Source: Team_Talk
Diouf header stalls Chelsea title bid
A match that seemed there for the taking on Sunday after Didier Drogba's early goal somehow drifted out of Chelsea's grasp.[LNB]Diouf headed a superb equaliser as Blackburn put in such a powerful second-half performance that keeper Jason Brown was barely tested.[LNB]For Chelsea, whose record in their past nine matches is now four wins, four defeats and one draw, this was hardly a display of title-winning credentials and they are now four points behind Manchester United and two behind Arsenal, though with a game in hand.[LNB]This was underlined by the fact that the clear man of the match was none other than Rovers' 18-year-old central defender Phil Jones, making his league debut and up against Drogba and Nicolas Anelka.[LNB]Blackburn boss Sam Allardyce had gambled on him in the absence of Ryan Nelsen and Gael Givet.[LNB]That gamble may have seen rash as Drogba carved out an early chance for himself, dinking a neat curling shot just wide of the post despite being surrounded by a posse of defenders.[LNB]That was just a foretaste of what was to come as the Ivory Coast striker opened the scoring in the sixth minute with an almost effortless simplicity.[LNB]Anelka burst down the right, cut inside Jones and laid the ball back for Drogba to wrong-foot the entire Rovers defence and keeper Jason Brown with a neat left-footed finish back into the opposite corner.[LNB]Kalou threatened to further emphasise Chelsea's early dominance with a header from a corner that flew over the crossbar but from then on it was downhill for the visitors.[LNB]David Dunn won a free-kick in Morten Gamst Pedersen range after being halted by an agricultural challenge by Alex, but although the Norwegian was on target Chelsea keeper Ross Turnbull turned his effort behind.[LNB]Pedersen had another sight of goal but was wildly off-target with his volley, while Jones drew the loudest cheers from the Rovers fans so far with a series of crunching - but legal - challenges as Blackburn did their best to out-power the visitors.[LNB]Florent Malouda let fly from 20 yards out with a stinging drive but Brown managed to parry the shot, if somewhat unconvincingly.[LNB]Carlo Ancelotti was then forced to make a change just before the break with Branislav Ivanovic, who appeared to have been stood on unintentionally by El Hadji Diouf, limped off to be replaced by Zhirkov.[LNB]Blackburn, as if scenting that Chelsea may have missed a trick by scoring just a single goal in the first half, upped the tempo in the second.[LNB]Zhirkov's first involvement for Chelsea, right at the start of the second half was to head off the line after Chris Samba had beaten the flapping Turnbull to Pedersen's long throw.[LNB]Pedersen was then left cursing again when given space to shoot from 25 yards out but missing the target by some margin.[LNB]Frank Lampard, who had been having a quiet game by his standards, was much closer with a rising effort from the same range that was a whisker away from the top right-hand corner.[LNB]The suspicion that Chelsea had seemed over-confident in settling for a 1-0 win had been growing the longer the second half went on, and in the 70th minute Diouf made them pay.[LNB]The Senegal international hung in the air above Ferreira to meet Michel Salgado's cross with a superb header down into the corner.[LNB]Chelsea, stung in action, became more direct themselves and Alex struck a piledriver from a 30-yard free-kick over the bar.[LNB]With time running down, Drogba was denied a fine winner by a good block, then Jones crowned a magnificent debut with an intercepting header to keep out John Terry.[LNB]Rovers celebrated as though they had won the Premier League. Chelsea looked as though they had just lost it.[LNB][LNB]
