Independent:
We can win title, insists Lampard after his double sinks Blackpool
Blackpool 1 Chelsea 3
By Tim Rich at Bloomfield Road
Chelsea this morning resemble a politician who has conceded electoral defeat while wondering if they should have asked for a recount. Few teams have won more comfortably at Blackpool and the gap between themselves and Manchester United is now nine points with a game in hand. Were it closer you might just back Chelsea's remorselessness to win through.
On the final whistle, John Terry threw his shirt into the travelling fans amid cries of "We'll never play you again". Chelsea's strength has always been scoring goals from midfield and the combination of Salomon Kalou and Frank Lampard proved far better than the more obvious one between Didier Drogba and Fernando Torres, and for Blackpool it was too much.
"You have to believe," said Lampard when asked whether this result meant Chelsea could still retain their title. "It is a long shot; we have given ourselves a lot to do. The teams at the top have a gap but, if we win all our games, we can do it."
When Chelsea arrived at Bloomfield Road, where they had last been beaten in 1965, a vast sun the colour of a tangerine shirt had sunk into the Irish Sea, which seemed an omen of sorts. Lampard thought the fixture "a banana skin; a Monday night, late in the season," and well though Blackpool fought, Kalou's intervention once Drogba had limped theatrically off, was decisive.
As Ian Holloway mulled over the match, Ian Evatt's challenge on Kalou that led to the critical penalty that gave Chelsea their second goal was being replayed in Bloomfield Road's modest press room. "He could not wait to go down and the referee could not wait to give it," said the Blackpool manager. "But we recognise what we are up against. When David is swinging his sling at Goliath, you need to hit him square in the forehead and we missed."
As he had done at Stamford Bridge against Manchester United last Tuesday night, Lampard finished the penalty emphatically with his father looking down from the stands. Then Kalou promptly slipped through Lampard, who anticipated the move instinctively and almost passed the ball surgically into the corner of Richard Kingson's net.
The result will be given in evidence that Blackpool are in irredeemable freefall and will probably join Wigan in a Lancastrian exodus from the Premier League. Yet the fact that they kept attacking even when the match appeared hopelessly lost is a reason why they might survive. In the last 10 minutes, they carved out four opportunities and took one when Jason Puncheon's run was finished off with a drilled shot past Petr Cech.
His goal did ensure that Blackpool's achievement of scoring in every home fixture since August 2009 was maintained, although so was their failure to keep a clean sheet in their previous 17 matches at Bloomfield Road.
Perhaps it was significant that all the goals came from Chelsea's old firm, the men who will most resolutely stick to the script that the title should not be surrendered just yet. For the first, Lampard delivered the corner and Terry ran through a dual carriageway created by the Blackpool defence to drive his header past Kingson.
This was a contest that delivered a mass of bruises to its participants. Kingson, Michael Essien and David Luiz, all required attention and so too did Jose Bosingwa, although for what nobody was very sure.
Drogba, however, seemed mentally and physically bruised. Being dropped for the seismic victory over Manchester United would have stung. Even though he began this game alongside Torres, he looked thoroughly fed up with events, bemoaning Mike Dean's failure to stop play when Essien was injured and then making it very obvious he wanted to come off.
Just before the interval, as Chelsea counter-attacked, Drogba attempted one of his muscular runs through the centre of defence. The great athlete's body, though, simply failed to respond and no sooner had he been hauled off than Kalou and Lampard put the match to bed. Perhaps the night's real significance was not Chelsea's three points but that this little ground was witnessing the twilight of a champion.
Blackpool (4-5-1): Kingson (Halstead, 66); Eardley, Baptiste, Evatt, Crainey; Puncheon, Southern, Vaughan, Reid (Ormerod 72), Carney (Phillips, 73); Beattie. Substitutes not used Taylor-Fletcher, Grandin, Varney, Kornilenko.
Chelsea (4-4-2): Cech; Bosingwa, Luiz, Terry, Cole; Ramires (McEachran, 74), Essien, Lampard, Zhirkov (Malouda, 72); Drogba (Kalou, 55), Torres. Substitutes not used Turnbull (gk), Ivanovic, Ferreira, Anelka.
Possession Blackpool 42 Chelsea 58.
Attempts on target Blackpool 5 Chelsea 11.
Man of the match Lampard. Match rating 6/10.
Referee M Dean (Wirral). Attendance 15,584.
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Telegraph:
Blackpool 1 Chelsea 3:
By Rory Smith
Some couples just click. Others need to work at their relationship.
That Chelsea now stand nine points behind Manchester United, boasting a game in hand, their Premier League title not yet wholly relinquished, owes rather more to the natural partnership of John Terry and Frank Lampard than the forced union of Fernando Torres and Didier Drogba.
It was from Lampard’s corner that Terry headed Chelsea ahead against a typically spirited Blackpool, and it was the midfielder’s determination to match his captain’s impressive valour that led to the two strikes in four minutes which settled the game. Almost a decade on from their first date, Lampard and Terry are going strong and steady.
Chelsea’s supporters treasure such fidelity: it was their two old stalwarts who left the pitch last, applauded, serenaded, Terry having thrown his shirt into the crowd. It was grandstanding, but it contrasted sharply with the hasty exit made by the men whose flaws he had done much to disguise.
For Torres and Drogba, the sort of longevity the England pair have enjoyed together seems fanciful. It is too soon, after just a month, to suggest they will not last, but the signs are ominous.
The pairing which was supposed to spearhead a new dawn of dominance for Stamford Bridge’s fading empire is yet to ignite.
“They played well together, with good combinations, especially in the first half,” said Carlo Ancelotti of his totems, old and new. “Torres showed good movement with Drogba. We wanted them to spread Blackpool’s defence, and they did that.”
It was a commendable, but flawed, attempt to disguise the fact that the £50 million signing and the man it increasingly seems he was bought to supplant, rather than to complement, continue to look like the most distant of strangers.
Whether Ancelotti can forge a functioning understanding between the two is likely to define whether the Italian remains in his post beyond the summer.
Here, he dropped Nicolas Anelka to the bench and played the Spaniard and the Ivorian together, on their own, for the first time. It was not a resounding success.
One vignette, half an hour in, summed up their evening: Drogba storming forward, ball at his feet, full of grace and menace.
Torres, to his right, burst through, awaiting the through ball; he checked, and burst again. Once more, he checked. The ball never came, Drogba’s tunnel vision leading him down a blind alley.
The two spoke after the incident, Torres explaining what he had required, Drogba seemingly offering profuse apologies, acknowledging that he had erred. There is no evidence as yet that they have found a language in common.
By that stage, their blushes had been partly spared by Terry’s emphatic conversion of Lampard’s corner, the only chance of note the champions fashioned in a first half in which they scarcely deserved the lead.
Indeed, Ancelotti’s side went in counting their lucky stars, even though Ian Holloway was cursing the absence of his.
Without Charlie Adam, DJ Campbell and Craig Cathcart, Blackpool still managed to rattle their opponents.
Jason Puncheon hit the post, David Carney saw Lampard block his shot – both after defender David Luiz had highlighted that he is as much liability as lynchpin – and even Ian Evatt troubled Petr Cech.
“We needed one of those to go in to give us a bit of belief,” said Holloway. “When David is swinging his sling, you need one to hit Goliath right on the forehead, and we just missed with that one. We will keep swinging.” For now, so do Chelsea.
They sealed victory with two goals from Lampard in quick succession, the first a confidently-struck penalty after Evatt was adjudged to have felled Salomon Kalou – “he couldn’t wait to go down, and the referee couldn’t wait to give it”, according to Holloway – and the second a calm conversion from the Ivorian’s through ball.
That it was Kalou who played such a central role was telling: he had replaced Drogba, victim of a hip injury the 32 year-old treated with the dramatic severity of an air gun wound. Chelsea’s menace duly increased.
This is not an imperious Chelsea, even now. Puncheon scored a fine consolation, while Evatt and Brett Ormerod both went close to ensuring a nervous finish.
But the champions held on. Lampard could even suggest afterwards that they may yet win the title: “You have to believe. It is a long shot, but if we win all of our games, we can do it.”
The midfielder is evidently an old romantic. The love affair with the league may not yet be over, but the flame is flickering.
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Guardian:
Chelsea cruise after John Terry hits Blackpool with sucker punch
Paul Wilson at Bloomfield Road
Chelsea won where Tottenham had lost to move three points ahead of their London rivals and strengthen their claim on a Champions League place, though Fernando Torres is still waiting for his first goal in five appearances for his new side.
The visitors tried the dream team here for the first time, Torres paired up front with Drogba, and found the option underwhelming. Drogba was ineffective in the first half and came off early in the second, and it was only when Salomon Kalou took his place that Chelsea began to pull away.
Ian Holloway conceded in advance that Blackpool were not the same team without Charlie Adam and DJ Campbell, both suspended, but promised to do his best with the options available and send out a team to attack.
Having noted that his side conceded a goal every 10 minutes in the fixture at Stamford Bridge the Blackpool manager perhaps ought to have been more worried about his defence, although that has not been the Seasiders' style this season.
"I reckon we still need at least two more wins to stay up but I would have settled for this situation before a ball was kicked," Holloway said. "We're still buoyant."
Chelsea are in a good moment, according to Carlo Ancelotti but they too had some adjustments to make, Drogba starting in place of Nicolas Anelka as they stuck with the two-pronged attack who brought success against Manchester United.
Blackpool began as their manager had promised. David Carney brought the first save of the game from Petr Cech, albeit a fairly routine one, before the same player was presented with a shooting chance by a misjudgment from David Luiz, only to wait a fraction too long and allow José Bosingwa to tidy up.
Chelsea were rather more circumspect about getting players forward, as if hampered by their new 4-4-2 system. With Drogba and Torres permanently in advanced positions Chelsea passed the ball fluently enough across midfield but had difficulty releasing it to the strikers, perhaps missing the greater flexibility of their old system.
Just as Blackpool were congratulating themselves on going almost 20 minutes without conceding a goal, they fell for the sucker punch of allowing their visitors to score from a set piece. Worse than that, it was the well-worn John Terry header from a corner routine. The Chelsea captain timed his run well and once he met Frank Lampard's cross with a free header on the six-yard line there was predictably little Richard Kingson could do to keep the ball out.
Chelsea were able to relax a little after that and play mostly in Blackpool's half of the pitch. Torres saw a shot saved just after the goal, then Bosingwa cut in from the right to release a dipping shot that Kingson had to stretch to tip round his post.
Blackpool found themselves playing on the break, although they also found David Luiz is uncomfortable when ball-carriers take him on. The £20m defender was embarrassed when Jason Puncheon swept easily past him and Cech's attempt at a save was not much better, the goalkeeper touching the shot on to his upright and being relieved to see the ball bounce back out. Cech also had to be alert to deal with a cross from Evatt that threatened to catch him out at his far post.
By half time there was no real sign of the Torres-Drogba partnership developing into anything close to an understanding. On one occasion Drogba was so busy lecturing Torres about the space he should have run into that he neglected to notice the ball was still in play and Blackpool were bringing it out of defence. This is a work in progress, though the pair do not seem quite ready to terrorise Champions League defences.
Drogba was hurt in a collision with James Beattie while helping out his defence in the 50th minute, and spent the next five minutes letting the Chelsea bench know he was in far too much pain to continue. To jeers from the crowd Drogba variously clutched his back, wandered towards the tunnel and pulled out of a challenge with Alex Baptiste so that an initially reluctant Ancelotti had no choice but to allow him to come off, sending on Kalou as a replacement.
Ironically, Torres and Kalou combined almost immediately for Chelsea's second goal. It was only a penalty, and a softish one at that, yet it was more than Drogba and Torres had achieved together in the entire first half. Taking the ball from Ashley Cole on the left, Torres showed instant control to turn and play the ball forward into Kalou's path, only for Ian Evatt to stretch out a leg and invite a tumble.
Lampard beat Kingson from the spot and then again from open play three minutes later, this time Kalou turning provider with a measured diagonal pass. Torres did bring a save from Mark Halstead before the end, Blackpool having switched goalkeeper after the third goal, but Chelsea were unable to match the four goals they scored in September. Adam and Campbell played in that match, yet still Blackpool will feel better once they return.
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Mail:
Blackpool 1 Chelsea 3: Frank Lampard double keeps Blues' title hopes alive
By Chris Wheeler
When Roman Abramovich paid out £50million for Fernando Torres in January he had every reason to expect a little bang for his buck, both in the Spaniard's goals output and his ability to bring the best out of Didier Drogba.
The Chelsea owner has been disappointed on both counts.
Less than a week after David Luiz's volley set up a vital win over Manchester United, Carlo Ancelotti's side relied on goals from another defender, John Terry, and two more from Frank Lampard for a victory that cut the gap on the leaders to nine points. Chelsea also have a game in hand.
It would appear the title race is still alive for them even if the partnership between their star strikers is not. Torres and Drogba looked like a pair of reluctant strangers thrown together at Bloomfield Road.
It was the first time they have started together without Nicolas Anelka in tow, and how they played like it. After five games, Torres is no nearer his first goal since arriving for that record fee from Liverpool, despite facing a team with the worst defensive record in the Barclays Premier League.
At times last night he cut the kind of isolated figure so often evident during his final few months at Anfield. Drogba, who has not scored since January himself, was no better.
He even frustrated Chelsea fans with his histrionics after a bang on the hip from James Beattie early in the second half before making a sullen exit after 55 minutes.
While he sat forlornly on the bench wearing Ancelotti's overcoat, his replacement Salomon Kalou had a hand in Lampard's two goals.
Even then a Chelsea side that looked far from comfortable at the back - David Luiz particularly vulnerable - were fortunate to concede only one late goal, from Jason Puncheon.
Afterwards Ancelotti defended Torres, saying: 'He will score and I'm very happy with him. He was showing good movement with Drogba in the first half and he's working for the team. Game by game, he will improve.'
The Chelsea boss insisted the title is still beyond his side, but Lampard said: 'You have to believe. It's a long shot and we've given ourselves a lot to do, but if we win all our games we can do it.
'I don't know if we've been given a second chance in the title race. It's too early to say. But it's nice to be looking upwards rather than fighting to be top four.'
Blackpool may have beaten Liverpool and Tottenham at Bloomfield Road this season, while pushing both Manchester clubs all the way in 3-2 defeats, but the prospect of a first home win over Chelsea in 46 years was always remote without the suspended Charlie Adam and DJ Campbell, who have scored more than a third of Blackpool's goals in the top flight.
Blackpool made a bright start last night, David Carney worrying Jose Bosingwa down the Chelsea right, but fell behind to Terry's 20thminute header.
Roger Kingson had made a fine double save to deny Torres and Bosingwa but had no chance when the Chelsea skipper stole in unmarked to meet Lampard's corner with a firm close-range header.
It was the eighth goal by a Chelsea defender this season, and very welcome on a night when their attackers were hardly flying.
Ancelotti's side were four up against Blackpool by half-time at Stamford Bridge in September and at this stage you would have backed them to grab another before the interval. In fact they were lucky not to be behind.
On 33 minutes, Puncheon seized on Yury Zhirkov's careless flick in midfield and surged past Luiz before rifling in a low rightfoot effort that Peter Cech pushed unconvincingly against a post.
Lampard then got back well to block Carney's goalbound shot and Cech clawed away Ian Evatt's cross as it looked to be drifting in.
The introduction of Kalou proved decisive, however, as the Ivory Coast striker linked up with Torres in the 62nd minute, racing on to the Spaniard's clever pass before going down under Evatt's lunge.
Blackpool boss Ian Holloway was unhappy referee Mike Dean's penalty award, which enabled Lampard to despatch a rightfooted kick wide of Kingson. 'The penalty was the key moment,' said Holloway.
'We were a bit naïve but the referee couldn't wait to give it and the bloke couldn't wait to fall over.'
Four minutes later it was game over as Kalou slipped the ball through for Lampard to stroke home the third.
Puncheon drilled a shot past Cech from the edge of the area in the 86th minute, and substitute Brett Ormerod and Evatt went close to another in the dying moments.
Puncheon's goal means both teams have scored in every game at Bloomfield Road this season and kept Blackpool above West Bromwich Albion on goals scored.
Holloway said: 'We didn't think we deserved that but when David's swinging his sling at Goliath you have to hit him in the forehead.
'Everything will be a factor in the fight for survival - confidence, team spirit, courage, attitude. If people stay up with that, we have a hell of a chance.'
Blackpool v Chelsea - match facts
BLACKPOOL (4-3-3): Kingson 7
(Halstead 66min, 6); Crainey 6, Evatt 6,
Baptiste 6, Eardley 6; Carney 7
(Phillips 73, 6), Vaughan 7, Southern 6;
Puncheon 7, Reid 6 (Ormerod 73, 6),
Beattie 5. Subs not used: Taylor-Fletcher,
Grandin, Varney, Kornilenko.
CHELSEA (4-4-2): Cech 6; Bosingwa 5,
Terry 7, Luiz 5, Cole 6; Lampard 8,
Essien 6, Ramires 6 (McEachran 75),
Zhirkov 6 (Malouda 72, 6); Torres 5,
Drogba 5 (Kalou 55, 6). Subs not used:
Turnbull, Ivanovic, Ferreira, Anelka.
Man of the match: Frank Lampard.
Referee: Mike Dean 6.
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Sun:
Blackpool 1 Chelsea 3
By DAVID FACEY
FRANK LAMPARD and John Terry showed Fernando Torres how to do it as Chelsea proved they are not ready to surrender the title just yet.
Terry headed the opener and Lampard struck twice as Blues cashed in on Manchester United and Arsenal dropping points at the weekend.
They are still nine points adrift of leaders United with a game in hand - but this time last week that gap was 15
And after beating United a week ago then seeing Alex Ferguson's side crash to Liverpool, Carlo Ancelotti's side are entitled to wonder whether the title race could yet have a dramatic twist.
Their cause will certainly be helped if they get a few more dodgy decisions like the one that saw ref Mike Dean give a 62nd-minute penalty when Ian Evatt won the ball but upended Salomon Kalou in the process.
Even Chelsea's players seemed surprised. But with Torres looking on longingly as he stumbled towards a fifth successive blank, Lamps coolly slotted the ball home for the killer second goal.
Blackpool boss Ian Holloway went crazy on the touchline - but he was also furious with his defence when Lamps timed his run superbly to drill Kalou's pass home for the clincher.
Jason Puncheon maintained the Seasiders' record of scoring in every home match this term, drilling low past Petr Cech in the dying minutes.
But that was scant consolation as they crashed to their eighth defeat in nine games and slipped even closer to the drop zone.
Chelsea skipper Terry was left criminally unmarked to meet Lampard's corner with a bullet header and put his side ahead on 20 minutes.
It was the first time either side had looked threatening, although David Carney should have tried his luck after a blunder by David Luiz let in the Blackpool man.
At the other end, Richard Kingson threw himself bravely at Didier Drogba's feet, although the keeper was lucky to trap the ball between his outstretched leg while the Chelsea striker shook his head in disbelief.
Torres was enduring another frustrating match, constantly straying offside. And when the £50million striker finally managed to fire off a shot, it was charged down by the impressive Alex Baptiste.
Jose Bosingwa then forced an acrobatic save from Kingson and Torres' header across the face of goal caused further alarm as the home fans started to question why their side appeared to be inviting Chelsea on to them.
They seemed almost over-awed by the prospect of taking on the champions without skipper Charlie Adam and star striker DJ Campbell - both ruled out by bans - and the Seasiders gave their fans nothing to cheer in the first half hour.
But that changed dramatically when Puncheon cleverly skipped around Luiz and charged through on goal. His shot lacked power but Cech allowed it to slip through his grasp, and the Czech keeper breathed a huge sigh of relief when the ball cannoned back off the post.
That seemed to give Blackpool the confidence they had lacked and the crowd came to life as Bosingwa had to throw himself in front of Carney's drive, before Cech clawed Evatt's lobbed effort away from under his crossbar.
Andy Reid had suddenly established himself as the dominant figure in a midfield previously ruled by Lampard, and Puncheon almost got on the end of a cross from James Beattie as the home team continued to push up.
But Blackpool never look entirely secure at the back and, just before the break Ramires unleashed a shot that was destined for the far corner until Kingson saved acrobatically.
Blackpool also started the second half on top but Ancelotti's decision to replace the ineffective Drogba with Kalou proved a masterstroke.
As well as winning that penalty and setting up Lampard's second goal, he even managed to make Torres look good.
That should certainly earn him a starting spot in the very near future.
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Star:
BLACKPOOL 1 CHELSEA 3: FRANK LAMPARD AND JOHN TERRY LIVE IT UP ON SEASIDE JOLLY
By Kevin Francis
FRANK LAMPARD and John Terry combined to fire Chelsea to a seaside romp last night.
Lampard took a right-wing corner that should, in all honesty, have been comfortably cleared by the Blackpool defence.
But nobody in the crowded goalmouth seemed to want the responsibility and the Seasiders paid a heavy prize.
Terry just couldn’t believe his luck as he was allowed to jump to it and power home a free header for his fourth goal of the season.
However, Lampard wasn’t about to be outshined by his skipper, wrapping up the three points with two goals in three
second-half minutes.
Substitute Salomon Kalou was integral in both goals, with the Ivory Coast star brought down in the box by defender Ian Evatt in the 63rd minute.
Having scored from the spot to see off Manchester United in Chelsea’s last match, Lampard coolly fired home from 12 yards once again.
And the Three Lions midfielder claimed his brace in the 66th minute when he collected Kalou’s neat pass and slotted the ball into the bottom corner.
Having broken the deadlock midway through the first half, Chelsea looked certain to go further ahead just three minutes later, but keeper Richard Kingson came to Blackpool’s rescue.
Jose Boswinga cut in from the right before sending in a curling left-foot shot that Kingson turned away one-handed.
Boswinga’s effort was excellent, but his play-acting just a few minutes later was completely out of order.
He was pushed off the ball by Stephen Crainey, but despite the contact being minimal, he rolled on the deck in agony until realising it was a pointless exercise.
Blackpool came desperately close to equalising in the 33rd minute after Jason Puncheon easily picked up a bad Yuri Zhirkov back pass.
Chelsea keeper Petr Cech seemed to see his low shot late and could only fumble it on to a post.
Then it was the turn of Kingson to once again come to Blackpool’s aid, palming away an effort from Ramires.
It was a game in which Chelsea, looking to keep their title hopes alive, were determined to attack at every conceivable opportunity.
They had given Blackpool an early taste of their intentions with a close call after just three minutes.
Lampard took a free-kick from 27 yards out and flighted the ball right into the danger zone.
Michael Essien produced a magical flick on, but £50m man Fernando Torres just couldn’t get his head to the ball.
Torres, partnering Didier Drogba – Nicolas Anelka was on the bench – always looked a threat.
The Spaniard was quick to let the Blackpool rearguard know he was around and was always pushing into dangerous positions.
Chelsea’s early dominance was proof of what most people expected – that Blackpool, despite their adventurous ways, would always be up against it.
After all, they did have the massive handicap of being without their leading scorers DJ Campbell and Charlie Adam,
who were both suspended.
However, they weren’t afraid to attack whenever the opportunity arose, with David Carney always looking particularly lively.
He had one fiercely struck right-foot effort well taken by Cech early on and was generally a real thorn in the side of the visitors.
And as their confidence grew, despite the almost non-stop pressure, they frequently caused havoc at the back for Chelsea.
While gulf in class between the Seasiders and Chelsea is clear, Ian Holloway’s men can certainly match any opposition when it comes to grit and determination.
Anyone who doubts that need only look at the way in which Cech frequently came to Chelsea’s aid in a game where he hardly expected to be as busy as he was.
Blackpool carried on plugging away after the interval, with James Beattie regularly in the thick of things up front.
But the Seasiders’ search for an equaliser went unrewarded as Lampard’s double-quick blast sealed the points for the resurgent Blues.
However, the hosts never threw in the towel, with Puncheon grabbing a fine consolation effort four minutes from time.
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