We thought it was a bit daft when Torres propelled himself forward after Anita had barely toughed his knee with a challenge just inside the penalty box after 21 minutes in yesterday’s game at Stamford Bridge – do they practice this stuff in training – but it got Chelsea a soft penalty and they went on from that to win the game 2-0, with a good goal from Torres three minutes into added time in the first half.
Anita touches Torres – here we go
Chelsea now have a penalty in each of their first three games, with Hazard getting the other two penalties, and he converted the one yesterday with Frank Lampard being on the bench, but in truth the Anita challenge was probably a penalty in truth, although the Dutchman barely touched the Spaniard.
But that sort of thing happens all the time these days in football.
Newcastle manager Alan Pardew talked after the game to nufcTV last night, and he said he was disappointed with the first goal, and thought that Torres had made a complete meal of new boy Vurnon Anita’s challenge, and there’s no doubt that penalty tilted the game in Chelsea’s favor.
This is what Alan said after the game last night:
“We looked a little lackluster in that first half and a bit tired in one or two areas.” “That gave Chelsea a little bit too much of dominance in that first half ,and I was disappointed with the first goal since Torres made a complete meal of the challenge.”
“The second goal was a great goal but right before half time, so we should have prevented it really.” “But the second half I have to pay credit to my players. They showed real character and diligence because it’s tough to come here, and they have already won two games and we were 2-0 down.”
“We had to show a lot of belief and if we could have nicked a goal, and we should have after 75 or 80 minutes, then the face of the game could have changed.” “We had no Cheick today which I think affected us, and Anita had to play a full game on Thursday and a full game today, and he made one or two errors in the first half which is not like him.”
“We got beat here but we’ve had a good week really, if I’m honest.” “The two fixtures we’ve had in the Premier League, if we took two draws you would have been fairly happy. We’ve got a point more than that so I’m very pleased.”
“Our fans were brilliant today, absolutely brilliant today.” “I thank them for their support and hopefully next Thursday we’ll give them something happier to cheer about.”
Newcastle had no luck in this game, and sometimes for whatever reason things go against you, and if Newcastle could have scored a goal in that second half, it could have made things very interesting, as Alan points out.
But we couldn’t take our chances, and we should have scored at least one goal in the second half – but we didn’t and picked up our first loss of the season.
We thought we were a bit lucky to get all 3 points last week against Tottenham, so this kind of evens things up a bit, but if we can get all 3 points next Sunday afternoon against Aston Villa, in front of a full house at St. James’ Park, we’d be very happy with 6 points from our first three tough league games.
That’s the wya we are looking at things at the moment, and of course we need a win on Thursday night against Atromitos (or a 0-0 draw) to qualify for the group stages of the Europa League.
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14 comments so far
ilovetoon8788
Aug 26, 2012 at 5:37 AM
Comment #1Regardless, we got beat by a better team and there was no way we were coming out of Stamford Bridge with any point yesterday.
To progress we might look at alternatives other than Jonas for a start. We need to try something different though he has been a great servant for us.
Zebras4Life
Aug 26, 2012 at 5:49 AM
Comment #2We really need another creative player and one in the middle would be my preference. Please refrain from the threats but I wouldn’t be disappointed if Cabaye was sold for £20M. Run Tiote and Anita in a 4-2-3-1 w Ba and Cisse alternating 70 min a game. Gives us our depth that way at ST too. 3 is plenty. Then we can focus on a true attacking CAM or winger. Maybe HBA could play that roll behind the Dembas and we bring in a creative winger. Either way we one more player who can create opportunities outside of HBA and Santon.
Zebras4Life
Aug 26, 2012 at 5:51 AM
Comment #3Oh and Kaka would probably get it done 🙂
zimtoon
Aug 26, 2012 at 5:56 AM
Comment #4Yeah Kaka on a loan deal would b perfect
89Norcal
Aug 26, 2012 at 6:13 AM
Comment #5It’s certainly not an excuse for our performance, but Torres is obviously one of the premier divers in Europe.
IIRC, Anita caught his foot or ankle slightly, and Torres threw himself forward as he often does when the slightest contact is made, or no contact at all.
As class as he is/was as a striker, I’ll never respect him for being a diving, theatrical wuss.
cyprus
Aug 26, 2012 at 6:14 AM
Comment #6Talking of dream players which are not beyond the realm of possibiity: Ronaldinho! Plays now for Flamingo, finding his form gain, ‘only’ 31, can spread the ball like no one else, ambitious once more as he wants to make Brazil team for 2014. Give him a call AP, we need to step up from last year’s success, not stay stagnant or even go backward. 5-6 mil of loose change could get us a true superstar! (maybe)
stuart no9
Aug 26, 2012 at 7:03 AM
Comment #7totally disagree with AP. — it was a stonewall pen. noproblem at all with the decision .as for “being tired” 2nd game of the season?????????. dont forget 9 changes were made on thursday. i was starting to warm to AP at the end of last season when he was starting to be a bit more honest in his post match interviews. no more excuses alan , it was a stroll in the park for chelsea, no complaints whatso ever.
Slank
Aug 26, 2012 at 7:58 AM
Comment #8It is part of a forwards role to make a meal out of a clumsy challange. We would expect that from our forwards.
Johann
Aug 26, 2012 at 8:56 AM
Comment #9Are You Kidding Me ? It was a stonewall penalty. A dive? No way. He completely hit his two legs and a bad decision by Anita. Thought he was cleverer than this. But he needs his game time to improve and I would even think about putting Bigi in there from time to time
Ben
Aug 26, 2012 at 9:28 AM
Comment #10Zebras- I too would take £20 million for Cabaye. Vastly overrated in my opinion. It’s Tiote that makes the team tick.
croftus5678
Aug 26, 2012 at 9:45 AM
Comment #11for one cisse got kicked a few times and did not go down same with ba !
torres is and allways has been a fairy looking for every penalty/freekick he can get unfortunatly thats how the game is now with the ref’s in charge but if every player did this the games would be stop start all the time.
and cabaye allthough decent in defensive duties was very poor in his passing and dead balls but there is no need to go overboard if he had one bad game ! we were all crying a few games ago because he was not in the squad and had no creativity and every player will have off days aswell as outstanding days.
the team played welll in all! the result did not reflect the scoreline imo as cisse and ba had good chances we just did not have luck on our side.
Munster Mag
Aug 26, 2012 at 10:03 AM
Comment #12Thats a load of rubbish. It was a peno , not the biggest theatrical dive ever. Santon – again – was useless defensively, and Anita wasnt helped at all by yet another feeble challenge from the Italian, who may have peaked two years ago. We looked tired, but this has been flagged by fans from day 1 re the damage the europa league can do – and we still havent seen the investment needed. Not to worry though, we are ahead of y=out 5 year plan arent we? So we can afford to regress a bit I guess….sort it out Mike.
Jackson1989
Aug 26, 2012 at 10:32 AM
Comment #13against chelsea i think our main problem was the formation, 442 isnt working , i cant remember whn jonas tried to go past a man, and phil dowd was hating on us all game, everyitme we won ball to hit thm on counter he pulled it bck to give thm a freekick, i hope next week if cabaye and tiote are stil with us and we get debuchy (god please) pardew goes bck to a 433 or 4312 and gives arfa no defensive duty so he can just free roam
lee1892
Aug 26, 2012 at 11:03 AM
Comment #14It was a shame when Ben Arfa also had the chance to dive on the edge of box after contact but he stayed on his feet and the play came to nothing. You have to go down to get freekicks/penalties these days.
Yohan doesn’t look right to me at the minute. I was more impressed with Perch’s cameo than Cabaye’s 75mins. Saying that I still would have started Yohan with Perch rather than Anita, was too early to throw him in, he didn’t seem up to speed and doesn’t break down play like Tiote/perch can