sunday papers southampton

Independent:
Gudjohnsen's double drives Chelsea closer to the dreamSouthampton 1 - Chelsea 3By Nick Townsend at St Mary's03 April 2005
Jose Mourinho returned to public scrutiny here yesterday evening and, hands in his designer-suit pockets, watched his men's performance state as eloquently as any words could: the championship is ours.
As the sun set at the conclusion of a bizarre week, in which despite Uefa's apparent leniency over charges brought against him and his club following that Champions' League game at the Nou Camp in February, the Chelsea manager appeared determined to pursue his own agenda, Chelsea claimed another victory, with a brace from Eidur Gudjohnsen and another from Frank Lampard. As they did so, they were aware that they are three more victories away from the title - given a little earlier help from their friends in the north.
Saints had approached the match with a burgeoning belief of survival following two successive League victories; but they were faced by a Chelsea seeking confirmation of their champions status, with election becoming all the more inevitable following Manchester United's concession of two points at home to Blackburn in an earlier kick-off.
Despite the distraction of Wednesday night's forthcoming Champions' League game against Bayern Munich, Chelsea extended their away record to a remarkable 41 points from a possible 48, although here there was to be no addition to their record of lock-outs of the opposition attack. The Southampton substitute Kevin Phillips saw to that with his second-half goal that brought the scoreline back, temporarily, to 2-1. But Gudjohnsen sealed it with a late third.
Unbeaten in their last five matches in the League, and with Crystal Palace defeated at home earlier, there was a massive incentive for Saints to secure victory here and put daylight between themselves and those in the relegation positions.
It had taken a James Beattie goal to breach Chelsea's rearguard in the corresponding fixture at Stamford Bridge. The striker's move to the North-west has provided an inviting opportunity for Peter Crouch, who has responded with 12 goals since Harry Redknapp arrived as manager in December, with his latest five in the same number of matches.
This was a rare occasion when the Saints forward was meeting the opposition virtually eyeball to eyeball, with goalkeeper Petr Cech only an inch or two his inferior in the battle of the vertical supremacists.
Yet, the remainder of the Chelsea back division - reorganised because of Paulo Ferreira's absence with a broken bone in his foot with Robert Huth partnering the captain, John Terry, in central defence - hardly possess the same physique.
The belief was that Saints would attempt to capitalise on Crouch's height advantage with an sustained aerial assault. Yet, curiously, it was not until the latter stages of the first half, with Southampton already a goal adrift, that Saints attempted to profit from that factor.
By then Chelsea had established their rhythm and their dominance with a formation in which Mateja Kezman was given a starting role, while Didier Drogba, who is likely to play against Bayern, was restricted to the bench.
For 21 minutes Chelsea enticed Saints into their half, craftily probing on the break then, Andreas Jakobsson was adjudged to have fouled Kezman. The ensuing free-kick was struck with typical venom by Lampard, but probably would have been dealt with by Antti Niemi, had not the ball taken a mischievous deflection off the end of the wall.
Crouch looked to have burst clear on the half hour, but to the chagrin of all Southampton connections, the referee, Mark Halsey, brought play back because of an infringement against the visitors. "Have you bought the referee?" the frustrated locals chanted at the visiting team.
Later, a long throw by Rory Delap was headed narrowly wide by Claus Lundekvam. But that was the closest the hosts came to a first-half equaliser.
It was Niemi who was by far the busier and his agility was personified when he performed a save in the air, with his feet, to prevent a back-pass from Lundekvam, under pressure from Kezman, entering the net. From the resulting corner, the goalkeeper responded well to keep out Huth's low drive.
But he was powerless when, seven minutes before the interval, a splendid run by the full-back Johnson into the heart of the home defence, left four Southampton players in his wake, before pulling the ball back, allowed Eidur to slide the ball home.
After the break, Saints still retained a conviction that all was not lost. A Crouch header unnerved the Chelsea defence, and a header from the substitute Phillips was tipped over. But from the resulting short corner from Anders Svensson, and an interchange with Delap, Phillips was unmarked as he converted the chance.
Drogba was sent on for Kezman, and, he made a telling contribution at the end of an incisive Blues move, combining superbly with Gudjohnsen, culminating in a second for the Icelander.
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Observer :
Gudjohnsen keeps Chelsea on course
Amy Lawrence at St Mary's Sunday April 3, 2005The Observer
You can take José Mourinho away from centre stage, but you cannot take centre stage away from José Mourinho. The notion that he might consider his Chelsea future at the end of the season was leaked in Portugal over the weekend, presumably with the man's approval as a gentle reminder to the powers-that-be at Stamford Bridge: don't mess with 'the special one'. It is hypothetical to imagine what another manager would have done with the scenario Mourinho walked into last summer. What we do know is that the Chelsea side he constructed need win only three more matches to be crowned Premiership Champions. All season, on the pitch at least, Chelsea's players have proved impervious to the turbulence emanating from the dug-out. After a week when more punitive measures were doled out by their good friends at Uefa, the men in blue simply carried on playing with the immense focus that is hurtling them towards the title. Their manager may be under the cosh and their squad weakened by injuries to Paulo Ferreira and Arjen Robben. But shaken? Stirred? Of course not. Mourinho sprang a selection surprise by starting the beefy German defender Robert Huth in place of the smaller but slicker Ricardo Carvalho. The logic was blindingly obvious and a compliment to Southampton's biggest goal threat, Peter Crouch. The other unexpected choice was to play Mateja Kezman as their own target striker.
After a slow, patient start, Chelsea eased into the lead after 22 minutes. When Claus Lundekvam was penalised for fouling Kezman, Frank Lampard confidently struck the free-kick even though it was 30 yards out. His effort deflected off the wall, wrongfooting Antti Niemi, and the ball sailed into the centre of the goal.
Chelsea could have doubled their lead 10 minutes later in risible circumstances. Lundekvam, under pressure from Nigel Quashie's slack pass, could only hook the ball towards the top corner of his own goal. Niemi's reaction was excellent, adjusting quickly enough to kick away with a sprawling leg.
Six minutes before the break, Chelsea got their second, and it was stylishly constructed by Glen Johnson. The right-back danced down the right flank into the box. In the process he bewildered four defenders, before prodding a perfect lay-off for Eidur Gudjohnsen. The Icelander clipped clinically home.
Southampton threatened only through a Lundekvam header that fizzed wide. Crouch, who comes from solid Chelsea stock and was once a ballboy at Stamford Bridge, did his utmost to inspire a second-half rally, and his looping header earned the applause of the home crowd, even if it was easy pickings for Petr Cech. The keeper had a far tougher examination once Kevin Phillips came on to lend Crouch brisk, bright support.
Cech was soon in action, clawing away from the substitute, but Phillips gave him little chance from the resulting corner, steering Southampton rousingly back into the game with 21 minutes to go.
It is not often we see the entire Chelsea team back in their own half, but such were the home efforts that the Premiership leaders temporarily lost their shape.
Balance was restored with Gudjohnsen's second goal. A move of pinged passes throughout the team ended with Didier Drogba flicking the ball to find Gudjohnsen's ghosting run. The finish was crisp, crafty and conclusive.
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Telegraph ;
The end in sight for Chelsea By Patrick Barclay (Filed: 03/04/2005)
Southampton (0) 1 Chelsea (2) 3
Three more victories will do it for Chelsea. If they keep winning Premiership matches, the club will be celebrating their first title in half a century on April 23, after they have met Fulham at Stamford Bridge. In between they have two more home matches, against Birmingham and Arsenal, so it might be all over before Jose Mourinho's team make their next journey, which will be to Bolton at the end of the month.
At the double: Eidur Gudjohnsen celebrates Chelsea's second In truth, Chelsea's supporters have been pretty sure where the English game's top prize is going for some time. But this was a place where a lesser side might have stumbled; Southampton, revived under Harry Redknapp, had gone five league matches unbeaten. But Chelsea took control through goals from Frank Lampard and Eidur Gudjohnsen and only between the 69th and 83rd minutes, after the substitute Kevin Phillips had reduced the deficit, was there any doubt about the outcome. Gudjohnsen removed that with his second. And so to the Champions League quarter-final confrontation with Bayern Munich.
Both UEFA and Chelsea, incidentally, are to be commended on a satisfactory conclusion to the Anders Frisk affair. Satisfactory, that is, as long as we work on the assumption that Mourinho never repeats the offence of questioning a referee's integrity without sufficient reason - and reports from Portugal are not encouraging in this respect. Apparently Mourinho was furious with Chelsea, whose chairman, Bruce Buck, issued a dignified apology to Frisk in Nyon on Thursday, for declining to appeal against the his two-match suspension from the dugout and dressing room, which he will begin to serve when Bayern visit Stamford Bridge for Wednesday's first leg.
Mourinho will still be the centre of attention in the stands, which makes me wonder if the professional game should not take a leaf out of amateur football's rulebook and banish offenders from matches completely.
Banishing Mourinho from the limelight would, of course, be a different matter and here he took time off from playing mind-games with his own employers to reshape his team, Gudjohnsen taking a midfield role alongside Lampard in a 4-1-4-1 formation.
The pair all but ran the 21 minutes that elapsed before Lampard gave Chelsea the lead. Claude Makelele made sure Southampton got little through to the lanky Peter Crouch, with whom John Terry and Robert Huth coped comfortably, and meanwhile Chelsea posed a mounting threat in attack. Then Mateja Kezman, the spearhead of their attack, was fouled by Claus Lundekvam and Lampard's free-kick, sweetly struck but covered by Antti Niemi, veered off Rory Delap on the near end of the defensive wall, leaving the goalkeeper helpless.
The consequent raising of Southampton's tempo produced a couple of aerial opportunities from set-pieces, Crouch's header across goal from a free-kick by Jamie Redknapp finding no colleague and Lundekvam missing the target from close range after Delap had delivered one of his prodigious throws. Niemi had, however, remained the busier keeper.
Improvising wonderfully, he had used a flicked-out foot to divert an injudicious pass back from Lundekvam; it was a thrilling save. But soon Niemi was beaten again, Glen Johnson slicing through four defenders on a run towards the byline before judging his short cutback to perfection; Gudjohnsen peeled off and took one touch before scoring with a low shot on the half-turn.
The Icelander was given a new role on the right at half-time, when Tiago took over from Joe Cole, but Chelsea, if they imagined they could coast, were wrong. Phillips, who replaced Henri Camara, had an instant effect, his header from a Crouch nod-back making Petr Cech move smartly to turn it over, and from the corner, taken short, Paul Telfer's cross was diverted in by the striker.
All Chelsea required was to slip up a gear, which they did, a slick move culminating in Lampard and Didier Drogba (on for Kezman) working the ball to Gudjohnsen, who rolled it wide of Niemi.
This made Gudjohnsen the first Chelsea player to 10 goals in the Premiership, and put him above Drogba in all-competitions with 14.
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Times :
Southampton 1 Chelsea 3: Chelsea ease to 13-point leadRob Hughes at St Mary's Stadium CHELSEA are simply strolling to the title. They assume now the aura that cows Premiership opponents and Southampton looked beaten from the start — outclassed on their home turf where they had not lost since Newcastle beat them on September 19. So Chelsea, now 13 points ahead of Arsenal and Manchester United with just seven games remaining, are the champions elect.
After the hot air of the past week, it was business as normal for Mourinho. And last night, seeking a record seven successive away victories in a single Premiership season, he was so laid back, so relaxed in the south coast sunshine that you looked for the deckchair.
Southampton, themselves unbeaten at St Mary’s for six months, were possibly lulled to believe that their safety was assured.The strangest of formations by Chelsea — operating with just Mateja Kezman as a pivotal centre-forward, with Eidur Gudjohnsen in a withdrawn role almost part of the midfield, and Joe Cole to the right and Damien Duff to the left, simply seemed to be playing a waiting game.
Their strategy appeared to be that they would take the pace out of the contest, that they would neutralise Southampton, and their quality would surely provide the decisive moment.
So it was, less a true footballing contest between one fighting for their Premiership existence and the other approaching the first English championship in 50 years of their history.
There was almost nothing to report until the opening goal. It arrived precisely halfway through the meandering first half; and if Mourinho will forgive the use of the word, the goal was an “adulteration”. It came from a free kick generously awarded to Kezman when to many the forward appeared to be backing into Andreas Jakobsson. Nevertheless referee Mark Halsey awarded the kick in favour of Chelsea and, five yards out to the right edge of the penalty area, Frank Lampard struck it.
It took a huge deflection off the end of the defensive wall off Rory Delap. Antti Niemi was already committed when the deflected ball looped slowly into his net on the other side.
If it is accepted as a Lampard goal, it is the 12th for his club. Soon the home crowd were seeing corruption or adulteration: “Have you bought the referee?” they chorused when the arbiter somehow decided that Nigel Quashie had unfairly impeded Claude Makelele on what would have been a rare Southampton break.
But, back to the other end, Niemi had to make two athletic saves in the 33rd minute. First, shocked by a back pass from Claus Lundekvam, the goalkeeper had no option but to bring up an acrobatic stop, using his left foot at shoulder height. And from the resulting corner, when the ball fell to Robert Huth, the German’s shot was hard and low, and the goalkeeper’s dive upon the ball was fantastic.
Nine minutes later Niemi was defenceless. Glen Johnson, displaying hypnotic technical control and movement for a full-back, glided through what looked like the entire Southampton rearguard and when Johnson turned and cut the ball back. Gudjohnsen had the time to control it with one touch and dispatch it low into the furthest corner of the net from eight yards with the other.
Some people have been presuming that Harry Redknapp is the Harry Houdini of the south coast, but from the first-half showing it was the backbone of his reshaped team that had disappeared.What could turn the mismatch into something resembling a contest? Redknapp found something up his sleeve; he called Kevin Phillips off the bench, and within five minutes the aging goalscorer proved that the art of popping up where nobody expects it is still in him. He rose like a salmon, clearly two feet off the ground, to produce a header that stretched Petr Cech for the first time in this lazy afternoon. The goalkeeper was equal to it, he flicked the ball over his crossbar.
Undaunted, after Southampton took a short corner on the right and Paul Telfer rolled the ball towards his feet, Phillips, from nine yards, scored with an instant, drilled, low shot. In the air, on the ground, a cut above his Southampton teammates.
Yet it was all an illusion. Seven minutes from time Gudjohnsen, receiving the ball from Didier Drogba simply helped himself to his second goal.
Gudjohnsen believes the Londoners will cope without Mourinho on the touchline in their Champions League quarter-final against Bayern Munich. He also admitted Chelsea had not been at their best but, with the club needing three wins from seven games to win the title, he was happy with the result.
“There were a few tired legs after the internationals,” he said. “But it was a great result. We’re close.” Redknapp blamed defeat on the decision to penalise his side for a foul on Kezman by Jakobsson. “There was nothing in the game until a bad decison by the referee,” he said. “Kezman was backing in as he did all game. He had no intention of playing the ball, he just fell to the floor. It wasn’t a great strike and it took a wicked deflection.
“I thought the referee got a few key decisions wrong today. How many saves did our keeper have to make?”
STAR MAN: Eidur Gudjohnsen (Chelsea)
Player ratings. Southampton: Niemi 7, Delap 6, Lundekvam 6, Jakobsson 6, Bernard 6, Telfer 6, Redknapp 6, Quashie 7, Le Saux 5 (Svensson 62min, 5), Camara 5 (Phillips 62min, 6), Crouch 6
Chelsea: Cech 6, Johnson 8, Huth 7, Terry 7, Gallas 6, Makelele 7, Lampard 7, Cole 6 (Tiago 46min, 6) Gudjohnsen 8, Duff 6, Kezman 6 (Drogba 65min, 6)
Scorers: Southampton: Phillips 68
Chelsea: Lampard 22, Gudjohnsen 39, 83
Referee: M Halsey
Attendance: 31,949
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NOTW :
Eidur double puts Blues on brink
Another Gud day
From Matt Driscoll at St Mary's Stadium
CHELSEA took another emphatic step towards their first title in 50 years.
Two-goal Eidur Gudjohnsen put them on the way to victory — and a massive 13-point lead over Asenal and Manchester United.
These were apparently troubled times for Chelsea. A two-game Champions League touchline ban for their boss, a fine and even a behind-the-scenes row was hardly the best preparation for this evening clash.
But if Mourinho was unsettled by his latest spat with officialdom, that emotion certainly did not transfer to his team under the spring sunshine at St Mary's.
Within 22 minutes Chelsea had taken the lead and Mourinho's domestic dream was back on track, despite what many believed to have been a difficult couple of weeks in the camp.
Chelsea would have been buoyed by the fact that, once again, Manchester United dropped two points, giving them the chance to wrap up the title even earlier than expected.
Victory would leave Chelsea just three games away from making history — possibly even nearer if United's erratic form continues.
Playing a 4-1-4-1 formation, the Blues were faced with a Southampton side determined to add a point to their survival cause.
Threat
Harry Redknapp's side sat deep and were happy to try and find the 6ft 7in frame of Peter Crouch to try and hold the ball up on counter attacks.
But that plan failed as soon as the Saints gave away a free-kick.
It was a full 30 yards out, yet with England midfielder Frank Lampard placing the ball, the threat was always plain to see.
And when he thumped the ball, sending it hurtling towards goal, a deflection off the Southampton wall made sure keeper Antti Niemi was wrong-footed and beaten.
Southampton nearly made it even easier for the champions-elect when a dreadful back pass into his own box left defender Claus Lundekvam having to lunge out to prevent Mateja Kezman from getting to it first.
Niemi was left to perform a karate kick to clear the ball from the mouth of his goal.
Saints did finally go close on the half-hour when Lundekvam headed a corner just wide of the post.
But nine minutes later Saints' day took a further turn for the worse. Chelsea right-back Glen Johnson — back in the England Under-21 squad as well as Mourinho's plans — made a sensational run into the area passing, one, two and then a third Saint.
With a quick look up he pulled a square ball back to Gudjohnsen who, despite starting the game from midfield alongside Lampard, had made enough progress to blast it low to extend the lead.
If anyone expected Chelsea to wobble after the turbulence witnessed off the pitch, what with the war of words with Barcelona and UEFA, they now had the answer.
Chelsea's historic title charge was back in full swing and Southampton could do little to get in its way.
With Bayern Munich waiting on Wednesday, the first in Mourinho's two-match touchline ban, he was ready to give some of his key players a rest ahead of the Champions League quarter-final.
Didier Drogba started on the bench and even Joe Cole was replaced at the break after a strenuous week playing for his country.
Cole, who may have solved England's left midfield headache after starring against Northern Ireland and Azerbaijan, found life hard on the right in support of Kezman.
Southampton needed a lot more than a substitution to get back into the game after an opening half of sub-standard football.
After back-to-back wins they had managed to drag themselves out of the bottom three.
But, despite Crystal Palace's 1-0 loss to Middlesbrough, they were heading back into trouble.
Manager Redknapp resorted to a double substitution to try and kick-start his side.
Graeme Le Saux and Henri Camara were replaced by Kevin Phillips and Anders Svensson.
And the effect was almost instantaneous.
Both had only been on the pitch a couple of minutes before Saints managed to put Chelsea on the back foot for the first time in the game.
Spurred
Svensson's cross from the left was headed back across goal by Crouch and only a stunning swipe of Petr Cech's glove prevented Phillips from nodding in.
The home side seemed to be spurred on when the crowd reacted to a high arm from Kezman into the face of Andreas Jakobsson. The Chelsea striker had only just been booked but escaped a red card.
And as the St Mary's faithful roared their side on from the corner awarded after Cech's heroics, Chelsea suddenly froze.
Paul Telfer whipped in a low cross from the short corner and every Chelsea player ball watched until it was turned in off Phillips' right boot.
It appeared to be a minor lapse of concentration but it had the effect of giving Southampton the belief that they could grab a draw.
What should have been a comfortable run in to the final whistle became a hard slog for the Blues.
But, as they have proved before, Chelsea can dig in and battle with the best of them when they have to.
And with seven minutes left sub Drogba helped secure the win with a top-drawer pass to Gudjohsen after Southampton were landed in trouble by a poor Lundekvam pass out from the area.
Nothing can stop Chelsea now. Not even UEFA.
Man of the match FRANK LAMPARD (Chelsea)
THE Blues midfielder again showed international class to dominate the middle of the park.
He grabbed the opener with a cracking 30-yard drive and kept the leaders on the front foot all afternoon. His driving force will surely see Chelsea to the title. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------