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The Sunday TimesOctober 28, 2007
Sven-Goran Eriksson’s latest six scandal
Chelsea 6 Man City 0
Joe Lovejoy, Stamford Bridge
The king is dead, long live the king. Chelsea’s fifth win in a row, by a crushing margin, was the most convincing proof yet that there is life after Jose Mourinho. Not just life but fun, as his successor Avram Grant demands. Didier Drogba’s two goals underline the fact that normal service has been resumed at Stamford Bridge. There has been speculation that English football’s most potent centre-forward would like to follow his erstwhile mentor out of the door marked exit, but there was no sign of that here, Drogba scoring two goals and terrorising the City defence with a towering performance that left England’s Micah Richards abject in embarrassment.
In what was Chelsea’s biggest win for 10 years, since they defeated Barnsley 6-0 in the Yorkshire club’s first match in the top division, the others to fill their boots were Michael Essien, Salomon Kalou, Joe Cole and Andriy Shevchenko. With a more accurate final pass, chiefly from Kalou, the margin could have reached double figures.
Roman Abramovich’s decision to jettison Mourinho in search of a more adventurous style of play was much criticised by the fans at the time, but none were complaining last night after a compelling, cohesive victory which had a pleasing passing game at its core.
Frank Lampard, back to his best, was the man of the match, wielding the conductor’s baton to decisive effect in midfield. City arrived full of hope after a promising start to the season but left with tails lodged firmly between their legs, nursing the most comprehensive defeat of Sven-Göran Eriksson’s long managerial career. “I have never lost 6-0 before,” the former England coach said.
“The worst result until this was when I was at Gothenburg, many years ago, and we were beaten 5-1 by Arsenal in the old Cup Winners’ Cup.” Eriksson bemoaned the fact that five of the six goals came in the inside-right channel, with the scorer one-on-one with the goalkeeper. “Our defending was awful,” he said.
For Chelsea, in contrast, this was about as good as it gets. What had Grant, the self-styled “Ordinary One”, done to bring about such an improvement? “In training we are concentrating on attacking football,” he said. “People come here to have fun, and it is important not just to win games – just as important is the way we win. We can’t do it in every game, but in modern football people come to have a good time and enjoy the spectacle.” Music, no doubt, to Abramovich’s ears.
City began well enough, but their confidence was punctured in the 16th minute when a cohesive passing move by Chelsea culminated in Lampard playing in Essien, who evaded Richards and scored with a firm, low shot from the right that arrowed across Hart, beating the keeper’s reaching right hand before nestling in the corner of the net. It was a well taken goal from one of the Premier League’s best midfielders, and it could have been 2-0 little more than a minute later when Drogba went past Richard Dunne before delivering a left-wing cross which merited a better finish than Kalou’s inaccurate glancing header that flew wide of the far post.
City threatened with a 25-yard free kick from Martin Petrov which had Peter Cech flying high to his right, but it was Chelsea who were in charge and after 31 minutes they were rewarded again when Lampard’s clever, bending pass from the left took out Richards in the middle, leaving Drogba with space in which to score with a natural finisher’s aplomb, again from right to left.
Lampard took special pleasure in his contribution, having just had an exchange of unpleasantries with Richards, sparked when the City defender accused his England teammate of diving in the penalty area. The exchange resulted in both players being shown yellow cards by referee Mike Riley.
The third goal, which effectively removed City from contention but was only the start of their embarrassment, arrived 10 minutes after half-time, when Lampard seemed certain to score, only for Hart to get his right boot to the ball. Unfortunately for the goalkeeper, it fell obligingly for Drogba, who evaded Dunne before thumping in his second at a velocity that brooked no argument.
Drogba should have had his hat-trick before Cole made it four on the hour. An overhead kick by Alex found its way via Drogba’s head to the England midfielder, who ran on with pace and purpose in the inside-right channel before driving low into Hart’s left-hand corner from the 18-yard line.
Still Chelsea weren’t finished and went in search of more. The fifth saw Essien’s through pass into the same area enable Kalou to shoot home from closer in, and the sixth, in the last minute, came when Shevchenko, on as a substitute for Joe Cole, drilled home a pass from Essien. Grant loved it, even managing to crack a rare smile. “I enjoyed the way we played,” he said.
Would the fans ever chant his name, as they had Mourinho’s? “I don’t know about that – you try singing my name.” Altogether now: “One Avram Grant . . . ”
Star man: Frank Lampard (Chelsea)
Player ratings:
Chelsea: Cech 6, Belletti 7, Carvalho 6, Alex 6, Ferreira 7, J Cole 7 (Shevchenko 67min), Essien 7, Lampard 9, Mikel 6, Kalou 5, Drogba 7 (Pizarro 76min)
Manchester City: Hart 5, Corluka 5, Dunne 5, Richards 4, Garrido 4, Ireland 5 (Vassell 63min), Hamann 5 (Ball 66min), Johnson 5, Petrov 5, Elano 6 (Bianchi 73min), Samaras 4 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Telegraph:
Rampant Chelsea condemn Manchester City
By Roy Collins
Chelsea (2) 6 Manchester City (0) 0
The Special One? Who needs him when Chelsea have Avram 'The Alchemist' Grant, who erected a Big Top in SW6 before encouraging his entertainers to fill it with more goals than in any match during Jose Mourinho's reign as manager, gaining the added reward of inflicting the highest professional defeat on humiliated City manager Sven-Goran Eriksson.
What a contrast to Grant's only other Premier League home game, a goalless draw with neighbours Fulham, when supporters grieving for Mourinho turned this place into the Bridge of sighs.
Yesterday, it was overflowing with goals, which prompted delighted home supporters to chant, "Boring, boring Chelsea". After the sacking of Mourinho, owner Roman Abramovich demanded enter-tainment.
And what Roman wants, Roman gets, without Grant even needing to send in the clowns. Why, he even teased a first Premier League goal of the season from Andrei Shevchenko, who hardly got a look in under Mourinho.
Eriksson, after changing most of his team at the interval when manager of England, was famous for summing up lopsided games by saying: "First half good, second half not so good." Here, it was a case of first half pretty average, second half bloody awful.
This was another spoonful of reality for high-flying City; no, make that a ladle, and an even bigger one than they got in their first visit to London this season when beaten 1-0 at Arsenal. There really is no place like home for City, who have won all six league matches at Eastlands but have now lost three times on their travels, or should that be travails?
Chelsea fans still seem reluctant to acknowledge Grant, which he weakly explained was because "it's not easy to sing my name".
The fans went through the rest of their repertoire, however, as Abramovich's trademark half-smile became almost a belly laugh high up in the West Stand.
John Terry, Chelsea's injured skipper, also looked pretty happy as he and his wife cradled their twins in the stand, while it was child's play for his team-mates on the pitch once Michael Essien had scored the opening goal from Frank Lampard's dissecting pass.
It was remarkable not to see Lampard's name on the scoresheet after a result like this but he was still man of the match, running the show from central midfield and clocking up two more assists, his diagonal through-ball to set up Didier Drogba the most exquisite of all.
All afternoon, City, who have earned praise for their attacking football, found Chelsea players running through huge gaps to run at their young goalkeeper, Joe Hart, much to Eriksson's disgust. He said: "We completely failed to defend today. If you do that against Chelsea, they will kill you. And they killed us.
"For five of the six goals, it was a Chelsea player alone against our goalkeeper and that is not good enough for the Premiership. Hopefully, it is a one-off. I am very disappointed but we will start working on it tomorrow morning."
Eriksson's previous worst managerial defeat was a 5-1 thrashing by Arsenal in the European Cup-Winners' Cup when in charge of IFK Gothenburg in 1980.
Chelsea had not hit anyone for six in the league since thrashing Coventry in 2000. But supporters sensed something special when Lampard's shot rebounded off Hart's right foot early in the second half and Drogba, the arch predator, sucked up the rebound and thumped it into the net.
Joe Cole was next up as the City defence waved another one through after Drogba had flicked on an overhead clearance from the mighty Alex. Then Essien, a powerful presence in midfield, sent Salomon Kalou galloping through to squeeze a shot through Hart's legs.
There was still one precious moment to come for the Chelsea faithful.
Shevchenko, who almost melted Abramovich's smile by losing the ball a couple of times in promising positions, finally made a telling run to pick up another Essien pass down the right to end another one-on-one with Hart in Chelsea's favour. "He is a great player with a great attitude," cooed Grant.
For Chelsea, who almost came unstuck in the final minutes of that Fulham game, it was normal service restored at the Bridge, where they are now unbeaten in 68 games. This was also a fifth successive win for Grant, steering Chelsea on to the heels of the Premier League leaders.
Despite the injuries to Terry and Ashley Cole, Grant still found no room in his squad for Shaun Wright-Phillips as he shapes the team in his own image.
Most notably, instead of the twinkling feet of Claude Makelele in front of the back four, there is now the imposing presence of John Obi Mikel, whose control in that department allows Lampard the freedom to roam and destroy. Shock and awe you might call it.
Mourinho, who never believed in scoring more goals than necessary to win a game, will wrinkle his nose when he hears this result, no doubt dismissing it as a hockey score. Eriksson, however, is the one facing the stick, a position he is not unfamiliar with after his time with England. Grant said it was important to win with style which proved that, unlike his predecessor, he was listening to His Master's Voice. Much more of this and he will surely soon be honoured with a song of his own.
Man of the matchFrank Lampard (Chelsea)• Set up two goals • Completed 87 per cent of passes--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sven hit for six by new-look Chelsea
Duncan Castles at Stamford BridgeSunday October 28, 2007The Observer
The slumped shoulders and hangdog scowl of one first-half camera shot might not have suggested it, but Roman Abramovich received his first shot of the free-flowing entertainment he is demanding from his 'new way' Chelsea.This was an exhilarating encounter: Chelsea powerful, coherent and swift in their attacking; Manchester City precise on the counter and real contenders for 45 minutes. If both defences were ragged and rarely capable of shutting opponents down, it only added to the enjoyment of a game that matched Avram Grant against form opposition for the first time since usurping Jose Mourinho last month.
That the Israeli triumphed so impressively could be attributed to the efforts of two of his predecessor's staunchest allies. Frank Lampard and Didier Drogba were immense again, the midfielder central to the first three of Chelsea's goals, the forward driving home numbers two and three. While some wondered whether the betrayal of Mourinho would have come so early in the season had this pair been fit from the start of it, this was undoubtedly a day for Abramovich and Grant to savour.'I smiled,' said Grant. 'I enjoyed it for the winning and the way of the winning. I enjoyed that we are in the middle of a process and we continue to do it step-by-step. Maybe today it was two steps.
'We have concentrated on attacking football, on how to move right, on how to behave right, how to get the best from the players and how to make them better. That's what we want from them, but I think it's more important that they ask it from themselves.'
Sven-Goran Eriksson enjoyed not a minute of it. 'I'm very disappointed,' said the City manager. 'It's the first time in my life that I lose 6-0 and I'm sure it's the first time for most of my players. I was very kind to Avram today. I didn't want to be that kind. I'm sure he will do well, but we made him and Chelsea better than they should be today; we were awful defending. It is a wake-up call for all of us.'
Henk ten Cate had spent much of his first week of hands-on training delivering a wake-up call of his own to the Chelsea squad. The £40,000-a-week 'assistant first-team coach' began riling them on Monday when he halted his first full session to chastise some for laughing. Matters worsened on Thursday when the Dutchman put the team through a full programme of sprinting, box-to-box running and a 10-versus-10 half-pitch game the morning after their Champions League victory over Schalke. This is a radical departure from Mourinho's calibrated regime, in which players engaged only in light sessions post-match.
How much smoother the regime change at City, where Eriksson has turned over half his playing staff, established an economical counterattacking style and guided the club to long-forgotten heights. His men started the stronger here, filtering the ball to Elano at every opportunity. Like much of the Premier League before him, John Obi Mikel struggled with the quick-witted Brazilian, hacking him down twice in early breaks. One of the playmaker's deft chips put Stephen Ireland free on goal where a too-delicate header was parried away; a thunderous 35-yard free-kick was wonderfully clawed out of the top corner by Petr Cech.
Between those opportunities, though, possession and pressure was mostly Chelsea's, their power regularly taking them to the edge of Hart's penalty area. After 16 minutes, Mikel combined with Lampard to release Michael Essien, who strode onwards, collected himself and dragged the ball low across Hart and in. A similar sally into the space between Micah Richards and Javier Garrido all but allowed Drogba to add a second. It was only a postponement.
Richards ill-advisedly wound up Lampard in a tangle for possession and, after both had been booked, Chelsea's captain extracted beautiful revenge. Collecting possession from Salomon Kalou 40 yards out and with his back to goal, the midfielder turned and spun a pass of forensic precision behind the City defence. Unlike his opponents, Drogba saw it coming and cantered on to strike through Hart's legs.
The game was now stretched and Kalou almost extended Chelsea's advantage. At the other end, Ireland was a foot away from reducing it when teed up by Garrido and Michael Johnson's quick interplay.
It was only an interlude. As Thaksin Shinawatra, the City owner, took his turn at looking glum, Drogba and Kalou worked Lampard into a shooting position and though Hart parried that effort away, the ball fell to Drogba to carry back across the area and wallop past the City goalkeeper in the 56th minute.
Unused to such deficits, the visitors continued to push forward, leaving larger and larger gaps for their opponents to exploit. After an hour, Drogba nodded Joe Cole into a particularly broad one and the right-winger ramped up the volume again. Kalou took the total to five from one fine Essien pass, Andriy Shevchenko made it six with another.
'Boring, boring Chelsea,' sang a contented home support still not ready to put Grant's name into voice. A few more of these and they just might.
Man of the match: Frank Lampard (Chelsea)---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Mail:
Abramovich gets fantasy football at last
Chelsea 6 Manchester City 0
By IAN RIDLEY
To adapt Sven Goran Eriksson's way of describing matches when he was England's head coach: first half not so good, second half even worse. Shambolic, in fact.
The Manchester City manager suffered a humiliating defeat at the hands of the club who sought to hire him before Jose Mourinho as his side's impressive start to the season, which has taken them into the top three, came to a shuddering halt.
So poor were City, so porous their defence, that there was even a late goal for substitute Andriy Shevchenko as part of a rampant Chelsea performance of the sort that owner Roman Abramovich — seen smiling up in his eyrie and later crossing the pitch to show his approval in the dressing room — has been craving.
It has been coming — both a productive Chelsea performance and a heavy City defeat. The London club have so many attacking players of quality — as shown by Didier Drogba scoring twice,Michael Essien, Joe Cole, Salomon Kalou and Shevchenko once each — that it was inevitable.
And City remain a work in progress,a mixture of some quality players such as Elano and Martin Petrov but also some distinctly ordinary. Eriksson, who allowed himself to be outflanked both in selection and formation yesterday, will need to invest in the January transfer window if their good start to the season, which saw them arrive on the back of three consecutive wins, is not to be wasted.
"For five of the six goals the goalkeeper was left alone and that is not good enough for the Premier League," said Eriksson. "If you give Lampard and Cole all that space they will kill you and today they killed us."
And he should know, having picked them often enough for England.
"We failed completely to defend, not just the back four and goalkeeper.You have to defend with 11. For sure it's a wake-up call for all of us."
The first time this season City came to London they appeared somewhat overawed against Arsenal. This time they at least emerged with more ambition and almost snatched an early lead.
The buzzing Brazilian Elano clipped in a ball from the left that brushed the chest of Stephen Ireland and was heading for the Chelsea net until Petr Cech stretched to tip the ball wide. It was to be a false dawn and soon the Chelsea account was opened.
A splendid move it was, too. Cole played the ball infield to John Obi Mikel who quickly found Frank Lampard for a threaded pass into the path of Essien. As Micah Richards backed away, Essien drove home crisply.
Now Chelsea assumed a comfortable control. Dietmar Hamann and Michael Johnson were overwhelmed in central midfield, with Lampard, Essien and Mikel swarming all over and around them as new manager Avram Grant went to the old Mourinho formation that has Drogba leading the line with two other attacking players wide.
Proceedings were interrupted by a spat between England colleagues Richards and Lampard when the teenage defender fouled the midfielder and then took exception to his reaction on the floor in holding his foot. Both, with Lampard flabbergasted, received yellow cards.
He soon had his revenge. From the halfway line, Lampard picked out the run of Drogba and played a perfect ball inside Richards and into the Ivorean's path. The finish was a sharp low shot dispatched past the hapless Joe Hart.
City needed to get back in the game and quickly. The chance came after Javier Garrido ran at the Chelsea defence and the ball came to Ireland.
On the edge of the area, he took careful aim but side-footed his shot wide of Cech's right post.
It proved expensive. Early in the second half Kalou slipped a ball through another gaping hole to Lampard, and after Hart had saved his shot, Drogba pounced on the rebound and lashed home his sixth goal of the season. Within five minutes, there was a fourth. Drogba was first to Alex's clearance and flicked the ball between Richards and Garrido where Cole stole in to score. The fifth came when Essien again saw Garrido isolated and found Kalou, who cut inside before shooting home through Hart's legs.
Shevchenko's sixth was almost a copy. "It is not easy for a great player to be on the bench," said Grant. "But it was a fantastic goal from a fantastic move."
"Boring, boring Chelsea," sang the Bridge. With Drogba replaced by another lanky striker, it was even suggested Chelsea were taking the Pizarro
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Chelsea 6 Manchester City 0: Drogba stars as Chelsea hit Eriksson for six of the best
Lampard provides inspiration and puts City to the sword as Grant shows Mourinho how to attack
By Steve Tongue at Stamford Bridge
For all Sven Goran Eriksson's faults, real and imagined, his teams, like Jose Mourinho's, rarely suffer a drubbing. Denmark's 4-1 success in a friendly was England's worst result statistically, a margin passed by Chelsea yesterday with less than an hour played, and the final score constituted Eriksson's heaviest defeat in management, outdoing a 5-1 loss at Arsenal with IFK Gothenburg almost 30 years ago.
The performance, as much as the scoreline, confirmed that Manchester City's third place in the table was a false one, built on the back of a string of narrow home victories. On their travels, the defence has been much less reliable and yesterday proved a liability, five of the goals stemming from passes into the same area between left-back and the centre of defence that left the goalkeeper, Joe Hart, with a blue shirt bearing down on him.
A lot of water has flowed under Stamford Bridge since Eriksson took tea with owner Roman Abramovich in the summer of 2003 to discuss becoming manager of Chelsea. JoseMourinho was given the job and the rest is history; or was until Avram Grant took over eight matches ago. Six of them have been won, the last five in a row, and for the home team's supporters it was all glorious fun yesterday as the little-regarded Israeli lived up to his promise to produce a brighter style of football.
Mourinho's inclination was always to shut up shop after achieving a two-goal lead; his side only once scored as many as five in the Premier League. New Chelsea simply kept on going as City collapsed in a heap.
Outnumbered in midfield, they were overrun by Grant's central triumvirate of John Obi Mikel, Michael Essien and Frank Lampard, the latter pair regularly taking out Micah Richards and Javier Garrido with diagonal passes that better covering might have smothered.
"We were awful," Eriksson admitted. "We failed completely to defend, not just the back-four but all 11. We have played some good football but there was maybe too much talk about it. It's a wake-up call for sure."
Although latecomers handicapped by the engineering works on the District Line may not have missed much yesterday, there was no stopping Chelsea once the midfield trio combined in the 16th minute to make and score the opening goal.
Mikel fed Lampard for a fine, incisive pass that found Essien in the inside-right channel, able to shoot across Hart low into the far corner of the net. Richards, a right-back for England but a centre-half in City colours, might have been closer to the scorer on that occasion and certainly should have been for the second goal.
This time Lampard collected possession close to the halfway line and ran on before playing another immaculate pass into the same area as before, where Richards failed to prevent Didier Drogba putting his shot away.
City threatened only twice to score their first goal at Stamford Bridge for many moons: a fierce free-kick by Martin Petrov and a bad miss by Stephen Ireland, who shot wide from 15 yards.
Two more goals early in the second half then put the game even further beyond them. Salomon Kalou, preferred to Florent Malouda or Shaun Wright-Phillips, set up Lampard, and although Hart's foot saved, Drogba was on hand to score.
There was another Hart save from the inspired Lampard, Drogba skewing the rebound across goal, before Garrido simply stopped and allowed Joe Cole to run on to Drogba's headed flick for four-nil. Garrido was hopelessly caught out again in the 75th minute as Essien played another pass into the inviting gap between Richards and the left-back, Kalou running on to it to drive in a fifth goal.
Astonishingly, the sixth came from precisely the same place, Andriy Shevchenko, on as a substitute, taking Essien's pass to provide the goal the crowd had chanted for from him. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------