Chelsea Vs Portsmouth Liveblog!

By: Rob | August 17th, 2008

Last years Champions League and Prem runners up Chelsea, kick off thier season today with a tough game against FA Cup winners Portsmouth. Its on Sky Sports, if you don’t have Sky, or aren’t living in the UK, then you can follow it with me here Now, Live after the jump.

Chelsea 4 – 0 Portsmouth

Joe Cole 12
Anelka 25
Lampard (pen) 45
Deco 87

Full Time – Its all over. Great start from Chelsea. Roman looks delighted. 4-0.

91 – Kaboul one on one with Cech, good stop from the big man.

89 – Deco has just been announced man of the match. He’s bossed the Chelsea midfield completely so its probably fair.

87 – GOAL! Deco has just scored something special. 25 yards, corner of goal, bent it in, James got a touch. Great goal.

84 – Beautiful pass from Ferreria to Wright Phillips, but the move breaks down. Not a bad first touch. Game has calmed down completely now, and despite Pompy wearing cricket shirts, its not a cricket score.

82 – Free Kick to Rickie Carvalho for shirt pulling. Chelsea are bringing on Poalo Ferrira for Jose Bosingwa

79 – Lovely ball in from Malouda, Lampard offside though.

77 – Cross comes in, long long cross, Crouch heads is down to Defoe who beats his man to the ball but puts it wide. Sub for Chelsea, Joe Cole off to raptuous applause, Wright-Phillips on.

74 – Chelsea have had 64% of the possesion, which isn’t suprising at all, just playing keepball. Deco has bossed the passing around the midfield, like he did on good days at Barca. He’s also made a few silly challenges as he did on bad days at Barca too, but he’s not been booked, and noone else has either.

73 Sub for Pompy, Thomas on for Kranjcar. Thomas is a pacey left footer, usually at home on the wing.

72 – Chelsea happy just to pass the ball around the midfield here, Portsmouth happy to just watch.

69 – Woeful shot from Obi Mikel, even Frank Lampard looks pissed off at that effort.

66 – Defoe really trying to get into this game, but he’s so deep now its unreal. Game is opening up, but its way to late for Pompy. Another Pen shout for Portsmouth from the corner btw, as Carvalho takes part in a bit of shirt pulling.

65 – Penalty shout from Pompy, a shot comes in and Carvalho slides acorss to deflect it for a corner, Portsmouth claiming it hit is arm. Hard to say, certainly wasn’t deliberate.

64 – Defoe dances away from Terry and Bosingwa, but Carvalho nails him with a great slide tackle. Do think thats what Carvalho’s strength is.

63 – Joe Cole got bought down there, ref played on, Ashley Cole bailed Chelsea out. Joe Cole limping.

62 – Pompys first corner of the game, comes in far post, and it comes off the line somehow.

60 – Intricate chip from Joe Cole after the Corner from Lampard, three unmarked blue shirts, but Anelka sticks it over.

59 – Anelka is in! But an agonisingly bad touch just takes him too far to do anything with it. It comes back to Deco eventually his shot deflected for a corner.

58 – Crouch heads down to Defoe for the first time, but Terry easily gets it away.

57 – Deco with a beautiful pass to Joe Cole, who skips past his man, plays in Lampard, but he couldn’t get hold of it

56 – Poor shot from Mikel which ends up in Row Z.

54 – Diop has been Pompys best player, he’s won another FK. build up play leads to a cross which Carvalho deals with.

53 – Deco gives away another FK, Long ball to Crouch headed to Kranjcar, thrown around a but more, but the cross comes in and Cech palms away.

52 – Joe Cole is in after a longer ball from Chelsea, one on one with the keeper, just placed wide.

51 – Quick throw from Cech, to Deco quick passes to Anelka, who puts it over.

50 – Kranjcar passes to Diop who nutmeggs Ashley Cole, Cole decides to bring him down after, FK Pompy. Long FK to Crouch, who doesn’ty get much on it, its gone out.

49 – Deco is going to fit in fine at Chelsea, he was just complimented by the commentator on his “commitment”, i.e he just put in another pointless challenge which in Spain would have picked him up a yellow card.

48 – Woah, a mix up between Rickie Carvalho and JT. Terry left it when RC thought he was going for it. Eventually they sort it out and clear, Carvalho apologies to an angry Petr Cech.
47 – Portsmouth are spectators at the moment. Chelsea throwing the ball around. Beautiful ball from Lampard to Anelka but he’s just mistimed his run and is offside.

45 – Second Half has kicked off. Chelsea lined back up in a 451. Anelka got an immediate chance which he put over.

Teams are back out – Scolari looks happy. Harry Redknapp took alot longer to come back out, he looks really not happy.

Half Time. 3-0 to Chelsea, and they have been easily the better side. Chelsea look immensely comfortable. Great start for Scolari.

45 – PENALTY! Joe Cole puts in a cross in the box, and its hit Distin in the arm, which was up. Given by the Assistant Referee. James booked for Dissent. Lampard will take of course.
GOAL! Lampard scores, putting it in his right hand corner, James went to his right.

42 – Portsmouth should have scored, Cech couldn’t hang on to a pretty routine save, and a couple of rebound shots are eventually cleared.

41 – Great play from Chelsea, Lampard found a bit of space on the edge of the box, played it outwide blind to Malouda who blazed it across the six yard box, but Anelka couldn’t get on the end.

40 – Outside of the boot pass to Lampard from Deco is beautiful but the move goes nowhere. I’m not used to Chelsea being this nice to watch.

39 – Malouda is playing Left wing it seems, with Joe Cole now right, its a proper 451.

36 – Chelsea are making a sub, Ballack who has been a bit out of sorts other than a great assist, is coming off for Malouda. Presumably he has a knock.

34 – Corner on the left side taken by Deco, short back to him crossed, no-one near it.

31 – Deco threads a lovely pass to ashley cole, the cross comes in and Lampard is unlucky with his touch.

30 – Long ball for Defore to run onto he beats Terry to the Corner flag but his cross is to noone but Cech.

29 – A long ball from Cech, Sol Campbell loses his feet and Anelka is one and one with James but just puts it wide. Anelka pretty suited to this through ball set up, not sure how suited Drogba will be. Totally different tactic from last year.

28 – Restbite for Pompy, as Mikel drags down Mikel. Fk drilled wide.

27 – Chelsea look absolutely imperious at the moment. Scoreline an absolutely fair reflection.

25 – GOAL! Bosingwa puts in a cross, to Deco, James coming to get it ends up in no mans land, and the ball comes back across the six yard box, and its easy for Nicky Anelka.
24 – Ball passed around by Chelsea some more, resulting in a delicate chip from Frank Lampard, which a stretching James catches.

23 – Diop pushes Deco off the ball, and puts in a long cross to Crouch, Cech off his line just about gets a hand to it, the ball comes back but Terry heads away from Defoe

22 – Long shot from Frank Lampard easily gathered by James.

21 – Beautiful pass from Frank Lampard, for Anelka, but a good stop from David James. Portsmouth are struggling to get into a game, partly due to the congested centre midfield.

20 – At the other end, a long ball comes in and Crouch heads down for Diop who blazes over.

19 – Anelka is through one on one with James…but the goalkeeper, outside his box, heads away.

18 – Great build up from Chelsea, throwing the ball around beautifully. Know when to lift it, when to play it on the ground. Move ends with Ballack blasting wide.

17 – Pompy have a FK and the cross comes in long to Defoe rather than Crouch. An interesting tactic.

14 – Chelsea throwing the ball around confidently. They look like a team who is defending the title rather than chasing.

12 – GOAL! Ballack plays in a beautiful pass to Joe Cole who runs, James tries to make himself big in the one on one, but great finish from the England winger.

- Not too surprising, its been pretty much all Chelsea so far. Chelsea looking more easy on the eye than last year too.
11 – Diarra is off the pitch again because of his kick from Deco. The Portugal man should probably have been booked.

10 Anelka held the ball up after a great pass from Deco, Anelka gave it back to Deco, and then gave it to back to Le Sulk who blasted his shot over the bar.

9 – Lampard gets a shot, decent on target, James saves. James kick out goes straight to a Chelsea man and a through ball is played to Anelka who is beaten to it by James.

8 – First shot of Big Boss in the crowd, he’s gone casual looking more like a builder than a billionaire.

7 – Lampard is taking the right hand side corner, Carvalho doesn’t get to it in the air and its cleared.

6 – More good passing from Chelsea, Glen Johnson kicks Ashley Cole, FK Chelsea. Lampard bent in the FK and David James just about got there ahead of Anelka.

5 – Deco is on corner duty, put in a cross, James flapped, went safe. Ball eventually came back to Anelka, but couldn’t connect.

4 – Deco’s influence can be felt, short passes around the mid ala Barca at the moment. Bosingwa puts in a cross eventually, but its headed away from Lampard for a corner.

3 – Good build up from Pompy, playing the ball round, Defoe has a tame shot at Petr Cech.

2 – Poor challenge from the yellow card machine Deco, kicking Diarra. He’s got away without a yellow by the look of it.

1 – First chelsea attack Bosingwa getting forward, but cross deflected to James’ arms.

Kick Off – Here we go. The Scolari-era has kicked off, Portsmouth kick off from left to right.

5 Mins to KO- I had a go at Liverpool’s away kit yesterday, Portsmouth’s almost as bad, its like a cricket shirt.

10 Mins to KO- Sky think its a sort of 433, with Joe Cole and Deco wide. Weird.

- Mike Dean is the ref here by the way. Wonder if JT will follow up his comments about respecting the ref and all that.

15 Mins to KO- Scolari on Sky has just announced his mantra: “Win” he also said if you loose and play well people will be upset. So not much change from the Jose days.

20 Mins to KO – Team News – Bosingwa makes it for Chelsea despite a knock, Deco starts. Line ups are:

The Blues: Cech, Bosingwa, Carvalho, Terry, Ashley Cole, Ballack, Lampard, Obi Mikel, Deco, Joe Cole, Anelka.

Pompy: James, Kaboul, Campbell, Distin, Hreidarsson, Johnson, Diarra, Diop, Kranjcar, Defoe, Crouch

So four central midfielders for Chelsea, which will be interesting.

30 Mins to Ko- Bit of Teamnews from Eurosport, Le Sulk is up front on his own, and Big Phil is going to play 4 central midfielders, Lamps, Deco, Ballack and Essien. I’m not sure what formation that equates.

45 minutes to KO- Looking forward to this one. Chelsea have obviously bought in Big Phil, and I’ve been interested all summer as to how he plans to fit in thee central midfielders of the quality of Lampard, Deco and Ballack. If I was him I’d play a 5-3-1-1, with assuming everyone was fit, Ashley Cole, Terry, Carvalho, Alex, Bosingwa, then a centre mid three of Ballack, Deco and Lampard, then Joe Cole given a free role, and Drogba (and when he leaves, Sheva) up front. I suspect Scolari will go 4-5-1 however, roughly the same, but its just that he might need two wingers that way. Anyway, time will tell.

As for Pompy, they are great away from home, and we’ll get to see the new frontline of Peter Crouch and Jermaine Defoe. Both are getting ignored by Don Fabio, so they have incentive to perform. They’re a good side to watch usually, and I’m looking forward to it.

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