Source: Telegraph
Chelsea 1 Queens Park Rangers 0: match report
The Chelsea supporters sang about celery, Joe Cole had talked about playing in the sausage roll but Queens Park Rangers were, ultimately, unable to provide much food for thought for Carlo Ancelotti – a gourmet himself of course – as his team eased into the next round of the Carling Cup. It’s eight wins from eight for the Italian and 23 matches unbeaten – equalling the club record – for Chelsea.
In the fullness of the season they – and England – will hope that the importance of this encounter will be the marking of Cole’s return from injury, cruciate ligament damage having ruled the midfielder out since January, with Ancelotti using him in the sausage roll role, so to speak, Cockney-rhyming slang for ‘in the hole’ (ie. Behind the strikers).
The tip of the diamond is another way to put it and although Cole was far from polished Ancelotti will have noted that it was from his pass that Chelsea scored the only goal although he was denied adding a second late on. Rangers, for all the professed ambition of their owners, they are the richest club in west London after all, were game but limited.
This has remained a competition low on priority but high in meaning for Chelsea, the first trophy captured after Roman Abramovich’s takeover and under Jose Mourinho and, as such, is also one that has caused a little tension. Despite the demands of Champions League and Premier League the likes of John Terry and Frank Lampard have made clear to previous managers that they wanted to play.
Last night Ancelotti placed them among the substitutes but although that, in itself, represented a significant shift in Chelsea’s stewardship there was hardly a plethora of Frank Arnesen recruits on display. Sifting through the team sheet and the only nugget – hopefully – was 18-year-old Fabio Borini, the Italian who has caught the attention of Ancelotti.
Still, there were three full debuts including, most importantly, £18-million recruit Yuri Zhirkov, injured in pre-season, while 10 changes were made from the team that started in that other London derby, against Tottenham Hotspur at the weekend. Rangers, meanwhile, limited their changes and also took to the field without one of their co-owners, Flavio Briatore, in attendance although 6,000 visiting supporters were. The central figure in the Renault scandal decided to keep a low-profile for the kind of high-table contest he presumably invested in Rangers for.
Two of those debutants – Zhirkov and Borini – combined early on with the latter heading the former’s cross past a post but it was a rare combination in the opening exchanges which was barely a surprise given the unfamiliarity of the Chelsea line-up. In itself that represented an opportunity for Rangers, in-form after victory away to Cardiff City, but apart from a shot from distance from Akos Buzsaky and a threatening break by Mikele Leigertwood they offered little.
A neat, 360-degree turn from Joe Cole shrugged off two challenges and drew a foul from Martin Rowlands but the free-kick was wasted while Rowan Vine over-ran the ball following a rapid burst forward by Wayne Routledge. Up front for Chelsea and Borini, neat in possession, was struggling with the physical buffeting while the lack of cohesion was summed up by a threaded pass by Joe Cole into the space where Juliano Belletti should have been. Except he was 20 yards behind his team-mate.
Florent Malouda – the only starter retained from the Spurs match – drove a shot into the side-netting from a corner, having fired straight at goalkeeper Tom Heaton in the opening minute, before Joe Cole met Paulo Ferreira’s cross only to sweep his effort across goal and beyond the far post.
Chelsea were also being limited by Rangers’ disciplined defending. They did not commit. Their main threat was the on-loan, from Arsenal, Jay Simpson and when he turned nimbly in the penalty area only a fine tackle by Branislav Ivanovic prevented a shot. On the stroke of half-time, Heaton pushed away Belletti’s fierce free-kick and Rangers departed pleased with their work.
Ancelotti weighed up his options and decided he had seen enough. On came Lampard. Chelsea needed greater urgency; greater threat. Extra-time was looking ominously likely. However it was Rangers who provided the first danger with Vine brilliantly dissecting the Chelsea defence for Routledge to run on. Henrique Hilario rushed from goal to, just, beat the winger to the pass. But Lampard was making a difference. He upped the tempo and, finally, Chelsea clicked. Joe Cole turned in the centre circle, beating Rowland, to release Salomon Kalou down the left and the striker cut inside Leigertwood to curl his shot around Heaton and into the net.
Rangers felt aggrieved that all their effort had been so simply undone and responded by pouring forward. It left them vulnerable to the counter and Lampard quickly found Borini who scampered into the area to draw a save from Heaton with the ball the falling behind the unmarked Belletti.
Buzsaky, with a shot that bounced just before the goalkeeper, forced a save from Hilario and Rangers continued to try and up their threat while Ancelotti responded by sending on high-class replacements in Ashley Cole and John Terry although the sight of the latter, in particular, did seem perverse.
Match details
Chelsea (4-1-2-1-2): Hilario; Ferreira, Hutchinson (Terry 77), Ivanovic, Zhirkov (A Cole 69); Mikel; Belletti, Malouda (Lampard 46); J Cole; Borini, Kalou.
Subs: Turnbull (gk), Essien, Matic, Bruma.
Goal: Kalou 52.
Queens Park Rangers (4-4-2): Heaton; Leigertwood, Stewart, Gorkss, Borrowdale; Routledge, Rowlands (Ephraim 73), Faurlin, Buzsaky; Simpson (Pellicori 73), Vine (Taarabt 66).
Subs: Cerny (gk), Ramage, Mahon, Agyemang.
Referee: M Jones (Cheshire).
