sunday papers wigan away

Telegraph:
Business as usual for Chelsea at Wigan By Duncan White
Wigan (0) 0 Chelsea (2) 2
Chelsea find themselves increasingly alienated from the hype of the Premier League's gravitational centre and on a weekend when Arsenal and Manchester United were celebrating the resurrection of their ascendancy in locked combat, Avram Grant's side were exiled to the division's least glamorous outpost.
Yet while attention was focused on events at the Emirates Stadium, Chelsea went about their ruthless business in Lancashire, dispatching an inferior Wigan team without flinching, the game redundant as a contest after early goals from an in-form Frank Lampard and full-back Juliano Belletti. It was their seventh-straight win and took them third, just three points behind the joint leaders.
"Our eyes are only on our own team," said Grant. "We have won again and played well, especially in the first half. For us it is important what we are doing, not what others are doing." That inward focus is largely directed at controlling the garrulous Didier Drogba. Last month he was quoted in a French magazine expressing a desire to quit after Jose Mourinho left the club and yesterday details emerged of further controversial comments from the Ivorian.
A DVD charting Drogba's career has been released in France, in which he talks of his "disgust" on signing for Chelsea in 2004 and of how he had hoped he would fail the medical to spare him the transfer. While it transpires that these statements may be several years old, and that his feelings were largely about the wrench of leaving Marseille, it has further frustrated Grant, who naturally would prefer attention directed on to the success he is coaxing out of this squad.
Squad is the right word: Grant is not quite Rafael Benitez in the rotation stakes, but he is working a system that shuffles his attacking players. In came Florent Malouda and Shaun Wright-Phillips and out went Salomon Kalou and Joe Cole. The change reaped immediate dividend. Wright-Phillips was outstanding, giving evidence that he has not lost the form that has earned him a place in the England XI. Further good news for Steve McClaren – who doubtless needs it – was Wayne Bridge's first Premier League start since May. These changes were far from disruptive and Chelsea were swiftly into their rhythm.
It took just 11 minutes for them to pry Wigan apart. Wright-Phillips, who tortured Kevin Kilbane all afternoon, scooted past the Wigan left-back on the inside, picking up Drogba's lay-off and curling a pass across the penalty area and into the stride of Lampard. The England midfielder made simple work of the finish.
advertisementSeven minutes later Chelsea doubled the lead and Wigan were in danger of submitting completely, haunted by the six-goal collapse of Manchester City the previous weekend. Wright-Phillips kept what had looked a lost ball in play with an acrobatic back-heel midway in his own half and Belletti collected. The Brazilian right-back strode 50 yards into the Wigan half, skipped past Denny Landzaat and, with the Wigan defence backing off, hit a forceful shot from 25 yards that blurred past Chris Kirkland in the Wigan goal.
The second half was not the polarised affair of the first as Wigan rallied admirably and began to compete. Marcus Bent was barged, albeit fairly, by Ricardo Carvalho on the very edge of the box as he closed on goal early in the half, while in the game's closing stages Antione Sibierski, on as a substitute, brought out a decent save from Petr Cech.
Still, this was Wigan's sixth straight defeat, casting them into the relegation zone, and with trips to Tottenham and Arsenal to come this month, the future does not hold much optimism. Wigan supporters will have to cling to the hope that Emile Heskey, two weeks away from fitness after breaking a metatarsal, rejuvenates a side on the slide.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------The Sunday TimesNovember 4, 2007
Chelsea crush sad WiganWigan 0 Chelsea 2Richard Rae at JJB stadium
While the scoreline might suggest something of the efficiency of the Jose Mourinho era, this was a Chelsea performance very much in keeping with the more open – and from a neutral point of view, unquestionably more entertaining – style of football that Avram Grant is encouraging. True, they didn’t finish as well as they have in recent games, and perhaps they were guilty of easing off towards the end of a game that they controlled throughout, but with Shaun Wright-Phillips involved in most of their best work, there was a bounce and flair about them which has become pleasantly familiar in recent weeks.
To suggest there was an air of fatalism hanging over the ground before kick-off does little justice to the almost funereal murmur in the stadium concourses beforehand, other than that behind the away end, of course. Wigan stayed up last season largely by dint of beating the teams around them, for that they deserve full credit, but when your record against the Big Four reads played 18, lost 18, their supporters could hardly be blamed for turning up expecting the worst.
Wigan’s recent performances against Chelsea, which included two unfortunate defeats to last-minute goals, should have given them a modicum of hope, which would have been born out by an opening 10 minutes in which they took the game to their opponents, and might have had a reward when Juliano Belletti appeared to hold Marcus Bent as the centre-forward moved into position to meet a cross. Referee Steve Bennett waved away the penalty appeal.
A minute or so later, Chelsea went ahead with a goal of ominous simplicity. It was made by Wright-Phillips, or, more precisely, by his pace and acuity. Selected instead of Joe Cole on the right, the England forward picked up the ball, saw Kevin Kilbane and Denny Landzaat were going to sell themselves, slipped it between them, ran on and hit a low, curling pass into the path of Frank Lampard, whom Wigan had completely failed to pick up.
Running from deep isn’t something Lampard does very often, after all. He beat Chris Kirkland with ease for his seventh goal of the season, and fourth in the Premier League.
The reaction of the Wigan players – you could almost see the belief draining out of them – suggested that might already effectively be game over; seven minutes later there was no doubt about it. Belletti, in possession well inside his own half, side-footed a pass to Wright-Phillips that Kilbane thought was going out only for Wright-Phillips to acrobatically flick the ball back into the full-back’s path.
While the hapless Kilbane continued to appeal for a throw-in, Belletti was allowed to run across halfway and on towards the Wigan penalty area without challenge before, from around 22 yards, hitting a right-foot shot that swerved beyond Kirkland as the goalkeeper dived left.
If that was embarrassing for the home team, the remainder of the first half was torturous. Such was their superiority, Chelsea looked capable of scoring with every possession.
With Jon Obi Mikel breaking up Wigan’s laboured attacks before they troubled his back four, Michael Essien could indulge himself in a more forward role, and Wigan obliged him with plenty of space in which to play. Florent Malouda, Wright-Phillips (twice), Lampard and Didier Drogba, who curled a free-kick inches wide with Kirkland a helpless spectator, might all have increased Chelsea’s lead before the whistle brought relief.
Complacency seemed to be the only danger for Chelsea, the more so when they began the second half by twice giving the ball away in dangerous areas, Wayne Bridge and Mikel the culprits. Jason Koumas, anonymous before the break, began to see more of the ball, and his pass for Bent resulted in another penalty appeal, after he went down under Bridge’s challenge. Again Steve Bennett shook his head, providing the home supporters with a convenient excuse.
Normal service was swiftly resumed, Wright-Phillips beating Kilbane again on the right. Drogba headed the subsequent cross back across goal but for once Lampard was not on hand to finish. Michael Brown, who was at least putting himself about for Wigan, made space for a shot that Alex blocked in front of Petr Cech, and Mr Bennett further endeared himself to the locals by booking Bent for protesting against yet another failed penalty appeal.
The more Wigan pressed, of course, the more room Chelsea had to play on the break. Lampard’s long pass gave Wright-Phillips yet another chance to humiliate Kilbane, but he chose instead to wait, teasing the full-back before chipping a sweet pass back to Lampard. For once, the midfielder failed to connect cleanly enough, volleying the ball gently into Kirkland’s hands.
It was with about 20 minutes remaining that the feeling that Chelsea had unconsciously taken their foot off the gas, holding something back in anticipation of their Champions League match later this week, began to grow. Or perhaps it was just that Wigan picked themselves up for a final effort; either way, Grant responded by taking off Drogba and Essien for Salomon Kalou and Steve Sidwell. Both had chances to make it three before the end, but while the final pass continued to let them down, there was never any questioning the inevitability of a the seventh consecutive win in all competitions. Wigan, by contrast, have now lost their past six in the league, and were half-heartedly booed off the field.
Star man: Shaun Wright-Phillips (Chelsea)
Player ratings: Wigan: Kirkland 5, Melchiot 5, Granqvist 5, Bramble 5, Kilbane 3, Valencia 4, Brown 6 (Skoko, 85min), Scharner 5, Landzaat 4 (Sibierski, 81min), Koumas 4, Bent 5
Chelsea: Cech 6, Belletti 7, Alex 7, Carvalho 7, Bridge 6, Mikel 7, Essien 7 (Sidwell, 75min), Lampard 7, Wright-Phillips 8, Drogba 7 (Kalou, 74min), Malouda 7 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Belletti belittles defensive efforts of waning Wigan
Paul Wilson at the JJB StadiumSunday November 4, 2007
The Observer
No goal feast this time, but Chelsea will be well content with a fourth successive win since the defeats to Aston Villa and Manchester United that bookended the departure of Jose Mourinho. The Special One himself could not have supervised a more convincing recovery. With six defeats in a row, on the other hand, and just a single league point collected since August, Wigan are looking anything but special. They are a pale imitation of the spirited performers who surprised even their own supporters two years ago, and though Emile Heskey and Antoine Sibierski have still to return from injury it will be nothing short of a miracle if goals from those two stave off relegation.
'Chelsea are back,' chorused the visiting supporters as Avram Grant's side strolled to a two-goal lead inside 20 minutes. Chelsea have never been away, but it must feel like it for their followers to be chirpy about beating Wigan. Then again, despite the obvious gulf between the sides here, Chelsea are unaccustomed to having everything their own way in Wigan. The Latics still have not taken so much as a point from any of the 'top four' sides in their three Premier League seasons, though both Chelsea's wins here in previous seasons came courtesy of stoppage-time winners, the first from Hernan Crespo and the second from Arjen Robben. Wigan have usually managed to give Chelsea a game, in other words, and the way they crumbled here did not offer much hope for their survival chances or for Chris Hutchings's future as manager. As a former Chelsea player, Hutchings must have been looking forward to this fixture, even after watching the 6-0 demolition of Manchester City last week. Yet his side failed to carry the attacking threat that characterised Paul Jewell's teams, with Marcus Bent only a token presence on his own up front and a five-man midfield easily bypassed by Chelsea's more effective communications between two rows of three.
Bent did have a half-decent appeal for a penalty turned down early in the game, but after that Wigan's erratic defending allowed Chelsea to do all the attacking. Frank Lampard's opener after 11 minutes showed that Didier Drogba's value to Chelsea is not limited to scoring goals. The striker dropped deep to pick up the ball and brought the home central defenders with him, immediately playing a short pass to Shaun Wright-Phillips that Denny Landzaat and Kevin Kilbane failed to anticipate, leaving the winger running into open space. Wright-Phillips delivered a measured pass into the box that eluded the Wigan backline's attempts to scurry back into position and fell perfectly into Lampard's stride for the Chelsea captain to stroke a shot past Chris Kirkland.
Wright-Phillips also played a valuable part in Chelsea's second, keeping the ball in play when Kilbane thought it had crossed the touchline and allowing Juliano Belletti to complete a one-two and go on an improbable 70-yard scoring run. Regardless of whether the ball had gone out, Wigan should have done something to prevent Belletti collecting a return pass in his own half and carrying the ball all the way to the edge of Kirkland's area. With Wigan obligingly retreating until Belletti was in shooting range, he calmly beat Kirkland from 20 yards for his first Chelsea goal.
Wigan showed a bit more aggression at the start of the second half and Alex did well to block a shot from Michael Brown, though when Ricardo Carvalho made a mistake to present Bent with an opening, he wasted it with a hasty cross. Brown, who had begun the game niggling Lampard so blatantly that he was spoken to by the referee, switched his attention to Drogba in the second half and provoked the striker sufficiently to see him booked for angrily grabbing his shirt collar. Brown then resumed his running dialogue with the referee and Lampard.
Wigan dropped into the bottom three, and clearly if they go down they intend to go down irritating people. Dave Whelan has just indicated he might be buying a few players in January. If Wigan carry on in this sorry manner, he might be looking to sell a few as well. They are carrying far too many passengers.
Sibierski came on for the last eight minutes and did well, heading one chance over the bar and forcing a one-handed stop from Petr Cech. Those two late efforts were the home side's only worthwhile chances and by that stage Chelsea had already begun to think about Schalke and Everton. With two away games at Spurs and Arsenal this month, it could easily be December before Wigan pick up another point. 'We're not looking at it like that,' Hutchings said. 'We'll be looking to pick up points next week.'
Man of the match: Frank Lampard
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Chelsea narrow the gapWigan 0 Chelsea 2
By DANIEL KING
Look out, look out, Chelsea are coming. There was no repeat of last weekend's fireworks, but the Blues' touchpaper has been lit.
While the dust was still settling at the Emirates Stadium after the dramatic end to the game of the day, Avram Grant's team narrowed the gap on Arsenal and Manchester United to just three points without breaking sweat.
Early goals from Frank Lampard and Juliano Belletti, the latter's first for Chelsea, settled the match before it was a quarter of the way through. The visitors proved that the addition of a licence to thrill, as they had done in thrashing Manchester City 6-0 a week earlier, had not come at the expense of their ability to kill a game.
A seventh consecutive win in all competitions for Grant has all but banished talk of Jose Mourinho, and the Israeli's position looks almost as secure as Chelsea insiders would have you believe. It is United and Arsenal who should be looking over their shoulders, but Grant is not a man to succumb to excitement.
The Chelsea manager said: "For us, it's important what we are doing, not other teams. We won again and we played well, especially in the first half.
"Last week we scored six, in midweek we scored four, but it will not be like this every game.We scored,we won; for me it's OK."
Chelsea once asked Chris Hutchings to give up the day job, but yesterday they moved him a step closer to the dole queue.The Wigan manager was a bricklayer before joining Chelsea in 1980, and his artisan team have lost six consecutive Premier League games since Emile Heskey broke a metatarsal. They have not won since August 18. With away games at Tottenham and Arsenal up next, it was a surprise to find Hutchings in a more upbeat mood than Grant.
"The two early goals left us with a mountain to climb," said the Wigan manager. "We regrouped in the second half. We took the game to them as much as we could do, and I was pleased with the effort and commitment.
"We are taking positives from the second half, but we are not happy with another defeat.We have to be positive and stick together as a group. When we have everyone fit, we will be a lot stronger."
Chelsea had left it late, very late, to claim all three points at the JJB Stadium in the two previous seasons, but wretched defending meant this game was over inside 18 minutes.
More worryingly for Hutchings, both the early goals suggested his players are so demoralised and worried about being the next one to make a mistake that they are afraid to take responsibility and make decisions.
Either Denny Landzaat or Kevin Kilbane could have cut out Didier Drogba's 11th-minute lay-off, but each left it to the other, allowing Shaun Wright-Phillips to dart between the two of them.The England winger, making his first Premier League start under Grant, still had plenty to do, but his cross-field ball behind the retreating Wigan defence was so good that Lampard did not have to break stride before side-footing it into the net.
The second goal was simply inexcusable, with Belletti allowed to run 50 yards from his own half without a challenge in sight until he let fly a 25-yard shot which scorched past Wigan goalkeeper Chris Kirkland.
"Boring, boring Chelsea," sang the jubilant away fans, but this was not some new Avram Grant Total Football Machine (patent pending), just a classic, Mourinhostyle Chelsea away performance.
Wigan, at least, started the second half better. In a 15-minute period, Paul Scharner had a shot closed down,Marcus Bent felt hard done by when Ricardo Carvalho muscled him off a Jason Koumas through ball, and Alex did well to block Michael Brown's shot.
Then Andreas Granqvist tried to buy a penalty with theatrics which appalled even Drogba, and a late header over the bar by substitute Antoine Sibierski was as close as they got to a goal.
Chelsea barely threatened for the whole of the second half, safe in the knowledge that two goals would be more than enough against opponents who, for all their possession and effort, never looked like scoring one. Job done, energy was saved for bigger battles,such as the trip to Arsenal on December 16.
Sports Minister Gerry Sutcliffe may think the wages that loss-making Chelsea pay to John Terry and others are obscene, but there is something very attractive about the prospect of a threehorse race for the title.
WIGAN (4-5-1): Kirkland; Melchiot, Granqvist, Bramble, Kilbane; Valencia, Brown (Skoko 85min), Scharner, Landzaat (Sibierski 82), Koumas; M Bent. Subs (not used): Pollitt, Boyce, Aghahowa. Booked: Landzaat, Bramble.
CHELSEA (4-3-2-1): Cech; Belletti, Alex, Carvalho, Bridge; Essien (Sidwell 76), Mikel, Lampard; Wright-Phillips, Malouda; Drogba (Kalou 75). Subs (not used): Cudicini, Ben Haim, Shevchenko. Booked: Drogba.
Referee: S Bennett (Kent). ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Indy:
Wigan Athletic 0 Chelsea 2: Lampard makes Chelsea cruise but clock ticking for Hutchings Resurgent midfielder scores again to leave Wigan languishing in drop zone
By Jon Culley at the JJB Stadium
After the swamping of Manchester City, the anticipated deluge of goals against a much more vulnerable Lancashire opponent did not happen, nor was their much in the way of champagne football from Avram Grant's new adventurers. Yet Chelsea's seventh victory in a row in all competitions was comfortable enough after a dreadful start by Wigan handed them both the game's goals in the opening 18 minutes.
The win reduced the distance between Chelsea and the Premier League leaders to three points courtesy of the draw at the Emirates Stadium, a result in which Grant, in the time-honoured way of football, said he had no interest. "What is important is what we do," he said.
To their credit, Wigan responded with character and fight, putting Chelsea under some pressure, particularly in the second half and only a very good, one-handed save by Petr Cech from a header by the substitute Antoine Sibierski denied them the reward of a goal late on.
None the less, these are difficult days for Wigan's manager, Chris Hutchings, whose team has slipped into the bottom three after losing six matches off the reel. He will not thank anyone for pointing out, after his 12th game in charge, that he had reached only that number when he was dismissed as Bradford's manager in November 2000, nor that his current chairman, Dave Whelan, who is holidaying in Barbados next week, chose his Caribbean winter break as the moment to sack Bruce Rioch as Wigan manager in 2001.
Whelan has never seemed inclined to act in haste but losing habits can be difficult to shake off and Wigan's run of poor results has the smell of a developing pattern, for all that Hutchings insists that all will be well once his full squad is available. "I was pleased with the commitment in the second half," he said. "But I don't want anyone to be too happy about that because we need to win games. Giving away two goals left us with a mountain to climb."
With Michael Brown preferred to Sibierski in the starting line-up as Hutchings sought to match Chelsea's numbers in midfield, Wigan had begun eagerly and were aggrieved not to have won a penalty inside eight minutes when Juliano Belletti illegally prevented Marcus Bent from trying to reach a cross. In defence, however, they began so hesitantly in the face of an opponent they knew would have the confidence to attack from the outset that they surrendered the game effectively in the time it took Chelsea to go two goals up.
Shaun Wright-Phillips, making his first Premier League start for Grant in a Chelsea line-up from which Joe Cole was absent, helped to inflict the first wound by bursting between two defenders on the right flank before looking up to find Frank Lampard bearing down on goal. Clearly in the mood, Chelsea's stand-in captain was predictably first to his team-mate's low cross to claim his fourth goal in two matches, having score a hat-trick on Wednesday against Leicester City.
It was a moment of poor defending from Wigan but one that they soon trumped when Belletti advanced from his own half entirely free of impediment before deciding, as the home goal came into range, that he might as well have a shot. Chris Kirkland was beaten all ends up from 25 yards.
Thereafter, Chelsea seemed to be doing just enough on this occasion, rather than ruthlessly going for the jugular. "We scored six last week, four in midweek – it can't happen every time," Grant said. But his team were careless at times, John Obi Mikel and Wayne Bridge both guilty of giving the ball away in dangerous positions.
The latest rumours of unrest surrounding Didier Drogba – reported to have expressed his reluctance to join Chelsea in the first place on a DVD released in France – encouraged the home crowd to bait the striker at every opportunity, especially after he had run into the back of Andreas Granqvist in his own penalty area only for the Wigan player to be booked. Ironic cheers followed when Drogba was then carded himself after an incident with Wigan's man of the match Brown, then boos when he was taken off with 15 minutes left. As yet, Chelsea are making no comment on the DVD.---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------