So, after much hype of a Quadruple after the draw away to Liverpool in the COCup semi, any hopes of one occurring were shattered by a genuine shock, as League 1 Bradford came back from 2-0 down to win 4-2 against the Premier League leaders. A shocking performance by Chelsea, but credit has to go to Bradford for an astounding performance; better than that of teams like Maribor and Sporting who have visited in the Champions League. I can’t help but wonder if the Bradford fan I bumped into was gutted about his Chelsea to win 3-0 bet not coming off…
In his press conference on Friday, Jose Mourinho had said that it would be “a disgrace” were Chelsea not to beat Bradford. With 40 minutes gone, he looked safe from eating Humble Pie, with a goal from a Cahill flick at a corner on 21 minutes, then Ramires with a tidy finish in the box on 38 minutes after a pass from Salah. However, Bradford were able to pull one back before half time through Jon Stead, after he received a pull back from a corner, with both Ramires and Mikel covering him at that point, but not actually pressing well enough to get close to block the shot.
At half time, it was announced that Chelsea and the Premier League were donating £25,000 to a Bradford burns unit, commemorating the 30th anniversary of the Valley Parade fire in which 56 people tragically lost their lives.
After the break, Bradford had Chelsea penned into their own half, unable to get out for at least the first 10 minutes of the second half. On the 70 minute mark, Chelsea took off Salah and the injured Mikel for Willian and Fabregas, but it was Bradford who took next blood, with the ex-Chelsea Academy man Filipe Morais netting the equaliser after a rebound, sending the away fans in The Shed into delirium. Replays showed Loic Remy stood on the edge of the area, not moving to cover where Morais was stood unmarked. With a last throw of the dice, Jose switched Remy for Hazard, presumably in an attempt to prevent a replay.
Source: Chelseafc.com
However, Bradford weren’t content to sit back and take the draw, and on 82 minutes Halliday popped up to slot home a tidy finish past Cech, who could do nothing about it. With 8 minutes to go plus added time to salvage anything, Kurt Zouma was sent forward to play as a second striker alongside Drogba. Chelsea had chances to equalise, with Zouma blasting over the bar from inside the six yard box; but it was a counter attack 4 minutes into the 7 minutes of added time that killed the game for Bradford. A superb piece of play, one that Hazard and Costa would have been proud of, finished off by Yeates, capped a marvellous day out for the League 1 side, who are now just 2 wins away from Wembley (albeit only for the semi-finals).
In analysis, it must be said that, despite Jose saying that Bradford would not be underestimated, that is what they were. Only two seasons ago was it that they reached the League Cup final, beating Arsenal, Wigan and Villa along the way; and they had defeated a championship Millwall side in the previous round. Clearly, a good cup side.
Individually, not many players turned up: Salah was absolutely awful; his control whilst dribbling, his first touch, his passing and shooting… all poor. The fact that a player in a Champions League squad was pocketed by a League 1 full-back is terrible. The only contribution to the game he made for Chelsea was to play the ball to Ramires for the goal, otherwise it was turnover after turnover for Bradford. Secondly, Cesar Azpilicueta looked unconfident today, perhaps still feeling the strain of his injury from the game against Newcastle earlier this month. I’m more willing to give lenience to Dave’s poor performance as it isn’t a regular occurrence; you can count the good games Salah has had for Chelsea on one hand. As anyone who follows me on Twitter will know, I eagerly await his departure. In the same vain, I don’t think I buy the club line that Schurrle has a bad back, and I fear that Wolfsburg have come in with the “phenomenal” bid Jose referred to.
On the other hand, I thought that Kurt Zouma looked confident and self-assured, both on the ball, and when challenging for the ball. I can’t recall him not winning a header, up against lower league strikers, who are stereotypically strong in the air. His quality of passing is supreme, and the only ball I can remember he got wrong was the shot at 3-2 which should have been a goal, but this is a 20 year old Centre Back playing as a poacher in the last minute of a game. Also, I thought that Andreas Christensen showed promise, playing as a Right Back whilst usually a CB, and hope that this loss doesn’t taint him in Mourinho’s mind, and gets some game time at a later point.
I must also say that the game was frustrating because it was clear that changes needed to be made very early in the second half, but it took until the 70th minute for the first one. Jose is usually a proactive manager, but in this game, and at Anfield in midweek, he was more conservative, more reactive with his changes. I feel had Willian for Salah been made earlier, the pace on the counter would have meant we could have capitalised more from Bradford’s sending men forwards. Additionally, I felt that when Mikel went off, we lost a lot of stability in midfield, as Fabregas and Ramires were both looking to go forwards. This is where Bradford’s 3 goals came from; the lack of protection of the centre backs, and them then becoming stretched. Finally, there was the problem of nobody wanting to take a shot. In the space between Bradford’s third and fourth goals, we had a lot of the ball in the final third, but this was mostly around the area, rather than putting balls into it, which was surely the purpose of putting the man mountain that is Zouma in there, alongside Drogba too? It summed up the game for me; frustrating, and needs to be improved upon sharpish, with two season defining games coming this week.
To conclude, there’s nothing better I can say than to peddle an old footballing cliché: we need to draw a line under this game. Jose Mourinho said on Friday that it would be a “disgrace” were we to lose against Bradford, and now that we have, and in the manner that we did, all I can think of are the infamous words shouted at a camera in May 2009, by the stand-in captain today, Didier Drogba…
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