Chelsea 2 Wigan Athletic 1: GUUS HIDDINK name-checked a few of the most technically gifted players he has worked with during his coaching career after Chelsea's win and it is a fair bet that if Raul, Roberto Carlos or Guti had scored with a leaping left-foot volley from the edge of the penalty area, we would still be purring about it this morning.
John Terry is better known for his defensive attributes but when he adopted the Karate Kid’s praying mantis stance before jumping with his right foot up first to generate the leverage, he connected in textbook fashion and one of the goals of his career was the result.
Never mind that the ball flicked in off the head of the Wigan defender Emmerson Boyce to leave the goalkeeper, Chris Kirkland, rooted. Terry had demonstrated to his new Chelsea manager and others that there was more to his game that meets the eye.
“For a centre half, I thought John’s goal was technically superb in its execution,” said Frank Lampard, who brought Steve Bruce’s impressive Wigan team to their knees in injury-time with a looping headed winner.
Bruce complained that Lampard dug Mario Melchiot in the back before he beat Kirkland but it would have taken a pernickety referee to penalise him, as the contact was minimal.
Hiddink was asked how his Chelsea squad compared with the others he had coached. “They are among the best,” he said. “Real Madrid was also technically very strong, with Raul, Roberto Carlos and Guti but this is technically a very strong team. The South Korean team was very strong and, physically, they could run as no team I have had before, but this Chelsea team technically is okay.”
It was rather more earthy qualities, however, that helped Hiddink towards his third straight narrow win since he succeeded Luiz Felipe Scolari. Technique is nothing without application and spirit, he noted, and his two British bulldogs simply refused to see further Premier League points squandered at Stamford Bridge. Not for the first time they drove the team until the very last, absorbing the body blow of Olivier Kapo’s equaliser from Maynor Figueroa’s teasing centre to fashion the result.
“The English spine to the team is important,” said Hiddink. “I respected them already from the outside but now I know them from very close, my respect for them has grown. Determination is decisive in a player. In the key moments the real big players are there. They make it happen.”
This was a somewhat sloppy Chelsea performance. Wigan may have led through Paul Scharner, who shot tamely at Petr Cech when clean through, or the outstanding Titus Bramble, who saw his thumping header cleared off the line by Ashley Cole. When Figueroa blasted the follow-up effort towards goal, a combination of Cech and Terry smuggled the ball clear.
Chelsea wasted chances to close the game out after Terry’s goal, allowing Wigan a foothold with 20 minutes to go which they turned into their equaliser. Hiddink had just brought on Juliano Belletti and Ricardo Quaresma on the right flank and they allowed Figueroa too much space to cross.
Two of the biggest roars from the home crowd greeted the confirmation of Middlesbrough’s goals against Liverpool at the Riverside. The impression given was that they were preoccupied with a battle for second place. The league leaders Manchester United are over the hills and far away.
“United have been on a fantastic run and we have to believe that they can’t keep it going forever,” said Lampard. “One day, they might get some penalty decisions going against them at home.”
That was a pointed reference to the pivotal appeal that was turned down for Blackburn Rovers at Old Trafford the previous Saturday.
Bruce picked up the baton and ran with it. “When you play against the big boys, you ask [the officials], ‘Toe the line and do your job’,” he said. “Unfortunately, some of them seem not capable. I question them sometimes, I really do. The big boys will get the decisions against the little ones. I felt that when I was a United player. Unfortunately, it’s the law of the jungle.”
Guardian Service
