west brom 0-1

Independent:

McAuley adds to gloom for embattled Villas-Boas

West Bromwich Albion 1 Chelsea 0:

Upwardly mobile Albion make light of history to leave Chelsea manager on the brink

DAVID INSTONE THE HAWTHORNS

No longer can many ports be considered safe for Andre Villas-Boas in the storm surrounding him. Chelsea had beaten West Bromwich Albion in their previous 15 top-flight meetings and scored more goals against them than any other Premier League side.
But defeat, courtesy of a Gareth McAuley goal eight minutes from time, added further pain to a day that had started going horribly wrong with Arsenal's lunchtime victory at Liverpool. The smoke sensors that did their job amid more high jinks at Chelsea's training ground on Friday are not the only alarms sounding at the club.
There's now clear daylight between the London rivals in the race for the final Champions' League place and neither this result nor the limp performance that brought it about will do anything to reduce the enormous pressure on Villas-Boas.
"It was very poor in all senses of the word," the Portuguese manager said. "It wasn't up to the Chelsea standard. We did extremely badly. West Brom were far superior on the day and full credit to them. They got what they deserved."
Danny Blanchflower was in charge at Stamford Bridge when Albion, by an identical score in March 1979, had last beaten these opponents in the top division. And despite a glaring stoppage-time miss by an otherwise anonymous Frank Lampard, there could be no great argument over the merits of the outcome.
Albion were the better side in the second half, are up four places to ninth and have won three successive Premier League games for the first time since 2002. Roy Hodgson for England, anyone?
As the Albion manager's star rises, the spotlight on a counterpart barely half his age remains intense. The dozens of cameras pointed at the Chelsea dug-out just before kick-off were unlikely to have been for Roberto Di Matteo, warm though the reception was from the stands for the man who led Albion to promotion two years ago.
The Stamford Bridge assistant was quickly reminded that the team he left behind are in good shape as James Morrison's deliberately-sliced 20-yard shot had Petr Cech arching his back to tip over.
Although Marc-Antoine Fortuné snatched at a half-chance that disappeared into the side netting following Gary Cahill's poor attempt at a clearance, Albion were clearly in the mood following their successive four-goal wins over Wolverhampton Wanderers and Sunderland.
They needed to be resolute to keep their goal intact, though, and one headed block by Morrison seemed crucial, with Cahill's free left-foot shot from near the penalty spot apparently on target.
Chelsea edged a first half in which Juan Mata's usually sure touch deserted him as Ben Foster denied him at a tight angle and, either side of the interval, Albion were also reprieved by the wastefulness of Daniel Sturridge. The forward was passed fit despite the toe injury he suffered with England in midweek but he may have wished he had given his native West Midlands a miss after driving wide of a largely unguarded net when picked out by Didier Drogba.
Then, as Steven Reid collapsed in a heap with an ankle problem, Mata curled an inviting pass into his path, only for Sturridge to be outwitted by the out-rushing Foster 30 yards from goal when he was very much first to the ball.
Albion, having threatened just before the break when a shot by the outstanding Youssouf Mulumbu was deflected wide off Cahill, grew in assurance and chances came in abundance. Fortuné smashed straight at Cech following an Ashley Cole error and followed Mulumbu in stretching the keeper from outside the area and Liam Ridgewell skimmed the roof of the net with a header. Keith Andrews was another frequent threat and the substitute Chris Brunt was inches away from marking his return from a two-month foot injury with a goal.
Under pressure from Brunt close in, there was also one brilliant clearance by Cole, who left his side with 10 men when he was helped off in stoppage-time with an ankle problem. But the winner eventually came from an unlikely source.
Andrews helped the ball back in when Brunt's corner was half-cleared by Cech and although Ridgewell's shot was going wide, McAuley stretched to turn it home left-footed from four yards. At the end, Lampard side-footed Cole's pull-back wide from six yards and that was that. AVB KO'd by WBA.
"Of course I sympathise and empathise with him," said Hodgson, some 14 months on from finding himself under similar criticism at Liverpool. "Football isn't about unmitigated success. There are moments of failure in your career as well.
"Andre has been very successful and has come here with high expectations. It hasn't gone as well as he would have liked but it is early days. We played well. It was a good performance from start to finish."

West Bromwich (4-3-3): Foster; Reid (Tamas 57), McAuley, Olsson, Ridgewell; Andrews, Mulumbu, Morrison; Odemwingie, Fortune (Long 84), Thomas (Brunt 63).

Chelsea (4-3-3): Cech; Ivanovic (Meireles 84), Cahill, Luiz, Cole; Ramires, Essien (Torres 76), Lampard; Sturridge (Malouda 63), Drogba, Mata.

Referee Phil Dowd.
Man of the match Mulumbu (West Bromwich).
Match rating 7/10.


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Observer:

Gareth McAuley's late goal gives West Bromwich Albion win over Chelsea
Jamie Jackson at The Hawthorns

The tap-dancing around the Chelsea grave of André Villas-Boas continues. This defeat from a late Gareth McAuley winner may already be causing the coffin to be lined and the pallbearers put on stand-by. West Bromwich Albion dominated this game, especially after the break, and it may now be a question of when, rather than if, Roman Abramovich decides the time has come for AVB to hear the executioner's song.Chelsea had won every one of their 11 previous Premier League encounters with Albion. The last occasion West Brom enjoyed a victory over them was on New Year's Day 1984, in a League Cup fixture. You have to leaf further back in the annals, nearly 33 years ago to the day, to find the previous time Chelsea went down in the league to the West Midlands club when Danny Blanchflower was the London side's manager and West Brom won 1-0 here in the old First Division.The defensive chaos that has become so familiar to Blues watchers this season continued with only the excellent Ashley Cole excused and David Luiz once more the chief culprit in a display peppered by the misjudgment that suggests he is liable to always be found out at this level. For the goal that may come to be known as the one that consigned Villas-Boas to an embarrassing footnote in Chelsea's history, his rearguard failed to clear a Keith Andrews cross from the left: when the ball broke to McAuley he smashed home.Chelsea had been unchanged from the side who beat Bolton Wanderers 3-0 at Stamford Bridge last weekend. This meant Frank Lampard continued in the starting XI and as captain – in John Terry's absence – despite the midfielder's strained relationship with Villas-Boas, whose latest lesson in man-management came on Friday when he informed his squad that they were, in case they thought otherwise, inferior to Manchester City's.As if to emphasise that his manager was talking straight it was Lampard who made the first error, giving away possession and allowing the home side to initiate the first of what would be numerous attacks.When they poured forward, which was often, Albion posed Chelsea too many awkward questions for a side supposedly among the elite of the division.The unit of Peter Odemwingie, James Morrison, Jerome Thomas and Marc-Antoine Fortuné continually pushed on to the Chelsea backline and might have scored many times.One illustration came when Odemwingie found Thomas, who found Morrison who, with the outside of sweet right boot, forced Petr Cech to rise and make a fine fingertip save to his left.As with England in midweek, Daniel Sturridge was the brightest light in the Chelsea attack, though he would be replaced later. A flipped ball from his right-hand berth found Juan Mata who, with his favoured left boot, should not have sliced the finish.After 14 minutes a Ramires-Michael Essien-Didier Drogba move ended with Mata this time forcing a sharp save from Ben Foster, who impressed all afternoon. From the corner, Essien's shot was blocked.Chelsea's best chance of the period fell to Sturridge. Drogba, dropping deep, swept a sweet ball from the right-hand corridor to his striking partner but after a neat first touch Sturridge's attempt went wide of Foster's left post.To prosper and relieve the incessant pressure on their manager, Chelsea needed to score during this passage. They pressed but could not find that moment where belief meets execution to provide the killer touch. Gary Cahill had a goal-bound effort from a Lampard corner blocked, and when Youssouf Mulumbu's mazy run took him into the Chelsea area he might have opened the scoring. This time Cahill provided the deflection.Sturridge is yet to offer the consistent dazzling end product of a premier performer. After the break, Mata profited from Steven Reid's inability to intercept near halfway when the defender went down unmolested and injured, and subsequently had to be replaced. The Spaniard looked up before expertly finding the space between Sturridge and the on-rushing Foster. But the forward, in attempting a dummy reminiscent of Pelé's for Brazil at the 1970 World Cup, took not just the keeper but himself out of the equation. As he ran to retrieve the ball it spun away to safety.This got Sturridge taken off in favour of Florent Malouda but West Brom took hold of the game and the artillery rained in on Cech's goal. The latest trademark error from David Luiz – he should have hoofed the ball to safety along his left touchline – allowed Fortuné to collect, and he ran at Cech before his shot forced a corner from the keeper's save.Moments later, a further defensive mix-up again took the ball to Fortuné and from 25 yards he unloaded a piledriver that Cech again beat away.Cole, scurrying back desperately, was next up to save his side, narrowly getting a desperate boot in ahead of the substitute Chris Brunt to clear danger from an incoming cross from the left. Earlier in the day Arsenal had travelled to Anfield to collect a vital 2-1 win over Liverpool that left Chelsea requiring the win here to draw back alongside their rivals. McAuley's finish ended those hopes. It also raises the spectre of the club failing to qualify for the Champions League for the first time since Abramovich became owner in 2003.And, it could yet end the employment – and agony – of Villas-Boas by the trigger-happy Russian.


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Telegraph:

West Bromwich Albion 1 Chelsea 0
By Oliver Brown, The Hawthorns

Beaten, befuddled, bewildered. André Villas-Boas has projected many moods at these moments of extremis for Chelsea, but the dominant impression was one of utter helplessness.
The beleaguered Chelsea manager, maintaining his now-familiar crouching pose on the edge of the technical area, watched Gareth McAuley lash in West Bromwich Albion’s late winning goal with a mixture of horror and incredulity. It appeared, after all his wild gestures and exhortations, that he had run out of ideas.
Home fans’ chants of “You’re getting sacked in the morning,” which had been rippling around the stadium all afternoon, assumed real volume and resonance.
Roman Abramovich, a man who likes to set winning the Champions League as a minimum requirement for his managers, will have to adjust this morning to the sight of his club in fifth place in the Premier League, and falling fast.
Does the owner convey public support for Villas-Boas, or bite a £10?million bullet and put the man out of his misery? The Russian’s very silence on the subject is leaving Chelsea in a perilous state of limbo.
An account of a rambunctious afternoon in the West Midlands would be incomplete without stressing the qualities of West Brom: a team “far superior”, as Villas-Boas acknowledged, in all aspects.
But the abiding memory was of Chelsea’s ineptitude. Frank Lampard looked half-paced, Gary Cahill looked out of his depth, and Fernando Torres — making a sorrowful late substitute’s appearance — just looked like a spare part.
It is a worry for any team when the goalkeeper can make claims to be man of the match. And yet without Petr Cech’s series of inspired saves under a sustained second-half bombardment from West Brom, Chelsea’s embarrassment could have been even more abject. Ashley Cole was about the only other player in blue and white who provided anything approaching the required intensity.
Villas-Boas’ predicament was so acute that Roy Hodgson, the West Brom manager, felt compelled to extend his sympathy. “The day when we coaches do not empathise with fellow members of our profession is a sad day for football,” the 64 year-old said. “But he doesn’t need advice. He’s a very successful manager. To build a team takes time.”
Time, however, is what Villas-Boas lacks. The suave Portuguese, as honest as ever in accepting Chelsea’s deficiencies here, finds his future measured more in days than months.
The question after a defeat as galling as this was not if he could survive long enough to see out the season, or to overturn a 3-1 deficit to Napoli in the Champions League, but whether he would even be in charge for Tuesday night’s FA Cup fifth-round replay at Birmingham.
Whispers are spreading that the Abramovich guillotine is about to fall.
The certainty is that this situation cannot continue. Villas-Boas cuts a figure both physically and politically removed from his team. Abramovich refuses to back him openly, and the days when the players would rally around him after a goal already seem half a lifetime ago.
Chelsea floundered yesterday in the face of West Brom’s superior self-belief. The confidence had been sparked by two emphatic wins over Wolves and Sunderland, and was palpable from the outset.
Striker Peter Odemwingie shouldered extra expectation as the Premier League’s player of the month, although the Nigerian’s first touch went awry when he tried to latch on to Liam Ridgewell’s floating ball at the far post.
The home side held a monopoly on early attacks, drawing an agile save from Petr Cech as the Chelsea goalkeeper was forced to tip James Morrison’s drive over the bar.
Villas-Boas’ men sought to respond but the pace was too languid. Sturridge, intercepting a half-hearted pass from Jonas Olsson, laid the ball off to Juan Mata, but the Spaniard skewed wide with his abortive volley.
Mata did his best to animate his team-mates with some deft one-touch football, although Ben Foster proved alert when Chelsea’s slippery No?10 finally dispatched a shot in anger. Daniel Sturridge, teed up by Didier Drogba’s fine cross from the right, managed to stumble over his own feet before dragging his shot wide.
Villas-Boas stalked back to the bench looking thunderous.
Whenever the action drifted towards the touchline, Villas-Boas morphed into a 12th Chelsea player, all whirling hand motions and extravagant tantrums.
He was either flinging rebukes at Juan Mata or demonstrating to Michael Essien how to dribble. If his team exhibited even half the energy he appears to expend during 90 minutes in the technical area, they would be leading this league.
Sturridge miscued again, trying to outsmart Foster with a mazy run, but instead allowing the goalkeeper to clear. Villas-Boas exuded a certain desperation as stalemate persisted in the second half. Replacing the effervescent Sturridge with the creaky Florent Malouda was not the most progressive step.
Then the Hawthorns was treated to the spectacle of Fernando Torres ambling into the action.
Cech was forced to make a superb low block from Marc-Antoine Fortune, before palming over Youssouf Mulumbu’s powerful strike. Chelsea, chasing a winner, would leave themselves open at the back once too often.
With eight minutes remaining, Ridgewell scuffed a shot and Keith Andrews crossed for McAuley to thump home the loose ball.
For Villas-Boas, the misery was complete.


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Mail:

West Bromwich 1 Chelsea 0: McAuley's late strike heaps the pressure on AVB
By PATRICK COLLINS

Andre Villas-Boas confronted his crisis with a remarkable display of dignity and candour.
He answered every question, accepted every criticism and took personal responsibility for the state of his football club.
Had the Chelsea players revealed even a flickering of their manager's honesty, then their abysmal season might have been saved.
For their display at The Hawthorns was more than a defeat, it was a wretched concession; a listless, feeble, shoulder-shrugging apology of a performance.
Had they been actively plotting to jettison an unwanted manager, then this was precisely how they might have gone about it.
Villas-Boas reacted with controlled contempt: 'Very poor, in all senses of the word … not good enough … they were far, far superior … a poor, poor display … this is just too bad.'
With every phrase, every word, he widened the chasm which separates him from several of his players.
Clearly, things cannot go on like this. Either the truculent, self-protecting cabal of senior pros must be shown the door or the manager must start to pack his bags.
Given the way Roman Abramovich has traditionally run his club, Villas-Boas is unlikely to survive the season; indeed, he may not see out the week.
In truth, he seemed to realise the hopelessness of his position long before this latest defeat - the seventh of the Premier League season - became reality.
He selected several of the old lags: Frank Lampard, the captain, Didier Drogba, Ashley Cole, Michael Essien.
Cole, as his manager would acknowledge, worked hard against the tide. The rest were irrelevant.
And Albion are not the team one would choose to face in such circumstances. True, they do not possess an embarrassment of talent, but Roy Hodgson has them organised, bright and making the very best of what they have.
On the day, what they had was far too much for Chelsea.
They attacked with pace and intelligence, doing the simple, pragmatic things quickly and coinfidently. In Congo midfielder Youssouf Mulumbu they could offer the game's most significant figure. Constantly, he drove forward with power and menace, devouring space and causing chaos. Chelsea had nothing resembling his will or his energy.
Even so, they made chances, most of them hurried and hopeful and the best two falling to Daniel Sturridge, who squandered the pair.
There was no real sense that Albion were in any danger, certainly their followers were confidence itself.
They had not defeated Chelsea since Danny Blanchflower was the west London club's manager back in 1979. But after 20 minutes or so of faltering incompetence, they concluded that they had little to beat. 'Champions' League? You're 'Avin a Laff,' they sang.
Chances are they were right. Villas-Boas struck his customary pose in the technical area; a nervous, crouching, pleading figure whose instructions are ignored and whose pleas are brusquely rejected.
On one occasion, he called over Lampard for an earnest message. It was not a meeting of minds. Perhaps the acting captain was distracted by his own inadequacies.
Even Lampard's most besotted admirers, and he has a few, would have been hard pressed to portray his tepid display as anything significant.
Yet the goal Albion deserved would not come, while Villas-Boas made several despairing substitutiuons - including the introduction of Fernando Torres - in an effort to appease the gods.
Then, in the 82nd minute, the dam broke. Pressure built with crosses and corners. Big men crowded Chelsea's six-yard box.
Petr Cech stretched uncomfortably to touch away the latest cross, but it was chipped back by Keith Andrews.
Liam Ridgewell smeared a mis-hit drive but centre-back Gareth McAuley shoved out a leg, and the old ground went wonderfully insane.
Chelsea were allowed one chance of redemption, in added time, when Cole slashed a ball across the six-yard box and Lampard ghosted in to meet it. But this was too fast to control and a kind of justice was done.
Villas-Boas turned away, shaking his head, awaiting the relief of the final whistle.
When it came, he shook Hodgson's hand, threw a wistful look across the pitch and buckled his raincoat belt before being swallowed up by the blue-walled tunnel.
The Albion fans, revealing the enduring compassion of football supporters, sang 'You're Getting Sacked in the Morning'. And followed it, intriguingly, with The Lord is My Shepherd.
But Andre Villas-Boas was gone, preparing to face what fate has stored for him.
An hour later, he would deliver his remarks with style and class. Yet still they sounded like his professional obituary.

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Mirror:

They have started an investigation at Chelsea into a smoke grenade that was let off in the junior dressing rooms at the training ground.
But that was nothing compared to what will follow the bomb that West Brom defender Gareth McAuley put under Andre Villas-Boas yesterday.
McAuley, who had never played a Premier League game before this season, was all on his own in the six-yard box to score eight minutes from the end.
It’s a goal that could have explosive consequences, leaving Roman Abramovich’s club three points outside the top four, facing exit from the Champions League and having to manage a tricky FA Cup replay in two days time at Birmingham for good measure.
Villas-Boas admitted: “A goal earlier would have given us an extra motivation, but to be fair I don’t think we deserved anything.
“During the 90 mintues West Brom had a fair ­percentage of chances, they were superior, they ­managed to give us lots of problems, there was good intensity in their game and I think you have to give credit where it is due. We were not good enough.”
Delighted West Brom boss Roy Hodgson said: “I did think we played well, the performance was good form start to finish and was made even better because we had changes forced on us during the match by injury.
“We can feel as a team very proud of our performance. At any time in this League when you win three games in a row you must be happy.”
When AVB was first at Stamford Bridge in the Jose Mourinho era, he built his reputation by producing ­detailed scouting reports of the opposition.
It didn’t need detail to describe his Chelsea team yesterday. You could do it in one word – ordinary. And the morale of the side was summed up when barely six of their players could be bothered to go to the visiting fans at the final whistle while the rest disappeared down the tunnel.
Significantly that group included Frank Lampard and Didier Drogba, two of the players AVB is trying to usher towards the exit door.
But on this showing there’s every chance it will be the young manager who is packing his bags and leaving first.
Albion, on the back of a 4-0 win over Sunderland, snapped into tackles from the off and Chelsea’s players didn’t fancy it.
West Brom had not taken so much as a point off Chelsea in 11 previous meeting in the Premier league, but clearly thought there would never be a better day to change that record.
The game was barely a minute old when Keith ­Andrews hit Frank Lampard with a crunching but fair tackle that set the tone. And with only seven minutes gone, Petr Cech had to stretch to tip a fierce drive by James Morrison over the bar – the first of a string of saves.
Striker Marc Antoine Fortune was full of energy with his bright yellow boots blazing a trail that was testing the partnership of Gary Cahill and David Luiz.
Hodgson added: “Fortune has been immense for us. He is getting anxious about scoring a goal but he shouldn’t because he is playing so well for the team and he caused their defenders all sorts of problems.”
With half an hour gone AVB switched Luiz to right-back and Branislav Ivanovic to centre-back to try to deal with Fortune.
Amazingly, that particular switch lasted no more than 10 minutes as Chelsea returned to plan A. Or was it B? None of their defenders seemed to know what they were doing.
True, Daniel Sturridge missed a chance either side of half time, but that was a brief punctuation to the ­overall pattern.
And the goal when it came was more than deserved. Keith Andrews was in space to get the ball from a deep Chris Brunt corner, his centre fell for Liam Ridgewell, and McAuley joyfully turned the ball in.
It was West Brom’s first win over Chelsea for 33 years. The consequences of the victory could be explosive..

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Sun:

West Brom 1 Chelsea 0

This defeat may not have been enough for Roman Abramovich to hit the panic button and fire his malfunctioning boss — yet.
But after losing a league match to West Brom for the first time since 1979, Chelsea dropped a staggering TWENTY points behind Manchester City and three behind fourth-placed Arsenal.
It is clear the Portuguese manager now needs a massive Champions' League win against Napoli if he is to avoid being bombed out before the season ends.
Robin van Persie had piled even more pressure on AVB prior to kick-off, when his late winner at Anfield made this a must-win game for the Blues if they were to keep up with Arsenal.
At any other time, it would have been a simple enough task against a Baggies side who had never taken as much as a point off the Londoners in 11 previous Premier League attempts.
Nothing, though, is simple for Chelsea these days. And it was just AVB's luck that he should hit The Hawthorns the moment Albion have hit top form.
They had rattled in nine goals in their last two games against Wolves and Sunderland.
There was certainly little to choose between the sides in an evenly-matched game, which crackled along at cup-tie pace.
James Morrison gave the visitors an early warning of what lay in store, when he rifled in a 30-yarder after eight minutes which Petr Cech expertly touched over with a flick of his left wrist. At the other end, Juan Mata's connection was not as sweet as he completely fluffed his attempted volley from Daniel Sturridge's cross.
Chelsea were beginning to get into their stride and Ben Foster got his angles right after 14 minutes, beating out Mata's fiercely hit shot after Ramires, Michael Essien and Didier Drogba had combined to set up the little Spaniard.
Morrison was finding acres of space in the middle of the park, as Ramires and Lampard seemed strangely out of touch.
Fortunately for Chelsea, Essien was covering enough ground for both and formed a one-man barrier after 20 minutes to head away a Morrison rocket which would have troubled Cech.
Gary Cahill came close to breaking the deadlock when he pounced on Steven Reid's clearance from a Lampard corner and smashed in a shot from the penalty spot. But Morrison this time put his head on the line to clear.
AVB used a break in play to have a lengthy and animated tactics talk with Ramires and Sturridge and Chelsea responded.
First Essien fired in a brilliant right-foot volley, which produced a fantastic save from Foster.
But Chelsea should have been in front five minutes before the break, when Drogba sliced through Albion's defence with a diagonal ball which took out three defenders.
Sturridge sidestepped Reid and was in the clear with only Foster to beat. But, with the goal gaping, he dragged his shot inches wide of the far post and the Baggies breathed again.
They were living dangerously again just after the break, when Reid played the ball off Mata and went down injured as the Spaniard sent Sturridge free again.
This time the England international tried to dummy Foster, Pele-style, 20 yards out. But the keeper did not buy it.
It was to prove a massive turning point, as Roy Hodgson's men then went on to dominate after Gabriel Tamas came on for the injured Reid.
Marc-Antoine Fortune almost cashed in on an Ashley Cole blunder but his shot was beaten away by Cech.
Then Chelsea's keeper had to react to turn over a fiercely-hit long-range effort from Youssuf Mulumbu.
You knew, though, this was never going to be AVB's day and his misery multiplied when Albion snatched a deserved winner through the unlikeliest of sources eight minutes from the end.
Keith Andrews swung over a cross, David Luiz's header failed to clear the danger and, when Liam Ridgewell drilled in a low shot across goal, Gareth McAuley was lurking to ram the ball beyond Cech.
The way the big defender celebrated his rare goal suggested West Brom were not going to buckle.
Yet Chelsea almost snatched a draw in added time.
Cole drilled a low shot across the face of the six-yard box.
And Lampard was left in splendid isolation but sidefooted wide from six yards out with the goal at his mercy.
How much mercy there will be for AVB now, remains to be seen.

West Brom: Foster, Reid (Tamas 57), McAuley, Olsson, Ridgewell, Andrews, Mulumbu, Morrison, Odemwingie, Fortune (Long 84), Thomas (Brunt 64). Subs not used: Fulop, Dorrans, Shorey, Cox.Booked: Ridgewell, Andrews, Brunt.
Goals: McAuley 82.

Chelsea: Cech, Ivanovic (Meireles 84), Luiz, Cahill, Cole, Ramires, Essien (Torres 76), Lampard, Sturridge (Malouda 63), Drogba, Mata. Subs not used: Turnbull, Romeu, Mikel, Hutchinson.Booked: Cole.

Att: 24,838
Ref: Phil Dowd (Staffordshire).


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