Charlton Athletic Online

Charlton 0 Chelsea 2

We tried, honestly we did, but Chelsea were simply too good for us. The official club match report is here and it tells it much like it was.

Yes, we are disapponted; yes, mistakes led to one of the goals, if not both; yes, we didn't get a shot on target the whole game. But were we awful? No. Did we compete? Yes we did, for all of the first half at least. Ask Sven!

Chelsea are a group of very good players, and Mourinho is building them into a formidable team. Cech wasn't tested today and the defence in front of him is solid, and yet to concede a goal all season. Gallas is quick, Terry huge, and Ferriera and Carvalho experienced. We tried to put Bent up against anyone but Terry but he was a forlorn figure up front on his own, and any ball toward him was quickly lost. The Blues midfield is awesome, and it is now very true that Frank Lampard is the weak link. Makelele won every tackle, and was only embarassed by Dennis' pace (for which he was deservedly booked). Essien looked like a great player to me - class, skill, vision, pace. Wow! If only he could shoot straight! The wingers were controlled for the most part by good defending by Powell and Young, and Crespo was all movement and looking for a half chance. Their switching of positions was something that I hadn't seen before, with Robben and Duff all getting a go through the middle as Crespo went wide. Of course, all of this was initiated by waves of the managers hand... I won't mention the subs (all £55m worth!), as they didn't contribute much.

Overall, Charlton had a good first half, and kept themselves well in the match. Any shots they had though were off target. Even Murphy's three free kicks failed to breach the wall 8 yards or so in front of him.

Second half, it was very different. A problem Charlton have seen in the past came to light once more - if the lone front man is isolated then you will end up defending all the time, as the ball is once more played in and you are under constant pressure. Against Chelsea this is match suicide. Was it our fault this time? Probably not to a large extent; Jose's half time team talk obviously said get stuck in and win the ball, and Kishishev's was the victim of a couple of muggings when he had no obvious "out" ball, one of which led to the opening goal.

I would have liked to see Curbs go for it a little after we fell behind, with Bartlett brought on and 4-4-2 played for the last 20 minutes, but the subs came on and the formation did not change, and the pressure continued. Putting two up front may at least have allowed passing options and periods of non-defending. As it was, the re-arranged midfield didn't change much in the way the game played out.

So where do we go from here? Is it all doom and gloom like the blokes behind me think? Is Kish a waste of space? Should Ambrose (or anyone else) have started? Was Curbs crazy to take Thomas off? All these were comments heard by me between 4 and 5pm today. The answer to all is "no".

We have just played against one of the best teams in the world, and we made them compete for much of the match. Charlton are getting there, but cannot beat teams that cost ten times the value of our squad, yet.

Player ratings:

Anderson - made a few very good saves; no chance with the goals.
Young - coped well with Duff/Robben; got forward without effect when he could.
Perry - played well, but no chance against Crespo for the first goal.
Herman - very good game; tried his heart out.
Powell - did well, and handled the pace up against him by using experience.
Kish - no out ball meant he was tackled on too many occasions; not his best game...
Murphy - little space to shine; three free kicks into the wall.
Hughes - tried hard but didn't have enough class to impress.
Dennis - lots of pace but little final product, a familiar scenario.
Thomas - plenty of skill but again little end product.
Dazza - almost no good ball to him, a lonely figure up front.
Subs:
Holland - got involved but did nothing of note.
Spector - looked OK, and will have learnt from playing against SW-P.
Ambrose - Off the pace and little involvement.

Tuesday, we are at home to Hartlepool in the cup, and I expect we will see a few more of the squad players, especially those that need a game and whom we want to push for competition. Holland, Ambrose, Spector, Sorondo, Smertin, and Bartlett should all get some action, giving a rest to Powell, Perry, Hughes, Rommedahl and others.

Next weekend, we go to play the Baggies, and pressure will be on some players to get into the team or keep their place. That is good. They will be there for the taking (hopefully).

This is a small set-back (as we didn'ty really think pre-season that we'd get any points from Chelsea); what mustn't be allowed is the result to affect the way we go about our next few games. Keep the confidence. We are still playing pretty well!