IF MANCHESTER United are famous for their comebacks, Chelsea must be in danger of becoming renowned for their careless surrenders after another FA Barclaycard Premiership victory was allowed to drift into a draw at Craven Cottage yesterday.
The admission by Claudio Ranieri, the head coach, that it was because of a lack of concentration did not come as a big surprise but there were raised eyebrows when he said that he did not know how to solve the problem. He needs to, and quickly. This was the second time in eight days that his team had taken their eye off the ball.
This was the first league derby between these two West London clubs for 18 years and the rustiness showed. Spirited and frenetic, there was none of the spitefulness that normally marks close rivalries.
There was a late dismissal, but that was for the footballing equivalent of jay-walking, while Fulham were so anxious to play the perfect hosts that they did not attack Chelsea until the second half.
When they did decide Chelsea were not so deserving of a red carpet, they fought back commendably and it was the visiting team who, ultimately, were hanging on for the draw. “We gave them too much respect,” John Collins, the Fulham midfield player, said. “We sat too deep and let them dominate the game.” The half-time introduction of Luis Boa Morte was instrumental in their revival and Barry Hayles equalised Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink’s first-half goal.
A draw had seemed unthinkable for most of the first 45 minutes and, if the best derbies are fought on an equal footing, the trouble with this one was that Fulham seemed to come to it with their inferiority on display.
Mohamed Al Fayed strode across the pitch to address his players before kick-off but the Fulham benefactor is all mouth and no passport. He must know he is years from matching the Ken Bates empire despite the summer’s heavy spending and, after a brief early flurry, it was Chelsea who dominated.
Ranieri is regularly criticised for tinkering with his team’s line-up but his decision to shake up his side barely a quarter of an hour into yesterday’s game was a wonderful example of a manager thinking on his feet — literally, in the Italian’s case, as he paced anxiously around the dugout. Realising that a youthful defensive pairing of John Terry and William Gallas was vulnerable to the pace and wiles of Hayles and Louis Saha, Ranieri ordered Marcel Desailly to drop back from central midfield and turn a four-man defence into a solid five.
Suddenly, Chelsea had the base from which to launch their attacking momentum and they could have established an impregnable lead by half-time.
In only the second minute, Hasselbaink hit the top of the crossbar with a dipping volley and the Holland striker induced panic in the Fulham defence every time he received the ball. An infuriating character, even to his own team-mates, he is also one of the Premiership’s most dangerous attackers when he is in the mood.
His goal after 31 minutes was beautifully worked as Desailly’s clearance was flicked on by Gianfranco Zola to Boudewijn Zenden, who was used with limited success in a floating role. Taking advantage of space left by Steve Finnan, Zenden charged forward before sliding the ball across to Hasselbaink, who was ten yards from goal. As the Fulham defence attempted to close him down, he dropped a shoulder and turned on to his left foot before thrashing the ball home.
Edwin van der Sar was a busy goalkeeper in those first 45 minutes as Emmanuel Petit pushed Chelsea forward and Zola darted around the Fulham defence. The home side were working hard enough but all the running of Hayles and Saha came to little and Jean Tigana opted at half-time to offer them some support by introducing Boa Morte.
The demand for more adventure brought an instant change in the complexion of the game and Fulham had the upper hand from the start of the second half. Within 14 minutes, they drew level when Finnan swung in a cross with his left foot that Saha headed on to a post. The ball came out to Hayles, who struck in the rebound, and, their tails up, Fulham pressed in search of the winning goal.
They gained momentum when Slavisa Jokanovic was sent off in the last ten minutes for a second bookable offence and, despite the complaints from his Chelsea team-mates, he deserved no sympathy for foolishly throwing away the ball when a free kick was awarded against him. When Hasselbaink sustained an ankle injury, the visitors were effectively down to nine men for the last few minutes but Fulham could not get the ball into dangerous areas and a draw was a fair outcome.
Fulham have now failed to record a league win for more than a month but they will have taken encouragement from their fightback yesterday, even if they did not quite deserve Ranieri’s extravagant description that they play football “like champagne”. As for Chelsea, this was another opportunity missed after the draw against Middlesbrough and their failure to punish the local upstarts did not come as a shock.
FULHAM (4-4-2):
E van der Sar 7 — S Finnan 7, A Melville 6, Z Knight 5, R Brevett 6 — B Goldbaek 5 (sub: L Boa Morte, 46min 7), S Davis 6, L Clark 6 (sub: S Malbranque, 68 6), J Collins 6 (sub: S Marlet, 89) — B Hayles 7, L Saha 7. Substitutes not used: M Taylor, K Symons. Booked: Davis.
CHELSEA (4-3-1-2):
E de Goey 6 — M Melchiot 6 (sub: A Ferrer, 82), J Terry 6, W Gallas 5, C Babayaro 6 — S Jokanovic 6, M Desailly 7, E Petit 7 — B Zenden 6 (sub: S Dalla Bona, 85 6) — G Zola 7 (sub: E Gudjohnsen, 73), J F Hasselbaink 7. Substitutes not used: M Bosnich, R Aleksidze. Booked: Terry, Gallas, Jokanovic, Desailly. Sent off: Jokanovic.
Referee: G Poll 6.
Source The Times by Matt Dickinson