11 April 2006, by Tony Rosa

Magnificent 10-man Chelsea show championship winning class

Chelsea 4-1 West Ham - Stamford Bridge

Just as Chelsea started to look like they were suffering from a mid-season blip, Mourinho’s troops bounced back with great style and charisma in a thumping victory.

After last week’s surprise draw at Birmingham, Mourinho made 5 changes to his line-up and started with a 4-4-2 formation. In a rare start, Maniche started in the middle of the formation alongside Frank Lampard. Ricardo Carvalho was on the substitute’s bench and Paulo Ferreira was rested.

After a frantic start to the game, West Ham took the initiative with an early strike on 10 minutes from a corner, when Collins got in front of two Chelsea defenders to head home.

The goal kicked Chelsea into life. Things seemed to be going Chelsea’s way, but after Maniche had made a promising start to the game on his full Premiership debut with his quick passing, a silly tackle on Scaloni earned him a straight red card.

Again, this fired Chelsea up, so it was only a matter of time before Chelsea levelled on 28 minutes through a solo effort by man-of-the match Didier Drogba. Two minutes later, it was Drogba again who put the ball across the West Ham goal where Crespo was waiting to pounce and slot the ball into the empty net.

In the second half, 10-man Chelsea continued their relentless assault on the West Ham goal. After hitting the crossbar on 53 minutes, a Chelsea set-piece from a corner seconds later saw captain John Terry slot the ball into the net.

The first of Mourinho’s substitutions saw Hernan Crespo being replaced by Arjen Robben. Robben’s trickery earned an immediate reward when he was brought down just outside the box and from the resulting free kick, Drogba nodded the ball down for William Gallas to tuck the ball into the net.

Two more Chelsea substitutions saw Ricardo Carvalho come on for Michael Essien and Joe Cole for Didier Drogba.

After each Chelsea goal was scored, the Chelsea fans were singing to their East London rivals “we’ve only got ten men” and again were singing José Mourinho’s name.

Chelsea are now just 8 points away from retaining the Premiership crown.


Chelsea:
Cech, Gérémi, Gallas, Terry (c), Del Horno, Makelele, Essien (Carvalho 89), Maniche, Lampard; Crespo (Robben 66), Drogba (J Cole 90+1)

West Ham:
Hislop, Scaloni, Collins, Gabbidon, Konchesky, Benayoun (Sheringham 71), Mullins, Harewood, Reo-Coker (c), Etherington, Ashton (Zamora 83)

Goals:
[0-1] Collins, 10
[1-1] Drogba, 28
[2-1] Crespo, 30
[3-1] Terry, 53
[4-1] Gallas, 68