Chelsea 1-0 WBA: Three Welcome Points
By Since66
March 3 2013
It all turned out right on the day. Three welcome points thanks to Demba Ba’s first-half goal, good atmosphere, good support, fans behind the team (what it is all about) and not too severe lashings for The Fat One. I didn’t expect anything else to be honest especially when you break down the type of support housed in the four stands of Stamford Bridge.
The majority of the noise and any discontentment emanates from the Matthew Harding and Shed End stands. The East stand middle and uppers house your JCL’s, plastics and trigger happy picture takers and the East stand lower houses the family section.
In the West stand middle is the corporates, owner and the board. In the upper tier sits the same as the East stand upper and in the lower tier, there are pockets of support dotted around, but mainly the patrons are the same as in the Upper East and West.
Not a lot of noise and certainly no damage.
One of the best banners seen at the Bridge yesterday read ‘We’re just not INTER IM’ Brilliant.
There was the 16th minute tribute to Bobby Di and a few choruses of ‘Stand Up if you hate Rafa’ but other than that, the afternoon went quite well considering the build-up given by the media of a hate-filled bear-pit.
Fatty said afterwards, “I was really pleased with the performance of the team. In some games we’ve played really well, but not always. Today, for 75 minutes we were in control with good play, good passes and great opportunities.”
“Ben Foster was Man of the Match for me, that says a lot, we had a lot of attempts, played some really good football and the atmosphere was very good.
“I was really pleased with the fans behind the team, and the players played with more confidence, it was clear that it was positive.
“I was really pleased with Demba Ba scoring the goal and I would like to enjoy today.”
It was another game where Chelsea dominated for long periods, creating chance after chance but the clinical edge has gone, in addition to a fine goalkeeping display by Ben Foster in front of the watching England manager, Roy Hodgson.
The Fat One praised Foster’s performance saying, “You cannot tie the goalkeeper’s hands together, we had a lot of chances and he was really good, we couldn’t beat him.
“We created lots of opportunities to score more goals and kill the game off but we didn’t do it. Still, we were defending well and kept a clean sheet, so I’m pleased with the response of the players.”
Cech mainly untroubled throughout the game was called upon to make three decent saves as in the final minutes as Albion pressed for an equaliser.
I would be lying if I said the nerves were not jangling and shredding.
Chelsea: Cech, Azpilicueta, Ivanovic, Luiz, Cole, Ramires, Lampard (c), Oscar, Hazard (Moses 79), Mata (Mikel 90) Ba (Torres 87)
Goal: Ba 27
Booked: Hazard 55
West Brom: Foster, Reid, McAuley, Olsson (c), Ridgewell, Mulumbu, Yacob (Rosenborg 81), Fortune (Odemwingie 61), Morrison, Dorrans (Thomas 70), Long
Booked: McAuley 64, Odemwingie 84
NEXT UP: Steaua Bucuresti (a) Europa League, Thursday 7th March, k.o. 6pm
REMINDER: FA Youth Cup LIVE updates Friday 8th March from 7pm v Derby County (a)
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