LIGHTNING STRUCK FOR THE SECOND time at Stamford Bridge yesterday. Charlton Athletic were the first visiting team to “beat” Chelsea this season when they eliminated them from the Carling Cup on penalties after a 1-1 draw on October 26 and they ended the champions’ perfect home record in the Barclays Premiership by achieving an identical result.
When Eidur Gudjohnsen gave Chelsea the lead after 19 minutes, anything other than a routine home win seemed unlikely. But after Marcus Bent had equalised shortly before the hour mark with a goal on his debut for Charlton, the champions were unable to find another gear. In fact, after Ricardo Carvalho had been sent off with ten minutes to play, Charlton might even have won it.
Pelé attended the match and the Brazil legend cannot have been too impressed with a flat interpretation by the Premiership leaders of what he called the beautiful game. However, José Mourinho, the Chelsea manager, did his best to appear unconcerned about the result and a first failure in 42 games to win after taking the lead.
“A draw doesn’t make you happy, but in the context of the Premiership it’s a result you have to accept,” he said. “When you get to January and you lose your first two points at home, I think it’s a magnificent achievement. I’m not frustrated — I know how football is. You cannot win every game. Two draws and one defeat all season is fantastic. The record since I arrived, with no defeats at home, is unbelievable. It happened against a team that was well-organised, defended well and showed a bit of danger on the counter-attack.”
However, it took a while for any such danger to manifest itself. The Charlton supporters who missed the first half because of a temporary suspension of services on the Tube were the lucky ones as their team lacked ambition. Their five midfield players seldom took a single stride forward in support of Darren Bent and the only worthwhile pass that came his way was a misdirected one from Gudjohnsen.
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Given the ball and allowed to attack at will, Chelsea took only 19 minutes to go in front, albeit with considerable help from Thomas Myhre, the Charlton goalkeeper. He spilt Hernán Crespo’s near-post header from Damien Duff’s corner on the left and Gudjohnsen’s shin made just enough contact with the ball to nudge it over the goalline before Radostin Kishishev could hack it away.
Chelsea might have extended their lead before half-time when Frank Lampard’s overhead kick from a backheeled cross by Joe Cole passed inches wide, but soon after the restart, a change in Charlton’s approach became evident. Bryan Hughes forced a save from Petr Cech after 52 minutes and seven minutes later the scores were level.
Darren Ambrose was allowed space to collect the ball and pick out the run of Marcus Bent from the right with a clever cross. John Terry and Asier Del Horno froze and Bent, on as a substitute, nipped behind them to head the ball over Cech — an encouragingly quick return on Charlton’s investment of £2.5 million on his transfer from Everton last week.
Mourinho sent on Shaun Wright-Phillips, who was linked with a possible bid from Liverpool in a Sunday paper, but he made little impression. With all three substitutes deployed, Chelsea then lost Carvalho for a second bookable challenge on Darren Bent. It could have been costly as Ambrose burst into the gap where the Portugal defender would have been, only to see Cech block his shot.
Alan Curbishley, the Charlton manager, saw the performance as evidence that his team has ended a poor run, but their previous success at Stamford Bridge took so much out of them that they lost their next six matches. Good news, perhaps, for Leyton Orient, next week’s opponents in the fourth round of the FA Cup.