My God , our counter attakcs are sooo slow...!
Mateo

i dont think anelka played a good game, he didnt participate in the first half...then he scored 1 goal and missed about five clear opportunities despite drogba constantly played for him....on the other hand drogba was a total delight to watch
Jamie

That photo just sums it up for me. Look how happy they are all! That's the team spirit we need, Well done, Chelsea!
arn00b

It was a better performance from Chelsea, but I gotta admit that luck was on our side. We caught Bolton when they were on a four game winless streak, having 1 point from a possible 12, or 5 from a possible 18 from a wider perspective.

Sunderland is also less of a threat, having lost Welbeck and Bent to injury and Aston Villa respectively. So that won't be too hard to defend against.

But there was hardly a challenge today. Bolton's game was weak by their own standards. Cahill almost recorded his first assist for Chelsea today.

I never doubted Drogba. He was the best striker on the planet last year, but this year, the disease took its toll and the play around him is weaker, giving him less chances.

I am, however, concerned about Ramires' frailty. There are some people in this league whose profession is "Late Tackler" and football is only a hobby they do on the weekends. Don't we have games against Stoke and Nigel De Jong's City in a period of 5 days this year?

Oh yeah, and why did anyone think we need more defenders? We have a solid defense with or without injuries. Alex coming back will only give us a boost, we don't need to overspend for a defender.
Devin

I hear you arn00b but we're an injury away from being in a crisis at the back. I know Alex is on the mend, but all it takes is two of them to go down at the same time and we're sieving goals. I don't doubt that the opinions on Luiz are mixed, but I think he's a quality signing for the future and will do well to anchor the backline for the future. Where we clearly need to spend though is on the right side of the attack.

As for Ramires, yes indeed he's a bit slight of frame, but he showed some grit and determination today. Can't be mad at that.
arn00b

There's no doubt about Luiz's quality, just the price tag. Though I wonder if it's that we need Luiz as a backup for Terry/Alex/Bane or if we're slowly transforming Bane into our RB and pushing the Portuguese out. I see the latter as the more likely scenario.

Ramires is incredibly fast, but I fear that there'll be some people wetting their lips and punching their palms waiting for a midfield "battle" against Chelsea. There's a lot of late tacklers in the league, and hacking someone from behind is also common. It sometimes like the old days of hockey where there's one guy on the team who's just there to rough people up.
Scholes is always late to his tackles and he knows it, it has nothing to do with age or speed. Lucas is a foul machine. Our Obi Mikel is not known for his pin-point tackles either. It's a common thing in the league.

There's a cultural element to it too. As Roberto Martinez said, diving or going down easy is fine in South America and Spain. In England, it's a scandal. But in those countries, players dive before the tackler commits criminal assault. In England, and to some extent even in CL, jumping to get out of the way of a bullet is a dive. Drogba and Malouda were diving when Dani Alves attempted a free-style interpretation of a scene from "Enter the Dragon" in the f***ing box.

When Johnny Evans gave us a beautiful rendition of one of French artist Eric Cantona's greatest hits, "Le Palais de Cristal" in F minor, Drogba was booked for having his ribs broken. Nemanja was laughing on the sidelines.

There's a certain indifference if not casual enjoyment of the violence in the game. The bad tackles of Axel Witsel and Nigel De Jong have generated more interest than so many beautiful goals, more than the goals in those games for sure.

But there's a difference between watching the tackle and using the verb and the adjective "shawcrossed" and such.

Ramires is fast and even well-intending, good players might injure him by accident. As for the psychopaths, Ballack learned that you don't even have to be running or even walking to get tackled from behind.
Chelsea

Mamma Mia... The way things have unfolded in the past couple of months...never would I have daydreamed of such a victory!!!
I am very happy...and great of you Devin for the quick and well thought out recap.
Devin

Cheers mate let's just keep this momentum going forward!