Swansea at sea in Chelsea
Written By: Robert Halter
The rise of Welsh side Swansea City gave them their first ever match with Chelsea in the top division. Stamford Bridge welcomed back the Swans boss Brendan Rodgers, who coached both the Blues youth team and reserves plus Swansea forward Scott Sinclair, who spent five years at Chelsea before a move to the Liberty Stadium. Andre Villas Boas, whose first term at Chelsea was the same time as Rodgers in 2004, looked to get past his former colleague and get the Blues title challenge back on track. On fourteen minutes, Raul Miereles put a shot over as he failed to make use of a mistake by Ashley Williams from Jose Bosingwa’s ball in. Midway through the first half, Miereles tried from distance but drilled his shot wide of the left post. A half hit shot by Ramires was comfortably collected by the Swans shot stopper Michel Vorm on twenty seven minutes but it was Fernando Torres who broke the deadlock a minute later as he brought the ball down with his chest from Juan Mata’s cross and with one touch fired the ball into the bottom left corner. On thirty five minutes, Chelsea went two goals up, Torres starting the move, followed by a through ball from Ashley Cole and with an instinctive finish, Ramires struck the ball through Vorm’s legs and into the heart of the goal. But Torres’s afternoon ended abruptly after getting a straight red card from referee Mike Dean, following his two footed lunge into Mark Gower, in the thirty ninth minute. The Swans threatened for the first time after forty eight minutes of play when Nathan Dyer’s shot from outside the box, deflected off John Obi Mikel and rattled the crossbar. Swansea pressed again five minutes later when Bosingwa’s frantic clearance kept out Williams header from Gower’s corner. On sixty minutes it was the Blues turn to be denied by the woodwork as Nicolas Anelka walked through the Swans defence before sending a long range strike crashing against the upright. A curling ball in by Miereles narrowly missed the left post with the advancing Ramires unable to get the final touch as the Blues were unable to capitalise, eight minutes later. But Chelsea sealed victory in the seventy fifth minute when Bosingwa’s pass split open the Swans backline and Ramires ran through to slide the ball past Vorm into the centre of the net. Swansea got a consolation goal on eighty six minutes with a bullet header by Williams from Gower’s free kick following Cole’s foul on Wayne Routledge. At the other end of the field, Florent Malouda caused havoc but Vorm’s block was enough to divert the danger, a minute after Chelsea had conceded a goal. Gower again combined with Williams but the Swans defender put his header wide from a corner in stoppage time. The final word went to Didier Drogba, who on the turn sent the ball into the bottom left corner after latching onto Malouda’s pass to round off a 4-1 win for the Blues in emphatic fashion.