Chelsea 2-1 Blackburn Rovers: Goal By Goal

It's been a busy/sick week for me, so it's time to do some catching up. No drawings on these ones, I'm afraid...

1-0 Blackburn Rovers (-0.62 pts): Chelsea half-clear a ball into the box, pushing it out past the penalty area for Didier Drogba and Morton Gamst Pedersen to contest. Strangely, Drogba does not attempt to go for the header, leaving Perderson with an easy knock down to a totally unmarked El Hadji Diouf, who whips in a ball from the left-hand corner of the box for Benjani to glance in at Petr Cech's left post.

Cech might have gotten to the ball had he not frozen, but it would have required a spectacular save to pull it off. Perhaps more at fault was John Terry, whose aerial challenge against Benjani was far from convincing. The movement inside the box by Benjani and company wasn't particularly special, but it was quite a good delivery by Diouf, and an excellent finish to send the ball straight into the bottom corner of the goal. It was Benjani's first goal for Blackburn.

1-1 Draw (+0.71 pts): Route one stuff from the Blues. Cech collects the ball and punts to Florent Malouda, who has a little space to play with. Malouda opts for a long diagonal pass to the figure of Didier Drogba, who is being marked by both Ryan Nelson and Martin Olsson. However, the ball is hit long enough that all three of Drogba, Nelson, and Olsson have to give chase, and calamity strikes the home side when the latter two become entangled and fall over. Drogba is thus given a free header, and chooses to knock the ball back towards the onrushing figure of Nicolas Anelka, who fires first-time past a helpless Paul Robinson from eight yards, having evaded the attentions of Chris Samba seconds before.

2-1 Chelsea (+1.66 pts): Didier Drogba contributes a classic piece of hold-up play, taking a Yuri Zhirkov blocked shot-cum-chipped pass onto his chest while backing into his marker, immediately feeding Nicolas Anelka. Anelka scampers off to the left, cuts back inside, and gives the ball back to Zhirkov. He also drives left, drawing the attention of no less than four Blackburn players as they force him to turn his back towards goal, where right-back Branislav Ivanovic is sneaking in unmarked at the far post. Zhirkov is undeterred, and on the half-turn spoons an implausibly neat cross over the crowd and straight onto the Serbian's waiting head. Ivanovic is left with the relatively simple task of converting the ball from six yards out and under no pressure. His bullet near-post finish ensured that Zhirkov's excellent work wasn't wasted.