Another poor performance from Chelsea saw the pressure pile further on their manager Andre Villas-Boas, as the Blues were held by Birmingham City 1-1 at Stamford Bridge. Chelsea, who had crisis meetings earlier this week after a terrible run of results, went down in the 20th minute through David Murphy. They were rescued at the hour mark however by Daniel Sturridge. The draw means that a replay will be required to settle the tie with the game to be played at St. Andrew’s.
Even though Didier Drogba was available for the Blues, Andre Villas-Boas persisted with Fernando Torres upfront, with Juan Mata and Daniel Sturridge for support. John Obi Mikel was picked ahead of Michael Essien, with the returning Ramires and Raul Meireles for company. Ryan Bertrand came in for the injured Ashley Cole, with Gary Cahill partnering David Luiz at the back. Branislav Ivanovic started at right back in place of Jose Bosingwa.
Adam Rooney started the game upfront for the visiting Birmingham side, with Nathan Redmond and Wade Elliot playing behind the 23-year old striker. Morgaro Gomis came into the side, forming the central midfield trio with Jordon Mutch and Keith Fahey. Pablo Ibanez and Curtis Davies lined up in tandem at the back for Chris Hughton’s side, with David Murphy and Stephen Carr flanking them.
Stephen Carr’s game did not last very long, as the defender had to be taken off 12 minutes into the contest after falling heavily. His side however broke the deadlock against the run of play eight minutes later, with Murphy putting Birmingham ahead. It all came out of a corner that Chelsea failed to clear despite a couple of attempts. The ball finally fell for Murphy at the back post with the Birmingham man thumping the ball home much to the delight of the travelling support.
The Birmingham fans were singing “sacked in the morning” aimed at the Blues manager Villas-Boas, but Chelsea quickly had a chance to bring the score back to parity after Elliot blatantly felled Ramires inside the box to concede a penalty. Mata stepped up and aimed the ball well towards the corner, only to be denied brilliantly by Birmingham keeper Colin Doyle.
Doyle was again required in the Birmingham goal when David Luiz’s powerful, dipping freekick was pushed away by the custodian. Cech showed his own handling skills at the other end two minutes later when Redmond’s shot from a tight angle was well saved by the Chelsea man.
As Drogba warmed up on the sidelines, Torres layed off a long ball to Sturridge, who in turn controlled well and volleyed inches past the woodwork. The home fans however were disgruntled at the halftime whistle, the hosts down a goal to nil.
Drogba did come on at the restart for Torres and immediately looked more effective than the Spaniard, but it was the visitors who created the better openings at the start of the second period, Remond’s effort flying well above the Chelsea goal. Mata dragged his right-footed shot slightly wide of goal on the hour mark, but the hosts finally got their equaliser two minutes later, with some lackadaisical defending from Birmingham allowing Sturridge to find the net. Ivanovic’s brilliant cross from the right found Sturridge inside the box, and allowed a free header at goal. The winger obliged, knocking it past Doyle and bringing Chelsea level.
The goal seemed to spur on the hosts, who attacked with more venom, and had two strikes in close succession deflected away with the pressure piling on Birmingham. The visitors, however, had a good spell late in the game, and could very easily have won it at the death through Redmond, who after going through on goal disappointingly hit his strike straight at Cech.
Birmingham continued in their attempts to grab a late win, but Chelsea held strong to keep the visitors out. It was more disappointment for the Chelsea fans and Villas-Boas, the Chelsea manager doing his hopes of continuing at the club no good with the draw.
Teams :
Chelsea (4-3-3) – Cech, Ivanovic, Luiz, Cahil, Bertrand, Ramires, Mikel (Kalou 58′), Meireles, Sturridge, Torres (Drogba 45′), Mata (Lampard 83′)
Birmingham City (4-5-1) – Doyle, Carr (Spector 12′), Davies, Ibanez, Murphy, Redmond, Mutch, Fahey, Gomis, Elliott (Burke 83′), Rooney•(Jervis 71′)
Final Scoreline:•Chelsea 1 – 1 Birmingham City
Scorers:
Chelsea – Sturridge 61′
Birmingham City – Murphy 20′
(TheSportsCampus)
