Independent:
James' error opens the way for Chelsea to fire
Portsmouth 0 Chelsea 5
By Mark Fleming
Chelsea took no prisoners as they moved to within a point of Manchester United at the top of the Premier League with a bruising victory. They left two Portsmouth players nursing nasty facial injuries and Daniel Sturridge was fortunate not to be sent off as their mean streak came to the fore.
Yet Carlo Ancelotti's faltering side needed a disastrous mistake by David James to set them on their way. The goalkeeper missed an attempted clearance in the 32nd minute that allowed Didier Drogba to open the scoring and ease Chelsea's nerves. Another goal from Drogba, two from Florent Malouda and a late header from Frank Lampard put Chelsea on the same goal difference as United, one point behind the champions with a trip to Old Trafford to come on Easter Saturday.
Chelsea's commitment has been questioned as they dropped points in recent weeks, and against a determined Portsmouth side they went to the other extreme. Two Pompey players – Ricardo Rocha and Tommy Smith – had to leave the pitch with serious facial injuries, with their team-mates claiming they had been elbowed by their opponents just before halftime. Rocha suffered a suspected fractured cheekbone after he was caught by Malouda, who was booked by referee Lee Mason. The Portuguese defender hit his head on the turf, and had to be taken off on a stretcher, with an oxygen mask strapped to his face before going to hospital.
Smith soon joined Rocha on the receiving end when he left the pitch looking groggy and nursing a broken nose from a challenge by Sturridge, who should have been sent off but went unpunished. There could well be further punishment for the young striker as the off-the-ball incident was not seen by the referee. Chelsea attempted to play down both incidents. Ancelotti said: "I was very close. I saw what the referee saw. It was a challenge with two heads. Malouda did not mean to hurt him. I didn't see the other challenge."
Ancelotti said he would not agree that his team was over their slump until he has seen them beat Aston Villa at Stamford Bridge on Saturday: "We have to wait until Saturday, because that's a very important test for us."
Portsmouth, who before kick-off were granted permission to sell players outside the transfer windows, had held their own for the first 30 minutes until James committed one of the howlers that have littered his career. He totally missed the ball with his attempt at clearing a Deco header, and presented Drogba with the simplest goal he will score. In mitigation, the ball took a bad bounce at the crucial moment, which was a sad way for groundsman Bob Jones to bow out after 20 years at the club.
Portsmouth reorganised when Angelos Basinas and Quincy Owusu-Abeyie came on to replace Rocha and Smith respectively, but Chelsea quickly made the most of Portsmouth's difficulties by putting the victory beyond doubt with two goals in 11 minutes. Malouda, who has been probably Chelsea's best player during their wobbles of recent weeks, scored from a tight angle and then added a second after James parried Lampard's shot.
Drogba got a fourth with 13 minutes left, when he latched onto a ball from John Obi Mikel and beat James inside the near post for a trademark goal, his 30th of what is becoming his finest season.
Lampard scored a fifth when Drogba's mis-timed header bounced back off the ground and the England midfielder applied the finishing touch with his forehead.
Portsmouth (4-5-1): James; Mullins, Rocha (Basinas, 45), Hreidarsson, Finnan; Smith( Owusu-Abeyie, h-t), Mokoena (Kanu, 71), Wilson, Hughes, O'Hara; Piquionne. Substitutes not used: Ashdown (gk), Brown, Vanden Borre, Webber.
Chelsea (4-2-3-1): Cech; Ferreira, Terry, Carvalho (Alex, 36), Zhirkov (Van Aanholt, 71); Mikel, Lampard; Sturridge (J Cole, 55), Deco, Malouda; Drogba. Substitutes not used: Turnbull (gk), J Kalou, Anelka, Bruma.
Referee: L Mason (Lancashire).
Bookings: Portsmouth: Hughes. Chelsea: Malouda, Mikel.
Man of the match: Drogba.
Attendance: 18,753.
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Mail:
Portsmouth 0 Chelsea 5:Blues storm past sorry Pompey to close gap on Manchester United
By Matt Lawton
To begin with, Chelsea owed much to David James and the one member of the groundstaff he might now be glad to see the back of.
It was a calamitous error from James that enabled Didier Drogba to open the scoring on Wednesday night, but a nasty bobble on a patchy Fratton Park pitch that sent the ball looping over the Portsmouth goalkeeper’s foot as he attempted to make the simplest of clearances.
After the break, however, Portsmouth had to accept they were second best against a Chelsea side who will feel they are right back in the title race. They are only one point adrift of Manchester United and level with the champions on goal difference.
For Carlo Ancelotti, it was a timely result. He might have said he had nothing to fear from Roman Abramovich but defeat to Avram Grant after the humiliation he suffered at the hands of Jose Mourinho in the Champions League might have proved too much for Chelsea’s owner.
To lose to one predecessor may have been regarded as a misfortune by Abramovich; to lose to two in little over a week would have looked like carelessness.
Ancelotti avoided such an accusation thanks to Drogba and Florent Malouda, who rattled up four goals between them before Frank Lampard added a fifth in stoppage time.
It marked the end of a shocking run of results that has seen them go out of the Champions League, and drop eight of the last 15 Barclays Premier League points. Changing history still looks like quite a challenge, because this was not Chelsea at their best.
They were up against a Portsmouth side lacking any real incentive after their nine-point deduction and a side that suffered the further distraction of nasty injuries to Ricardo Rocha and Tommy Smith and the news that they may lose players after the Premier League allowed them to sell outside the transfer window.
Rocha suffered a suspected fractured cheekbone after an arial clash with Malouda, and Grant was sufficiently worried to go straight to the hospital after the match. Smith had a broken nose from what appeared to be an elbow from Daniel Sturridge that is sure to attract the attention of the FA.
For Portsmouth there was also the embarrassment of that opening 32nd-minute goal. While James might have seen to it that four members of the training ground staff keep their jobs during these difficult times at the club, he will be glad to bid farewell to the Fratton Park groundsman after this
Bob Jones will not be alone if he blames James for the manner in which Drogba was allowed to steal a lead. For any goalkeeper it was the stuff of nightmares. But the replays will prove just how significant a role Jones also played on his last night as groundsman after 20 years, because the playing surface has to take some of the blame.
Jones is not among the dozens who have been made redundant in recent weeks. He instead had the opportunity to retire. But he will wince when he sees how James’ attempt to clear a simple header forward from Deco was seriously undermined by a wretched bobble.
‘He was unlucky,’ said Ancelotti. ‘The bounce was not good.’
Comparisons with Paul Robinson’s howler against Croatia will inevitably follow but had it not been for James the score could have been considerably higher.
There was, however, nothing he could do to stop Malouda increasing the lead five minutes after the break. The Frenchman accelerated on to a neat pass from Lampard, much better here after his recent dip in form, and smashed the ball into the roof of the net.
James then did well to deny Joe Cole, on for a nervous-looking Sturridge, and saved the initial effort from Lampard before Malouda seized on the rebound to make it 3-0 in the 61st minute.
But, again, he was helpless when it came to the fourth and fifth — a close-range shot from Drogba, who took his season’s tally to 30 after chesting down a ball from John Mikel Obi and then holding off the challenge of Steve Finnan, and a simple header from Lampard.
Ancelotti said: ‘I hope the bad moment is finished. But we have to wait because Saturday against Aston Villa is a very important test. We played well tonight. We were lucky for the first goal but after that we did well.
'This performance will improve our confidence. We are involved in the Premier League and the FA Cup and we have to remember that.’
He insisted Malouda’s foul on Rocha was an accident. The Sturridge incident? He said he did not see. But for Chelsea’s manager there were other issues to consider. Not least the state of the team and their ability to finish the season with a flourish.
On Saturday we will have a much better idea.
MATCH FACTS
PORTSMOUTH (4-4-1-1): James 5; Finnan 6, Rocha 6 (Basinas 45, 5), hreidarsson 6, Mullins 5; Smith 6 (Owusu-Abeyie 46, 5), Wilson 6, Mokoena 6 (Kanu 71), Hughes 6; O’Hara 7; Piquionne 5.
Booked: O’Hara, Hughes, James.CHELSEA (4-3-3): Cech 6; Paulo Ferreira6, Carvalho 6 (Alex 37, 6), Terry 7, Zhirkov6 (Van Aanholt 71); Lampard 6, Mikel 6,Deco 6; Sturridge 5 (J Cole 55, 6),Drogba 7, Malouda 8.Booked: Malouda, Mikel.
Man of the match: Florent Malouda.
Referee: Lee Mason.
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Guardian:
Drogba leads Chelsea charge back into form at Portsmouth
Portsmouth 0 Chelsea 5 Drogba 32, Malouda 50, Malouda 60, Drogba 77, Lampard 90
Dominic Fifield at Fratton Park
Chelsea felt the fates had conspired against them in recent weeks but they should have known it is Portsmouth who have monopolised the hard luck story this term. While the visitors hoisted themselves out of their untimely lull in form and back to within a point of the summit here, the locals were left to survey the wreckage of a drubbing. The ignominy is merely prolonged in these parts.
They now have broken bones, together with bruised egos, to show for a miserable campaign. Ricardo Rocha ended last night in hospital with a suspected fractured cheekbone after an aerial challenge from Florent Malouda, who had led with his arm but with eyes fixed on the ball. The Portuguese was carried off on a stretcher with an oxygen mask pressed to his face. Tommy Smith then left dazed and bloodied at the interval with a broken nose after Daniel Sturridge appeared to catch him with an elbow.
The Portsmouth assistant manager, Paul Groves, suggested "nothing untoward" had occurred in the second collision, though the possibility remains that the off-the-ball incident could yet prompt retrospective sanction – potentially a three-game ban – from the Football Association once video evidence has been scrutinised. Hermann Hreidarsson had been more animated in his protest at Malouda's escape with nothing more than a caution, with Pompey's sense of injustice merely exacerbated by the reality that it was the Frenchman's two goals in the second half that prised the floodgates open. Fortune has long since deserted this stretch of the south coast.
Chelsea will care little. They could have scored at will in the second period, and virtually did, as confidence flowed back into their game, though it should not be forgotten that the thrashing could not have come to pass without an element of farce. David James, otherwise outstanding, provided the unwanted comic moment with a first-half air-kick at Deco's headed pass, the ball skipping up from the quagmire on the edge of the area with Didier Drogba trotting in to tap home.
It was a piece of theatre to rival Paul Robinson's infamously fluffed clearance from Gary Neville's back-pass with England in Zagreb in 2006 and James could be thankful Fabio Capello was at White Hart Lane last night rather than here. Prospective England players will wince at errors such as that in the build-up to the World Cup. This club's head groundsman of 21 years, Bob Jones, retired after this game. He deserved to go out on a better note.
The visiting players departed in better spirits, their conviction that the league title can still be claimed pepped by a conclusive victory. Their goal difference now sits level with Manchester United's, at 47, and victory in their remaining seven games – including at Old Trafford on Saturday week – will secure the title.
The irony was that theirs had been far from the slick and stylish performance that had graced Ewood Park in the first half on Sunday, a display that had gone on to degenerate after the interval and ended in talk of crisis and impending doom. This was the opposite: a sloppy start was exorcised by the opening goal and, thereafter, they roused themselves and steadily gathered steam.
Buoyed by James's error, and mustering bite on the break at last, they ran riot after the interval. Malouda, inevitably inflicting more pain, gathered Frank Lampard's pass and was allowed to veer into the area before thumping his finish emphatically beyond James. The home support were still querying why the Frenchman was on the pitch in bellowed chorus when he rammed in his second after James parried Lampard's strike. "We stayed focused and this will have improved our confidence," said Ancelotti.
Drogba's rasping near-post goal – his 30th of the season – and Lampard's header deep into stoppage time completed this side's biggest away win of the season so far, all memories of their disjointed first half long forgotten. The last time Ancelotti visited this stadium his Milan side salvaged a late 2-2 draw in a Uefa Cup tie 18 months ago. His new team were never in danger of being hauled in.
The Italian conceded that he would be in a better position to judge whether this team's blip is over after Saturday's visit of Aston Villa. For Avram Grant focus has long since been fixed on the FA Cup semi-final against Harry Redknapp's Tottenham Hotspur. The manager skipped his post-match duties to visit Rocha in hospital, presumably to console a player who has played six times for Pompey and, in that time has lost his debut 5-0, been sent off twice and carried off once. His return to English football has been traumatic.
Portsmouth do not anticipate the centre-half playing again this season. "He hasn't had much luck," conceded Groves. This team will struggle to sell any of its players in the weeks ahead, regardless of the green light granted them by the Premier League yesterday, given that their squad appears more threadbare with every match. This troubled league season cannot end soon enough.
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Telegraph:
Portsmouth 0 Chelsea 5
By Jason Burt at Fratton Park
Chelsea feel fortune has deserted them of late but, on Wednesday night, it ridiculed David James instead. The Portsmouth and England goalkeeper committed the sort of error that was not only freakish but will be replayed time and again, completely missing the ball as he attempted to clear, gifting the crucial opening goal. A Paul Robinson moment.
It meant Chelsea reduced Manchester United’s lead to just one point but Portsmouth will feel that they should have been reduced to 10 men after Florent Malouda caught Ricardo Rocha with his arm. The Portuguese was one of two Portsmouth players to suffer facial injuries; broken bones to add to broken hearts. And Malouda went on to score twice as did Didier Drogba.
Spare a thought this morning for Bob Jones, though. Before kick-off he was presented to the crowd — this being his last match as head groundsman at Fratton Park, a role he has held for the past 20 years, before he retires — and now he will wonder if a divot did it for James. He had said he couldn’t bear to watch the players cutting up his turf. He surely couldn’t watch on Wednesday night. Certainly Chelsea manager Carlo Ancelotti had looked warily at the pitch beforehand.
The table would suggest that this was the right kind of fixture, although maybe not the right venue, what with Portsmouth’s own sense of injustice over this season’s travails, for Chelsea to use up that game in hand and try to re-align their stumbling season.
They could do so with Petr Cech back in goal, returning from a five-match injury-induced absence as Ancelotti made changes from the dispiriting, ragged draw away to Blackburn Rovers at the weekend after which one of his own players, John Obi Mikel, questioned the “fight” they had shown.
Still the young midfielder survived in a re-configured formation, with Frank Lampard dropping deeper to accommodate Deco who, in the opening minutes combined with Drogba only for the latter to drag a shot wide. Moments later and Drogba slipped, after easily turning Rocha, to spurn another opportunity.
Quickly, James was brought into action, tipping away Lampard’s crisp strike from distance and, as would be expected, the pattern was set. Portsmouth’s game was containment and occasional forays spearheaded by Frederic Piquionne whose partnership with Aruna Dindane has been shelved, permanently, by the club’s inability to pay the £4 million transfer fee another appearance this season would have triggered.
That easy Chelsea dominance continued and it turned into a gifted advantage.
But what a terrible goal for a previously resolute Portsmouth to concede with Hermann Hreidarsson and Rocha getting in each other’s way as they attempted to clear Deco’s header. Still, the ball ran through to James who went to punt it back up-field from just outside his penalty area. But, with an air shot, the ball bobbled past him — was it the turf, was it his technique? — for Drogba to run on and tap into the net. It was his 14th goal in his last 14 league matches. None will have been simpler while James will have to re-live his mistake time and again.
To add to Portsmouth sense that things were conspiring against them, the goal came soon after Yuri Zhirkov had appeared to foul Jamie O’Hara as he was set to run onto Hreidarsson’s pass. Portsmouth were rocked and soon after Lampard burst through, only to slice his shot under Rocha’s challenge.
Their frustration grew and when Malouda jumped with Rocha he caught the defender with his arm. Hreidarsson howled for a red card and John Terry reacted angrily. Malouda was cautioned but there was also concern for Rocha who appeared to have been rendered unconscious by the challenge and was eventually stretchered off and immediately taken to hospital with a suspected fractured cheekbone.
It has been some return to English football for the former Tottenham defender whose record now reads — six games, sent off twice, carried off once..and made is debut in a 5-0 defeat. Welcome back to the Premier League.
It meant referee Lee Mason quickly become the focus of local anger while, at half-time, Tommy Smith was led from the pitch, blood streaming from his face and looking concussed after being caught by Daniel Sturridge with a flailing arm. It was later claimed he had broken his nose. Carnage. It had been some series of setbacks for Portsmouth.
And their anger rose when it was Malouda, who the home supporters felt should have been dismissed, who scored soon after the interval, latching on to Lampard’s simple, chipped ball forward to lash his angled shot from the corner of the six-yard area across James who was easily beaten. Soon after his arrival, Joe Cole was sent through down the right, only for James to parry his first-time shot.
But Chelsea were now rampant. James blocked Lampard’s powerful shot, only for the rebound to fall to Malouda who hammered it left-footed into the net.
It continued. Mikel’s cross-field pass was chested down by Drogba who was far too strong for Steve Finnan, shrugging him aside and driving past James.
Richard Hughes should have pulled one goal back but somehow headed wide. The rout was completed when Lampard nodded home from close-range in injury-time as Portsmouth crumbled.
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Times
Chelsea close the gap after James provides charity for richPortsmouth 0 Chelsea 5
Matt Hughes Deputy Football Correspondent
In the desperately sad event of the football club going under, Portsmouth should rebrand itself as a spa town because a visit to this port in a storm provides a guaranteed pick-me-up.
Chelsea arrived in a crisis and departed a point behind Manchester United at the top of the Barclays Premier League and level on goal difference. With a visit to Old Trafford to come on Saturday week, their health is fully restored after taking out recent frustrations on their sorry hosts.
The West London club are not playing like champions at the moment despite the one-sided scoreline, but no one among them will remember or even care about that if blue ribbons are attached to the Premier League trophy in May. It will take more than a convincing win over financially and physically crippled opponents to erase the doubts that have surfaced recently, but Carlo Ancelotti’s side appear determined to take the title fight to the finish.
Chelsea laboured until Didier Drogba, Florent Malouda and, finally, Frank Lampard turned a decent contest into a turkey shoot in the second half. If it had been a boxing bout, the referee would have stopped it long before the final whistle, although to judge from the liberal manner in which Malouda and Daniel Sturridge threw their elbows around, it was more like Ultimate Fighting.
If Chelsea do use this thrashing as a springboard for regaining the Premier League title, they may look back on their 32nd-minute opening goal as the turning point of their season, because before then David James had been untroubled. Portsmouth have enough problems without making life more difficult for themselves, but that is exactly what they did, with James guilty of one of the aberrations that have characterised his career. Paul Robinson, his former England team-mate, would no doubt sympathise.
Avram Grant’s players were still complaining that Yuri Zhirkov should have been penalised for a foul on Jamie O’Hara, who was the home side’s best player, when Deco’s header over the top gave them something else to worry about. Ricardo Rocha and Hermann Hreidarsson began the slapstick by colliding with each other in a manner reminiscent of the Chuckle Brothers in their prime, but James upstaged the lot of them, missing the ball after charging out of his goal to present Drogba with a tap-in. The only good news for the England goalkeeper was that Fabio Capello was otherwise engaged at White Hart Lane.
James’s air-shot looked horrific, but he was not helped by a dreadful pitch with more divots than a cabbage patch, all the more unfortunate given that it was the last one prepared by Bob Jones, the club’s long-serving groundsman, before he retired yesterday. James organised a whip-round among the players to keep the groundsman at Portsmouth’s training ground in a job after he was made redundant this month, but he will probably be glad to see the back of Jones.
Portsmouth’s problems — and sense of injustice — increased just before half-time, when they lost two more players to injury and effectively the match. Malouda was booked for raising his arm in a challenge with Rocha that left the Portuguese centre back with a suspected fractured cheekbone, while Sturridge went unpunished despite appearing to elbow Tommy Smith, leaving him with a broken nose.
Ancelotti was adamant that Malouda’s challenge was accidental, although he refrained from commenting on Sturridge, perhaps wisely. The 20-year-old is unlikely to escape for a second time when the match video is passed on to the FA’s disciplinary unit, because the television pictures of contact with Smith’s nose were conclusive.
Portsmouth could have no complaints about Chelsea’s second goal five minutes into the second half, however, after which they threw in the towel. Lampard’s ball down the left found Malouda, who beat Steve Finnan for pace before powering the ball past James from a tight angle for his ninth goal of the season. The France winger has been Chelsea’s most improved player this season and is the only rival to Drogba for the club’s Player of the Year award.
The same combination extended the lead in the 61st minute, with Malouda tapping in the rebound for his second goal after James had saved Lampard’s initial shot, before the visiting team set about erasing United’s advantage in terms of goal difference, which they achieved in some style.
Drogba scored his 30th goal of a remarkable season at the near post after a through-ball from John Obi Mikel in the 77th minute and Lampard grabbed his sixteenth with a close-range header in injury time.
Ancelotti is experienced enough to know that this bullying exercise could count for little in the long run, but seven more wins of any sort will secure Chelsea the title.
Portsmouth (4-5-1): D James — S Finnan, R Rocha (sub: A Basinas, 45min), H Hreidarsson, H Mullins — T Smith (sub: Q Owusu-Abeyie, 46), M Wilson, A Mokoena (sub: Kanu, 71), R Hughes, J O’Hara — F Piquionne. Substitutes not used: J Ashdown, M Brown, A vanden Borre, D Webber. Booked: O’Hara, Hughes, James.
Chelsea (4-3-3): P Cech — P Ferreira, R Carvalho (sub: Alex, 36), J Terry, Y Zhirkov (sub: P van Aanholt, 71) — F Lampard, J O Mikel, Deco — D Sturridge (sub: J Cole, 55), D Drogba, F Malouda. Substitutes not used: R Turnbull, S Kalou, N Anelka, J Bruma. Booked: Malouda, Mikel.
Referee: L Mason.
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Sun:
Portsmouth 0 Chelsea 5
IAN McGARRY at Fratton Park
DON'T be fooled by the hype - this was more classy Chelsea than Calamity James.
True, the Portsmouth keeper came up with another clanger to make sure his nickname will stick a lot longer.
But without the England stopper this might have been 10-0 as Chelsea made sure their title challenge is alive and kicking again.
They arrived at Fratton Park with their credibility, courage and hunger to win the League in question.
But after 94 rain-soaked minutes, Carlo Ancelotti's men left no one in doubt they are not prepared to throw the towel in just yet.
As a response to the disappointment of the games against Inter Milan and Blackburn, this could not have been more positive.
Arsenal are back in third again this morning while Manchester United lead Blues by a solitary point and they are now level on goal difference as well.
Ancelotti had called on his players to show courage, desire and commitment in this game - and they didn't let him down.
From the very off they chased down every ball, went into every tackle and never turned their back on the task.
Pompey will argue Chelsea's aggression went too far at times - especially when Ricardo Rocha was taken off on a stretcher with a suspected broken jaw.
Florent Malouda appeared to lead with his arm in the incident just before half time.
The French winger got off with yellow card and added further injury by scoring two goals.
For Pompey boss Avram Grant, though, the pain started a lot earlier when John Terry headed a clearance from James back towards the home goal. Rocha and Hermann Hreidarsson looked like a pair of circus clowns as they clashed mid-air attempting to clear.
That was nothing though compared to James' wild slash at fresh air which allowed Didier Drogba to walk the ball into an empty net.
He looked almost embarrassed and even waited until his team-mates found him before he dared to celebrate.
Pompey soon suffered another casualty when striker Tommy Smith was taken off with blood pouring from a cut on the bridge of his nose after clashing with Daniel Sturridge and was replaced by Quincy Owusu-Abeyie.
When the teams reappeared it was to the soundtrack of The Great Escape - but it was hard to see Pompey digging themselves out of this one.
It then got a lot worse in the 49th minute when the home defence was caught ball watching.Frank Lampard threaded an excellent ball for Malouda who timed his run in behind the defence before smashing an unstoppable shot past James.
There was nothing he could do about that one!
Still, after the way Portsmouth rallied against Hull Chelsea probably knew they could not take anything for granted.
The casualty list continued to grow when Sturridge was forced off and Joe Cole finally got some game time.
Sporting a new shaven-headed look, he almost got on the scoresheet as well when Lampard put him in but James pulled off another great save to his right.
The veteran keeper's skill was not enough to keep them at bay for long. On the hour he did well to turn away a rasping Lampard drive only to see Malouda react the quickest to bury the rebound.
By now Pompey looked like a team who are already down and most definitely out. However, after having received permission to sell players outside of the transfer window to pay off debts you wouldn't think they would get too much for this lot on this performance.
The re-jigged defence was then caught out with a long ball in behind which saw Drogba bear down and smash home the fourth.
It was the striker's 30th of the season and he is creeping up on his best tally of 33 despite spending a month at the African Nations Cup.
Worryingly for Chelsea, the Ivory Coast ace limped off at the end, though his ankle knock is not thought to be serious. He had still managed to leap to head back a Cole cross for Lamps to complete the rout in the final minute.
After the final whistle, the Blues players applauded their fans and threw their shirts into the crowd.
They knew this was an important win and with seven games left - including a visit to Old Trafford - seven more wins will see them crowned champions. Who'd have thought it three days ago?
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James' error opens the way for Chelsea to fire
Portsmouth 0 Chelsea 5
By Mark Fleming
Chelsea took no prisoners as they moved to within a point of Manchester United at the top of the Premier League with a bruising victory. They left two Portsmouth players nursing nasty facial injuries and Daniel Sturridge was fortunate not to be sent off as their mean streak came to the fore.
Yet Carlo Ancelotti's faltering side needed a disastrous mistake by David James to set them on their way. The goalkeeper missed an attempted clearance in the 32nd minute that allowed Didier Drogba to open the scoring and ease Chelsea's nerves. Another goal from Drogba, two from Florent Malouda and a late header from Frank Lampard put Chelsea on the same goal difference as United, one point behind the champions with a trip to Old Trafford to come on Easter Saturday.
Chelsea's commitment has been questioned as they dropped points in recent weeks, and against a determined Portsmouth side they went to the other extreme. Two Pompey players – Ricardo Rocha and Tommy Smith – had to leave the pitch with serious facial injuries, with their team-mates claiming they had been elbowed by their opponents just before halftime. Rocha suffered a suspected fractured cheekbone after he was caught by Malouda, who was booked by referee Lee Mason. The Portuguese defender hit his head on the turf, and had to be taken off on a stretcher, with an oxygen mask strapped to his face before going to hospital.
Smith soon joined Rocha on the receiving end when he left the pitch looking groggy and nursing a broken nose from a challenge by Sturridge, who should have been sent off but went unpunished. There could well be further punishment for the young striker as the off-the-ball incident was not seen by the referee. Chelsea attempted to play down both incidents. Ancelotti said: "I was very close. I saw what the referee saw. It was a challenge with two heads. Malouda did not mean to hurt him. I didn't see the other challenge."
Ancelotti said he would not agree that his team was over their slump until he has seen them beat Aston Villa at Stamford Bridge on Saturday: "We have to wait until Saturday, because that's a very important test for us."
Portsmouth, who before kick-off were granted permission to sell players outside the transfer windows, had held their own for the first 30 minutes until James committed one of the howlers that have littered his career. He totally missed the ball with his attempt at clearing a Deco header, and presented Drogba with the simplest goal he will score. In mitigation, the ball took a bad bounce at the crucial moment, which was a sad way for groundsman Bob Jones to bow out after 20 years at the club.
Portsmouth reorganised when Angelos Basinas and Quincy Owusu-Abeyie came on to replace Rocha and Smith respectively, but Chelsea quickly made the most of Portsmouth's difficulties by putting the victory beyond doubt with two goals in 11 minutes. Malouda, who has been probably Chelsea's best player during their wobbles of recent weeks, scored from a tight angle and then added a second after James parried Lampard's shot.
Drogba got a fourth with 13 minutes left, when he latched onto a ball from John Obi Mikel and beat James inside the near post for a trademark goal, his 30th of what is becoming his finest season.
Lampard scored a fifth when Drogba's mis-timed header bounced back off the ground and the England midfielder applied the finishing touch with his forehead.
Portsmouth (4-5-1): James; Mullins, Rocha (Basinas, 45), Hreidarsson, Finnan; Smith( Owusu-Abeyie, h-t), Mokoena (Kanu, 71), Wilson, Hughes, O'Hara; Piquionne. Substitutes not used: Ashdown (gk), Brown, Vanden Borre, Webber.
Chelsea (4-2-3-1): Cech; Ferreira, Terry, Carvalho (Alex, 36), Zhirkov (Van Aanholt, 71); Mikel, Lampard; Sturridge (J Cole, 55), Deco, Malouda; Drogba. Substitutes not used: Turnbull (gk), J Kalou, Anelka, Bruma.
Referee: L Mason (Lancashire).
Bookings: Portsmouth: Hughes. Chelsea: Malouda, Mikel.
Man of the match: Drogba.
Attendance: 18,753.
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Mail:
Portsmouth 0 Chelsea 5:Blues storm past sorry Pompey to close gap on Manchester United
By Matt Lawton
To begin with, Chelsea owed much to David James and the one member of the groundstaff he might now be glad to see the back of.
It was a calamitous error from James that enabled Didier Drogba to open the scoring on Wednesday night, but a nasty bobble on a patchy Fratton Park pitch that sent the ball looping over the Portsmouth goalkeeper’s foot as he attempted to make the simplest of clearances.
After the break, however, Portsmouth had to accept they were second best against a Chelsea side who will feel they are right back in the title race. They are only one point adrift of Manchester United and level with the champions on goal difference.
For Carlo Ancelotti, it was a timely result. He might have said he had nothing to fear from Roman Abramovich but defeat to Avram Grant after the humiliation he suffered at the hands of Jose Mourinho in the Champions League might have proved too much for Chelsea’s owner.
To lose to one predecessor may have been regarded as a misfortune by Abramovich; to lose to two in little over a week would have looked like carelessness.
Ancelotti avoided such an accusation thanks to Drogba and Florent Malouda, who rattled up four goals between them before Frank Lampard added a fifth in stoppage time.
It marked the end of a shocking run of results that has seen them go out of the Champions League, and drop eight of the last 15 Barclays Premier League points. Changing history still looks like quite a challenge, because this was not Chelsea at their best.
They were up against a Portsmouth side lacking any real incentive after their nine-point deduction and a side that suffered the further distraction of nasty injuries to Ricardo Rocha and Tommy Smith and the news that they may lose players after the Premier League allowed them to sell outside the transfer window.
Rocha suffered a suspected fractured cheekbone after an arial clash with Malouda, and Grant was sufficiently worried to go straight to the hospital after the match. Smith had a broken nose from what appeared to be an elbow from Daniel Sturridge that is sure to attract the attention of the FA.
For Portsmouth there was also the embarrassment of that opening 32nd-minute goal. While James might have seen to it that four members of the training ground staff keep their jobs during these difficult times at the club, he will be glad to bid farewell to the Fratton Park groundsman after this
Bob Jones will not be alone if he blames James for the manner in which Drogba was allowed to steal a lead. For any goalkeeper it was the stuff of nightmares. But the replays will prove just how significant a role Jones also played on his last night as groundsman after 20 years, because the playing surface has to take some of the blame.
Jones is not among the dozens who have been made redundant in recent weeks. He instead had the opportunity to retire. But he will wince when he sees how James’ attempt to clear a simple header forward from Deco was seriously undermined by a wretched bobble.
‘He was unlucky,’ said Ancelotti. ‘The bounce was not good.’
Comparisons with Paul Robinson’s howler against Croatia will inevitably follow but had it not been for James the score could have been considerably higher.
There was, however, nothing he could do to stop Malouda increasing the lead five minutes after the break. The Frenchman accelerated on to a neat pass from Lampard, much better here after his recent dip in form, and smashed the ball into the roof of the net.
James then did well to deny Joe Cole, on for a nervous-looking Sturridge, and saved the initial effort from Lampard before Malouda seized on the rebound to make it 3-0 in the 61st minute.
But, again, he was helpless when it came to the fourth and fifth — a close-range shot from Drogba, who took his season’s tally to 30 after chesting down a ball from John Mikel Obi and then holding off the challenge of Steve Finnan, and a simple header from Lampard.
Ancelotti said: ‘I hope the bad moment is finished. But we have to wait because Saturday against Aston Villa is a very important test. We played well tonight. We were lucky for the first goal but after that we did well.
'This performance will improve our confidence. We are involved in the Premier League and the FA Cup and we have to remember that.’
He insisted Malouda’s foul on Rocha was an accident. The Sturridge incident? He said he did not see. But for Chelsea’s manager there were other issues to consider. Not least the state of the team and their ability to finish the season with a flourish.
On Saturday we will have a much better idea.
MATCH FACTS
PORTSMOUTH (4-4-1-1): James 5; Finnan 6, Rocha 6 (Basinas 45, 5), hreidarsson 6, Mullins 5; Smith 6 (Owusu-Abeyie 46, 5), Wilson 6, Mokoena 6 (Kanu 71), Hughes 6; O’Hara 7; Piquionne 5.
Booked: O’Hara, Hughes, James.CHELSEA (4-3-3): Cech 6; Paulo Ferreira6, Carvalho 6 (Alex 37, 6), Terry 7, Zhirkov6 (Van Aanholt 71); Lampard 6, Mikel 6,Deco 6; Sturridge 5 (J Cole 55, 6),Drogba 7, Malouda 8.Booked: Malouda, Mikel.
Man of the match: Florent Malouda.
Referee: Lee Mason.
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Guardian:
Drogba leads Chelsea charge back into form at Portsmouth
Portsmouth 0 Chelsea 5 Drogba 32, Malouda 50, Malouda 60, Drogba 77, Lampard 90
Dominic Fifield at Fratton Park
Chelsea felt the fates had conspired against them in recent weeks but they should have known it is Portsmouth who have monopolised the hard luck story this term. While the visitors hoisted themselves out of their untimely lull in form and back to within a point of the summit here, the locals were left to survey the wreckage of a drubbing. The ignominy is merely prolonged in these parts.
They now have broken bones, together with bruised egos, to show for a miserable campaign. Ricardo Rocha ended last night in hospital with a suspected fractured cheekbone after an aerial challenge from Florent Malouda, who had led with his arm but with eyes fixed on the ball. The Portuguese was carried off on a stretcher with an oxygen mask pressed to his face. Tommy Smith then left dazed and bloodied at the interval with a broken nose after Daniel Sturridge appeared to catch him with an elbow.
The Portsmouth assistant manager, Paul Groves, suggested "nothing untoward" had occurred in the second collision, though the possibility remains that the off-the-ball incident could yet prompt retrospective sanction – potentially a three-game ban – from the Football Association once video evidence has been scrutinised. Hermann Hreidarsson had been more animated in his protest at Malouda's escape with nothing more than a caution, with Pompey's sense of injustice merely exacerbated by the reality that it was the Frenchman's two goals in the second half that prised the floodgates open. Fortune has long since deserted this stretch of the south coast.
Chelsea will care little. They could have scored at will in the second period, and virtually did, as confidence flowed back into their game, though it should not be forgotten that the thrashing could not have come to pass without an element of farce. David James, otherwise outstanding, provided the unwanted comic moment with a first-half air-kick at Deco's headed pass, the ball skipping up from the quagmire on the edge of the area with Didier Drogba trotting in to tap home.
It was a piece of theatre to rival Paul Robinson's infamously fluffed clearance from Gary Neville's back-pass with England in Zagreb in 2006 and James could be thankful Fabio Capello was at White Hart Lane last night rather than here. Prospective England players will wince at errors such as that in the build-up to the World Cup. This club's head groundsman of 21 years, Bob Jones, retired after this game. He deserved to go out on a better note.
The visiting players departed in better spirits, their conviction that the league title can still be claimed pepped by a conclusive victory. Their goal difference now sits level with Manchester United's, at 47, and victory in their remaining seven games – including at Old Trafford on Saturday week – will secure the title.
The irony was that theirs had been far from the slick and stylish performance that had graced Ewood Park in the first half on Sunday, a display that had gone on to degenerate after the interval and ended in talk of crisis and impending doom. This was the opposite: a sloppy start was exorcised by the opening goal and, thereafter, they roused themselves and steadily gathered steam.
Buoyed by James's error, and mustering bite on the break at last, they ran riot after the interval. Malouda, inevitably inflicting more pain, gathered Frank Lampard's pass and was allowed to veer into the area before thumping his finish emphatically beyond James. The home support were still querying why the Frenchman was on the pitch in bellowed chorus when he rammed in his second after James parried Lampard's strike. "We stayed focused and this will have improved our confidence," said Ancelotti.
Drogba's rasping near-post goal – his 30th of the season – and Lampard's header deep into stoppage time completed this side's biggest away win of the season so far, all memories of their disjointed first half long forgotten. The last time Ancelotti visited this stadium his Milan side salvaged a late 2-2 draw in a Uefa Cup tie 18 months ago. His new team were never in danger of being hauled in.
The Italian conceded that he would be in a better position to judge whether this team's blip is over after Saturday's visit of Aston Villa. For Avram Grant focus has long since been fixed on the FA Cup semi-final against Harry Redknapp's Tottenham Hotspur. The manager skipped his post-match duties to visit Rocha in hospital, presumably to console a player who has played six times for Pompey and, in that time has lost his debut 5-0, been sent off twice and carried off once. His return to English football has been traumatic.
Portsmouth do not anticipate the centre-half playing again this season. "He hasn't had much luck," conceded Groves. This team will struggle to sell any of its players in the weeks ahead, regardless of the green light granted them by the Premier League yesterday, given that their squad appears more threadbare with every match. This troubled league season cannot end soon enough.
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Telegraph:
Portsmouth 0 Chelsea 5
By Jason Burt at Fratton Park
Chelsea feel fortune has deserted them of late but, on Wednesday night, it ridiculed David James instead. The Portsmouth and England goalkeeper committed the sort of error that was not only freakish but will be replayed time and again, completely missing the ball as he attempted to clear, gifting the crucial opening goal. A Paul Robinson moment.
It meant Chelsea reduced Manchester United’s lead to just one point but Portsmouth will feel that they should have been reduced to 10 men after Florent Malouda caught Ricardo Rocha with his arm. The Portuguese was one of two Portsmouth players to suffer facial injuries; broken bones to add to broken hearts. And Malouda went on to score twice as did Didier Drogba.
Spare a thought this morning for Bob Jones, though. Before kick-off he was presented to the crowd — this being his last match as head groundsman at Fratton Park, a role he has held for the past 20 years, before he retires — and now he will wonder if a divot did it for James. He had said he couldn’t bear to watch the players cutting up his turf. He surely couldn’t watch on Wednesday night. Certainly Chelsea manager Carlo Ancelotti had looked warily at the pitch beforehand.
The table would suggest that this was the right kind of fixture, although maybe not the right venue, what with Portsmouth’s own sense of injustice over this season’s travails, for Chelsea to use up that game in hand and try to re-align their stumbling season.
They could do so with Petr Cech back in goal, returning from a five-match injury-induced absence as Ancelotti made changes from the dispiriting, ragged draw away to Blackburn Rovers at the weekend after which one of his own players, John Obi Mikel, questioned the “fight” they had shown.
Still the young midfielder survived in a re-configured formation, with Frank Lampard dropping deeper to accommodate Deco who, in the opening minutes combined with Drogba only for the latter to drag a shot wide. Moments later and Drogba slipped, after easily turning Rocha, to spurn another opportunity.
Quickly, James was brought into action, tipping away Lampard’s crisp strike from distance and, as would be expected, the pattern was set. Portsmouth’s game was containment and occasional forays spearheaded by Frederic Piquionne whose partnership with Aruna Dindane has been shelved, permanently, by the club’s inability to pay the £4 million transfer fee another appearance this season would have triggered.
That easy Chelsea dominance continued and it turned into a gifted advantage.
But what a terrible goal for a previously resolute Portsmouth to concede with Hermann Hreidarsson and Rocha getting in each other’s way as they attempted to clear Deco’s header. Still, the ball ran through to James who went to punt it back up-field from just outside his penalty area. But, with an air shot, the ball bobbled past him — was it the turf, was it his technique? — for Drogba to run on and tap into the net. It was his 14th goal in his last 14 league matches. None will have been simpler while James will have to re-live his mistake time and again.
To add to Portsmouth sense that things were conspiring against them, the goal came soon after Yuri Zhirkov had appeared to foul Jamie O’Hara as he was set to run onto Hreidarsson’s pass. Portsmouth were rocked and soon after Lampard burst through, only to slice his shot under Rocha’s challenge.
Their frustration grew and when Malouda jumped with Rocha he caught the defender with his arm. Hreidarsson howled for a red card and John Terry reacted angrily. Malouda was cautioned but there was also concern for Rocha who appeared to have been rendered unconscious by the challenge and was eventually stretchered off and immediately taken to hospital with a suspected fractured cheekbone.
It has been some return to English football for the former Tottenham defender whose record now reads — six games, sent off twice, carried off once..and made is debut in a 5-0 defeat. Welcome back to the Premier League.
It meant referee Lee Mason quickly become the focus of local anger while, at half-time, Tommy Smith was led from the pitch, blood streaming from his face and looking concussed after being caught by Daniel Sturridge with a flailing arm. It was later claimed he had broken his nose. Carnage. It had been some series of setbacks for Portsmouth.
And their anger rose when it was Malouda, who the home supporters felt should have been dismissed, who scored soon after the interval, latching on to Lampard’s simple, chipped ball forward to lash his angled shot from the corner of the six-yard area across James who was easily beaten. Soon after his arrival, Joe Cole was sent through down the right, only for James to parry his first-time shot.
But Chelsea were now rampant. James blocked Lampard’s powerful shot, only for the rebound to fall to Malouda who hammered it left-footed into the net.
It continued. Mikel’s cross-field pass was chested down by Drogba who was far too strong for Steve Finnan, shrugging him aside and driving past James.
Richard Hughes should have pulled one goal back but somehow headed wide. The rout was completed when Lampard nodded home from close-range in injury-time as Portsmouth crumbled.
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Times
Chelsea close the gap after James provides charity for richPortsmouth 0 Chelsea 5
Matt Hughes Deputy Football Correspondent
In the desperately sad event of the football club going under, Portsmouth should rebrand itself as a spa town because a visit to this port in a storm provides a guaranteed pick-me-up.
Chelsea arrived in a crisis and departed a point behind Manchester United at the top of the Barclays Premier League and level on goal difference. With a visit to Old Trafford to come on Saturday week, their health is fully restored after taking out recent frustrations on their sorry hosts.
The West London club are not playing like champions at the moment despite the one-sided scoreline, but no one among them will remember or even care about that if blue ribbons are attached to the Premier League trophy in May. It will take more than a convincing win over financially and physically crippled opponents to erase the doubts that have surfaced recently, but Carlo Ancelotti’s side appear determined to take the title fight to the finish.
Chelsea laboured until Didier Drogba, Florent Malouda and, finally, Frank Lampard turned a decent contest into a turkey shoot in the second half. If it had been a boxing bout, the referee would have stopped it long before the final whistle, although to judge from the liberal manner in which Malouda and Daniel Sturridge threw their elbows around, it was more like Ultimate Fighting.
If Chelsea do use this thrashing as a springboard for regaining the Premier League title, they may look back on their 32nd-minute opening goal as the turning point of their season, because before then David James had been untroubled. Portsmouth have enough problems without making life more difficult for themselves, but that is exactly what they did, with James guilty of one of the aberrations that have characterised his career. Paul Robinson, his former England team-mate, would no doubt sympathise.
Avram Grant’s players were still complaining that Yuri Zhirkov should have been penalised for a foul on Jamie O’Hara, who was the home side’s best player, when Deco’s header over the top gave them something else to worry about. Ricardo Rocha and Hermann Hreidarsson began the slapstick by colliding with each other in a manner reminiscent of the Chuckle Brothers in their prime, but James upstaged the lot of them, missing the ball after charging out of his goal to present Drogba with a tap-in. The only good news for the England goalkeeper was that Fabio Capello was otherwise engaged at White Hart Lane.
James’s air-shot looked horrific, but he was not helped by a dreadful pitch with more divots than a cabbage patch, all the more unfortunate given that it was the last one prepared by Bob Jones, the club’s long-serving groundsman, before he retired yesterday. James organised a whip-round among the players to keep the groundsman at Portsmouth’s training ground in a job after he was made redundant this month, but he will probably be glad to see the back of Jones.
Portsmouth’s problems — and sense of injustice — increased just before half-time, when they lost two more players to injury and effectively the match. Malouda was booked for raising his arm in a challenge with Rocha that left the Portuguese centre back with a suspected fractured cheekbone, while Sturridge went unpunished despite appearing to elbow Tommy Smith, leaving him with a broken nose.
Ancelotti was adamant that Malouda’s challenge was accidental, although he refrained from commenting on Sturridge, perhaps wisely. The 20-year-old is unlikely to escape for a second time when the match video is passed on to the FA’s disciplinary unit, because the television pictures of contact with Smith’s nose were conclusive.
Portsmouth could have no complaints about Chelsea’s second goal five minutes into the second half, however, after which they threw in the towel. Lampard’s ball down the left found Malouda, who beat Steve Finnan for pace before powering the ball past James from a tight angle for his ninth goal of the season. The France winger has been Chelsea’s most improved player this season and is the only rival to Drogba for the club’s Player of the Year award.
The same combination extended the lead in the 61st minute, with Malouda tapping in the rebound for his second goal after James had saved Lampard’s initial shot, before the visiting team set about erasing United’s advantage in terms of goal difference, which they achieved in some style.
Drogba scored his 30th goal of a remarkable season at the near post after a through-ball from John Obi Mikel in the 77th minute and Lampard grabbed his sixteenth with a close-range header in injury time.
Ancelotti is experienced enough to know that this bullying exercise could count for little in the long run, but seven more wins of any sort will secure Chelsea the title.
Portsmouth (4-5-1): D James — S Finnan, R Rocha (sub: A Basinas, 45min), H Hreidarsson, H Mullins — T Smith (sub: Q Owusu-Abeyie, 46), M Wilson, A Mokoena (sub: Kanu, 71), R Hughes, J O’Hara — F Piquionne. Substitutes not used: J Ashdown, M Brown, A vanden Borre, D Webber. Booked: O’Hara, Hughes, James.
Chelsea (4-3-3): P Cech — P Ferreira, R Carvalho (sub: Alex, 36), J Terry, Y Zhirkov (sub: P van Aanholt, 71) — F Lampard, J O Mikel, Deco — D Sturridge (sub: J Cole, 55), D Drogba, F Malouda. Substitutes not used: R Turnbull, S Kalou, N Anelka, J Bruma. Booked: Malouda, Mikel.
Referee: L Mason.
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Sun:
Portsmouth 0 Chelsea 5
IAN McGARRY at Fratton Park
DON'T be fooled by the hype - this was more classy Chelsea than Calamity James.
True, the Portsmouth keeper came up with another clanger to make sure his nickname will stick a lot longer.
But without the England stopper this might have been 10-0 as Chelsea made sure their title challenge is alive and kicking again.
They arrived at Fratton Park with their credibility, courage and hunger to win the League in question.
But after 94 rain-soaked minutes, Carlo Ancelotti's men left no one in doubt they are not prepared to throw the towel in just yet.
As a response to the disappointment of the games against Inter Milan and Blackburn, this could not have been more positive.
Arsenal are back in third again this morning while Manchester United lead Blues by a solitary point and they are now level on goal difference as well.
Ancelotti had called on his players to show courage, desire and commitment in this game - and they didn't let him down.
From the very off they chased down every ball, went into every tackle and never turned their back on the task.
Pompey will argue Chelsea's aggression went too far at times - especially when Ricardo Rocha was taken off on a stretcher with a suspected broken jaw.
Florent Malouda appeared to lead with his arm in the incident just before half time.
The French winger got off with yellow card and added further injury by scoring two goals.
For Pompey boss Avram Grant, though, the pain started a lot earlier when John Terry headed a clearance from James back towards the home goal. Rocha and Hermann Hreidarsson looked like a pair of circus clowns as they clashed mid-air attempting to clear.
That was nothing though compared to James' wild slash at fresh air which allowed Didier Drogba to walk the ball into an empty net.
He looked almost embarrassed and even waited until his team-mates found him before he dared to celebrate.
Pompey soon suffered another casualty when striker Tommy Smith was taken off with blood pouring from a cut on the bridge of his nose after clashing with Daniel Sturridge and was replaced by Quincy Owusu-Abeyie.
When the teams reappeared it was to the soundtrack of The Great Escape - but it was hard to see Pompey digging themselves out of this one.
It then got a lot worse in the 49th minute when the home defence was caught ball watching.Frank Lampard threaded an excellent ball for Malouda who timed his run in behind the defence before smashing an unstoppable shot past James.
There was nothing he could do about that one!
Still, after the way Portsmouth rallied against Hull Chelsea probably knew they could not take anything for granted.
The casualty list continued to grow when Sturridge was forced off and Joe Cole finally got some game time.
Sporting a new shaven-headed look, he almost got on the scoresheet as well when Lampard put him in but James pulled off another great save to his right.
The veteran keeper's skill was not enough to keep them at bay for long. On the hour he did well to turn away a rasping Lampard drive only to see Malouda react the quickest to bury the rebound.
By now Pompey looked like a team who are already down and most definitely out. However, after having received permission to sell players outside of the transfer window to pay off debts you wouldn't think they would get too much for this lot on this performance.
The re-jigged defence was then caught out with a long ball in behind which saw Drogba bear down and smash home the fourth.
It was the striker's 30th of the season and he is creeping up on his best tally of 33 despite spending a month at the African Nations Cup.
Worryingly for Chelsea, the Ivory Coast ace limped off at the end, though his ankle knock is not thought to be serious. He had still managed to leap to head back a Cole cross for Lamps to complete the rout in the final minute.
After the final whistle, the Blues players applauded their fans and threw their shirts into the crowd.
They knew this was an important win and with seven games left - including a visit to Old Trafford - seven more wins will see them crowned champions. Who'd have thought it three days ago?
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