11 September 2006, by Mark Simpson

Carvalho strikes to earn Chelsea three points

Chelsea 2-1 Charlton Athletic

A dominant first half but ultimately a narrow victory for Chelsea in this London derby.

An early strike from Didier Drogba was cancelled out in the second half by Chelsea old boy Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, but the game was finally won with a Ricardo Carvalho header shortly after new boy Ashley Cole stepped off the bench for his debut.

If this game were a boxing match, the referee would have stopped the contest towards the end of the first half. Chelsea’s dominance was so complete that if the Champions had gone in 7-0 up at half time there would have been few complaints.

Chelsea took the lead after barely 5 minutes when a corner was swung into the box and a Ballack diving header was cleared to Drogba whose quick reactions brought him his third goal of the season.

Chances galore

Drogba was to have a well placed shot saved just eight minutes later, and after 31 minutes Lampard put the Ivorian in the clear but his shot was wide of the post. In-between Drogba’s hat trick of chances, Lampard, Ballack, Carvalho and Shevchenko all had chances to score.

Charlton’s best opportunity fell on the half hour when a good cross found Darren Bent in space but he put his header wide. A brilliant curling effort from Ballack just evaded the goal and there was still time for Shevchenko and Ballack to miss headers.

The second half started with the Blues in the ascendancy and Ballack again from distance had a decent effort. But Charlton were to shock the home crowd in the 53rd minute.

Close control from Hasselbaink on the edge of the Chelsea box made himself a bit of room and he curled a fine shot past Petr Cech. Chelsea’s former striker shrugged his shoulders and held his hands up as if in apology to the home supporters who in return rose to their feet and astonishingly applauded their past favourite.

Carvalho strikes

Little more than five minutes after the equaliser Mourinho made a double substitution including a debut for new boy Ashley Cole. Within seconds of the substitutions a corner was swung into the Charlton box and Portuguese centre-back Carvalho rose above everyone to power home a header.

After scoring for his country last week, this is becoming a rather good habit for Ricardo.

Darren Bent then found the net for Charlton, but he had used his hands in the build-up and was rightly penalised. With only minutes remaining, a penalty was won by Kalou for Chelsea, but Lampard’s firmly struck shot was well saved by Carson.

Fortunately Chelsea were not made to pay for the miss and held out for a 2-1 victory, which leaves them 3 points behind Manchester United who hold a 100% record.

Chelsea:
Cech, Boularouz, Carvalho, Terry, Bridge (A Cole 61), Essien, Wright-Phillips (Kalou 61), Ballack, Lampard, Drogba, Shevchenko (Mikel 85)

Charlton:
Carson, Young, El Karkouri, Diawara (M Bent 63), Traore (Kishishev 49), Ambrose, Hughes, Faye, Reid (Rommedahl 28), Hasselbaink, Bent

Goals:
[1-0] Drogba, 5
[1-1] Hasselbaink, 53
[2-1] Carvalho, 63