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The Sunday Times:
Chelsea 5 Bolton 1: Chelsea burst shatters BoltonJoe Lovejoy at Stamford Bridge
FOR THE second season in succession, Bolton had the audicity to pull the tiger’s tail, but this time they paid a painful price. Stelios Giannakopoulos put them ahead in the fourth minute, but the League leaders bit back savagely, scoring four times in a second-half purple patch to maintain that 100% start to their title defence. Nine played, nine won and 23 goals scored. Boring Chelsea indeed.
“Stand Up For The Special One” the delirious home crowd chanted in appreciation of the managerial expertise of Jose Mourinho, whose substitutions at half-time transformed the game. With his team in arrears and struggling to break down obdurate opponents, Mourinho switched from 4-3-3 to 3-3-4, and was rewarded for his more adventurous approach.
Didier Drogba quickly restored equality on the resumption, then he and Frank Lampard rattled in three more goals by the 61st minute to leave poor Bolton out for the count.
Ricardo Gardner, only on because Henrik Pedersen had been getting such a chasing from Shaun Wright-Phillips, was sent off for deliberate handball after 57 minutes, but although his dismissal affected the scoreline, Chelsea had the bit between their teeth, and that familiar winning look about them, before his departure.
Their first-choice wingers, Arjen Robben and Damien Duff, were both absent, injured on international duty, so there was a welcome chance for the pair who played for England in midweek, Wright-Phillips and Joe Cole. It was the pacy £21m recruit from Manchester City who made the most of the opportunity. By the 42nd minute, Wright-Phillips had embarrassed Pedersen so much that he was withdrawn in favour of Gardner.
In the match programme, Mourinho had insisted that his team deserved “total respect”, but Bolton respect nobody’s reputation. Just three minutes and 50 seconds had elapsed when El-Hadji Diouf took the ball on his chest and turned inside William Gallas before crossing low from the left. Asier Del Horno failed to cut out the danger, and Giannakopoulos was left to steer his shot, from eight yards, into Petr Cech’s right-hand corner.
Bolton went into what-we-have-we-hold mode. Chelsea might have equalised after 10 minutes, but Del Horno headed wide from Wright-Phillips’s cross. They thought they were level after 32 minutes when Lampard supplied Wright-Phillips, who drove the ball low towards goal. Drogba diverted it past Jussi Jaaskelainen, only to be flagged offside.
John Terry had one of his less impressive afternoons and was absent when Gary Speed headed on to the roof of the net. When the Welsh veteran tried his luck again, his 25-yard drive rattled Cech’s right post.
One goal down at half-time, Chelsea were fortunate not to be a man down too. Michael Essien’s late and dangerously high tackle on Tal Ben Haim earned a yellow card but warranted red and his challenge will surely be examined further by the Football Association.
Mourinho reorganised at half-time and sent his charges out to resume in 3-3-4 formation. Withdrawing Del Horno and sending on Eidur Gudjohnsen, he deployed Gallas, Terry and Ricardo Carvalho at the back, with Gudjohnsen reinforcing the attack.
The transformation was all he hoped it would be and more. In the 52nd minute Gudjohnsen rolled a 25-yard free kick to Lampard, whose shot was parried by Jaaskelainen. The loose ball fell obligingly for Drogba to lash home. Little more than two minutes later Chelsea were in profit when Gudjohnsen supplied Drogba, who cleverly played in Lampard to shoot in low from 12 yards.
Bolton’s hopes of repeating last season’s comeback, from 0-2 to 2-2, were fatally undermined after 57 minutes when Gardner misjudged a through ball from Claude Makelele and, with Joe Cole threatening, the defender was panicked into handling on the 18-yard line.
Gardner was sent off and from the consequent free kick Lampard drilled in his second. Chelsea’s fourth soon followed. Lampard sent a corner low to the near post where Drogba arrived to volley in his fifth goal of the season.
Four goals in 10 minutes. Even by the standards Chelsea are setting, it was some comeback, but they were not finished. Gudjohnsen broke away in pursuit of Makelele’s long pass and finished with characteristic aplomb, left to right. Who can stop the Londoners now?
STAR MAN: Frank Lampard (Chelsea) Player ratings. Chelsea: Cech 7, Gallas 7, Carvalho 7, Terry 6, Del Horno 6 (Gudjohnsen h-t, 7), Makelele 7, J Cole 7 (Ferreira 59min, 6), Lampard 8, Essien 6, Wright-Phillips 7 (C Cole 74min, 6), Drogba 7
Bolton: Jaaskelainen 6, Faye 6, Ben Haim 5, N’Gotty 5, Jaidi 5, Giannakopoulos 7, Speed 7 (Nakata h-t, 5), Nolan 5, Diouf 5, Davies 5 (Fernandes 75min, 5), Pedersen 4 (Gardner 42min, 5)
Scorers: Chelsea: Drogba 52 61, Lampard 55 59, Gudjohnsen 74
Bolton: Giannakopoulos 4
Referee: R Styles
Attendance: 41,775
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Observer :
Mourinho's gamble pays off gloriously
Will Buckley at Stamford BridgeSunday October 16, 2005The Observer
Before the match Sam Allardyce, perhaps jokingly, had hinted that Jose Mourinho had copied his 4-5-1 system from Bolton. Whether true or not, while both sides were playing that formation it was Bolton who had the edge over their supposed imitators. But it is the genius of Mourinho and his team that they are so mutable. Finding themselves behind, they went all in with 3-3-4 and ended up with a royal flush. It was a second-half performance of extraordinary power and elan. They have now played nine, won nine, and if this level is maintained all records are within their reach.Big Sam having noted that Claude Makelele enjoyed approaching a hundred 'possessions' in a match deputed Kevin Nolan to man-mark him. It didn't appear to be a conspicuous success when as early as the second minute it was Makelele who produced the pass which set up a half-chance for Didier Drogba.
Bolton's response was immediate. El-Hadji Diouf received the ball from a throw, turned William Gallas and crossed for an unmarked Stelios Giannakopoulos to pass the ball past Petr Cech from close range.
It had been one day shy of a year since Chelsea had last lost in the Premiership and then it had been by a solitary goal, away at Manchester City.
A man who had been on the winning side that day led the fightback as a cross from Shaun Wright-Phillips was headed wide by Aiser del Horno. On the quarter-hour mark Cech appeared a bit flappy, palming a ball needlessly away for a corner. At the other end, a shot from outside the area by Joe Cole, similar to the one that opened the scoring against Poland, failed to find a deflection and was saved by Jussi Jaaskelainen.
John Terry looked uncharacteristically hesitant and a missed header from him almost allowed Giannakopoulos a chance to double the lead. His England team-mate Frank Lampard was equally out of sorts. The Chelsea machine, which was expected to cruise through the season, was stuttering. Unable to find any space in which to pick up speed. And when they did they were flagged, as Drogba was rightly deemed to be offside after he converted a Wright-Phillips cross.
Bolton continued to impress as a Gary Speed half-volley from the corner of the area rattled against the apex of bar and post. The 10-1 against shots before play started were looking favourites.
For Chelsea, Wright-Phillips so consistently bamboozled Henrik Pedersen that the Bolton man was replaced by Ricardo Gardner before half-time. It was a wise call, Gardner within a minute doing something Pedersen had conspicuously failed to do when he tackled the smallest man on the pitch. Mourinho disappeared down the tunnel to work on his half-time speech.
After which he decided to risk all on a 3-3-4 system, with Eidur Gudjohnsen coming on for Del Horno. Inevitably, it worked. Radhi Jaidi conceded a free-kick, Gudjohnsen rolled it to Lampard, his shot was parried by Jaaskelainen and Drogba buried the rebound. Mourinho gave a calm and composed punch of the air.
A minute later Drogba nearly bundled his way through. Mourinho, manager turned conductor, used his arms to encourage the crowd to greater efforts. Drogba broke through again, back-heeled the ball and Lampard swept in the chance. It had been a scintillating passage of play spearheaded by a resurgent Drogba.
Four minutes later, Gardner misjudged a bounce on the edge of the area, flailed at the ball with his hand and was sent off. Lampard scored from the free-kick. Having scored three goals in eight minutes, Mourinho replaced Joe Cole with Paulo Ferreira and reverted to 4-4-2. He would have done it after the second goal, but the third came too quickly.
It had been an object lesson in how to gamble. Make your play, take the money, shut up shop. Or not. Two minutes later Wright-Phillips won a corner, it was whipped in and Drogba scored at the near post. Four goals in 10 minutes. It was a Bon Accord pace. If they kept it up for a whole match they would win 36-0. And Bolton hadn't really done much wrong. They were simply overwhelmed by a team who, with the guile of Gudjohnsen being added to the strength of Drogba, were unstoppable. Bolton had appeared to be an immovable object, but they were no match for this unstoppable force.
Gudjohnsen, without breaking into a trot, created a chance for Gallas. And then, with equal calm, drifted through on the left and lifted the ball over Jaaskelainen. 5-1 up, Chelsea brought on another striker, Carlton Cole.
Chelsea might have had half-a-dozen if Gudjohnsen had not strayed offside before putting the ball in the net.
Man of the match: Didier Drogba - playing with a strength and pace that makes Chelsea unstoppable.
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Telegraph:
Bolton blown away by record-chasing BluesBy Roy Collins at Stamford Bridge (Filed: 16/10/2005)
Chelsea (0) 5 Bolton (1) 1
He continually bangs on about his brilliance as a manager, insisting only recently that he would be the ideal man to restore the fortunes of Real Madrid before taking over as manager of England and winning the World Cup.
Despite his lack of modesty, Bolton's Sam Allardyce was on course, at least for 50 minutes, to make himself the most popular manager in the Premiership by interrupting what threatens to be a season-long victory march by Chelsea and their manager Jose Mourinho, who does not even need to ask the mirror who is the fairest of them all.
In the end, Bolton's early lead and their challenge to a Chelsea team who last lost a year ago today turned out to be just a trick of the light, a mirage created by the heat haze that covered the Stamford Bridge pitch on an afternoon that started in brilliant sunshine. After it disappeared, Bolton were dazzled not so much by the brilliance of Chelsea's football but by the thought of what they were about to accomplish.
After sloppily conceding an equaliser when Jussi Jaaskelainen knocked out a Frank Lampard free-kick and Didier Drogba beat everyone to the rebound to drive home, they simply fell apart.
Chelsea, on the other hand, were like a dog that had just been thrown a bone with Drogba again turning into a second half rottweiler, just as he had at Anfield during another high-scoring romp. He neatly laid off a ball for Lampard to score the second and thumped the fourth from Lampard's corner.
Between those goals, any hopes of a Bolton revival were ended by the sending off of substitute Ricardo Gardner for a blatant handball on the edge of his box, Lampard sinking the free-kick with a kiss off the wall. Although Gardner could have no complaints, Bolton would have been aggrieved that Chelsea's Michael Essien was allowed to stay on after a violent first-half challenge.
If Chelsea are hard to break down, they are almost impossible to stop once they are in front, Eidur Gudjohnsen effortlessly curling the fifth past Jaaskelainen after Claude Makelele rolled the ball into his path. That was the cherry on a ninth successive victory, leaving Chelsea only two short of the record start of 11 wins by the Tottenham Double-winning side of 1960-61.
Allardyce had said that you can often feel 1-0 down before you kick off against teams like Chelsea, so he would have been delighted that his side managed to get their equaliser in first, scoring the first goal of the match before it was four minutes old.
El-Hadji Diouf, normally a controversy waiting to happen, found a pass that neatly dissected Aiser Del Horno and John Terry with Stelios Giannakopolous waiting to apply the scalpel in the middle.
Big Sam was so excited that he came straight down from the directors' box, forgetting to take off his taxi controller's earpiece and comically using it to communicate with assistant Sammy Lee, who was standing two feet behind him. In his confusion, he also kept waving his troops forward in search of a second. Surely some mistake.
Chelsea goalkeeper Petr Cech, beaten only once before at Stamford Bridge this season, must have expected to spend the afternoon sunning himself. But for once, Terry and his team-mates looked as wobbly as every other Premiership defence and Cech was beaten by a Stelios effort that thumped into the angle of post and crossbar.
Mourinho maintained an air of calm as he observed by the side of the pitch, perhaps encouraged by the manner in which England's Shaun Wright-Phillips was destroying makeshift left-back Henrik Pedersen. Allardyce stood for it for 42 minutes before replacing the tormented Pedersen with Ricardo Gardner.
Mourinho, who warned his players before the match that he would drop anyone who allowed their minds to wander towards next summer's World Cup, contained himself until half-time when he yanked off Del Horno for Gudjohnsen.
His tinkering would have been made far more complicated, however, if Essien had been rightly sent off just before the interval for an absolutely shocking challenge on Tal Ben Haim. But referee Rob Styles decided it was worth only a yellow card.
Although Chelsea won the title at the Reebok last season, Bolton, who came back from 2-0 down to force a draw at the Bridge, are regarded as a bogey team. Let us face it, Bolton, the punk rockers of the Premiership who continually spit at the Establishment, sometimes literally so in Diouf's case, are everyone's bogey side.
Their biting tackles and all-action style in the first half looked as though it might earn them another point or even all three. But all the big ambitions of their manager disappeared as soon as Chelsea drew level and when the home fans burst into a late chant of "Stand up for the Special One", Allardyce stayed firmly in his seat.
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Independent:
Chelsea 5 Bolton Wanderers 1
Take five as Chelsea hit the right notes
By Steve Tongue at Stamford Bridge
Boring, boring Chelsea? Nine goals in the last two games and 23 from nine straight wins suggest not, although there was a strange tale to be told in west London yesterday, when Bolton Wanderers were ahead from the fourth minute until the 52nd before collapsing as Jose Mourinho made a decisive attacking substitution. Sending on Eidur Gudjohnsen for his left-back, Asier Del Horno, at half-time, he was rewarded with such a rush of goals that the game was over by the hour. So no famous comeback this time for Bolton, their chaotic defending further exposed by the red card shown to Ricardo Gardner a quarter of an hour after he came on.
Last beaten by Manchester City exactly a year ago, the champions have now completed the equivalent of a Premiership season - 38 games - without defeat. It is too early to talk about the possibility of matching Arsenal's unbeaten campaign of two years ago, but Tottenham's record of 11 straight wins from the off in 1960 would be equalled with victories over Everton and Blackburn in the next fortnight.
Like the Spurs Double team, they are a class above the rest, a fact acknowledged by Bolton's Sam Allardyce, whose team had achieved a 2-2 draw here last autumn. "To get a result here you need a slice of luck," he said. "If you score first, you might have a chance, but in the last five minutes, not the first. They're a great team with a great manager, but they're still human."
Allardyce, torn between playing up to the stereotype of Big Fat Sam the long-ball man, or acknowledging something more sophisticated, had looked forward to the challenge of mixing it with Mourinho again. He was even bold enough to reveal before the game that a key to playing Chelsea was to clamp down on Claude Makelele, whom he had once recorded having possession 98 times in a match.
Kevin Nolan or Gary Speed were upon the Frenchman as soon as he received the ball, which went some way to explaining why Chelsea initially struggled in the sunshine. Keeping Stelios Giannakopoulos and El Hadji Diouf out wide to pump crosses in worked equally well in the first half and brought a goal within four minutes. Henrik Pedersen, a fish out of water at left-back, made his one positive contribution by feeding Diouf, who clipped a clever low ball between John Terry and Del Horno. The Spaniard appeared to slip, allowing Giannakopoulos to collect the ball six yards out and guide it calmly past Petr Cech. It might have been worse by half-time, the ageless Speed hitting a fizzing drive from way out that beat Cech and struck the frame of the goal.
Didier Drogba was rightly given offside after tapping in a cross by Shaun Wright-Phillips and the subdued home crowd's displeasure was reflected at the interval when the 71-year-old former England winger Frank Blunstone, a star of the 1955 championship side, was introduced to them. "Bring him on" was the chant. Instead, Mourinho turned to Gudjohnsen, taking Del Horno off, briefly settling for three men at the back and reaping a dramatic reward. Six minutes after the resumption, Michael Essien was fouled by Rahdi Jaidi, and when Jussi Jaaskelainen could only parry Frank Lampard's fierce free-kick, Drogba reacted fastest and knocked in the rebound.
Drogba was suddenly on fire and Bolton felt the heat again two minutes later. As Gudjohnsen laid off Makelele's pass to him, the Ivorian found Lampard well placed to strike his seventh goal of the season. Three more minutes and the visitors committed suicide. Gardner, brought on for the hapless Pedersen before half-time, jumped like a basketball player to handle, preventing Wright-Phillips from stealing in behind him, and was rightly dismissed. Worse, from the free-kick, there was a huge gap on the left of the defensive wall, which Lampard exploited to curl his shot into the half of the goal not covered by a perplexed Jaaskelainen.
Next it was Drogba again, meeting Lampard's corner with a half-volley for the fourth goal in nine minutes. It was a full 13 minutes more before Gudjohnsen, sent clear by Makelele, scored the fifth, and Bolton kept it to that. The crowd, meanwhile, had changed their tune to: "Stand up for the Special One." For once, the great man looked almost embarrassed. "I did my work, but you win matches on the pitch," he said later.
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