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evo vam jos "vesti"
idier Drogba and Chelsea take step forward
By John Ley at Stamford Bridge

Chelsea (1) 2 Schalke (0) 0

Roman Abramovich could have been forgiven last night for staging one
of his more flamboyant birthday celebrations. The Russian billionaire,
on his 41st birthday, saw his new manager achieve what his old manager
could not, thanks to a player seemingly unhappy with his lot at the
club.

Jose Mourinho's parting act was to see his side stumble to a 1-1 draw
with Rosenborg and leave Chelsea's European aspirations in a
precarious position. Now, under Avram Grant, the club have moved on,
adding this scalp to that of Valencia three weeks earlier.

Grant, as ever, spoke with understatement when he wished Abramovich
'happy birthday', adding: "He has done a lot for this club and I hope
this is a good present for him."

The 'present' was delivered by Didier Drogba and if the striker is
unhappy at Chelsea, it will be interesting to monitor his form if he
falls back in love with the club. Having claimed last week that
something at Chelsea was 'broken', he scored another goal, his second
in two games since his controversial comments. His goal, Chelsea's
second, went some way to securing their place in the knockout stages
of the Champions League.

Chelsea having been gifted the first goal, which Florent Malouda
scored through the gaping legs of goalkeeper Manuel Neuer, Drogba's
superb second enabled them to offer some of the entertainment Grant
had demanded.

With Rosenborg beating Valencia in the night's other Group B game,
Chelsea are now three points clear of the second-placed Norwegians.

Mourinho finished his Chelsea career with three games without a win;
Grant has won five of his last six even if at times last night the
hosts rode their luck. Schalke were deprived of key striker Kevin
Kuranyi in the warm-up before having a 'goal' disallowed for offside,
striking a post and, towards the end, being deprived of another
scoring opportunity through a blatant 'professional foul' by Alex.

That said, these are promising times for Chelsea after such a poor
start under Mourinho. John Terry and Ashley Cole are still absent, but
Wayne Bridge started for the first time this season.

The game was just four minutes old when Neuer gifted Chelsea. Malouda
rode a challenge from Rafinha, the Schalke defender, and when he shot,
the ball took the smallest of touches off the Brazilian right-back,
just enough to confuse Neuer, who let it slip through his arms and
legs in embarrassing fashion.

Chelsea had space and most of the possession, with Bridge enjoying
freedom along the left flank, but they became frustrated by their
inability to breach an ordinary defence.

More chances fell to Chelsea before the break as Michael Essien and
Joe Cole were denied by Neuer.

Chelsea began the second half in similar fashion to the first, with a
goal. And it went further to confirming that whatever his personal
feelings, Drogba will continue to fight for the Chelsea cause.

Inside the opening two minutes Paolo Ferreira and Joe Cole chased a
ball, with the defender taking up the option to carry it forward. His
cross, from the right, was struck with perfection, as was the timing
of the dive from Drogba, who stooped to head into the bottom corner.

The goal enabled Chelsea to assert their authority and soon afterwards
Cole went close from 20 yards.

On the hour, Schalke were unfortunate again, when Soren Larsen, the
late replacement for Kuryani, sent in a header that left Cech stranded
on the line, only for the ball to bounce off the inside of the left
post and into Cech's grateful arms.

Before the end, Alex clearly impeded Larsen and though the foul was
outside the area, the Brazilian should have been sent off. He survived
and now Chelsea march forward with confidence.
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Indy:

Chelsea 2 Schalke 0: Attacking revolution remains a fantasy
By Sam Wallace

What do Chelsea and Gelsenkirchen, the gritty industrial Ruhr hometown
of Schalke, have in common? Neither of them are really built with
entertainment in mind. Avram Grant's mission is to change all that and
usher in a new era of fantasy football at Stamford Bridge, although
for the time being it looks suspiciously like he is happy to win
matches by any means possible.

>From the top of Group B, life looks a lot more comfortable for Chelsea
than seven games ago when a half-empty Stamford Bridge bore witness to
Jose Mourinho's last match in charge, that desperate draw with
Rosenborg. And as Roman Abramovich stepped into his limo last night he
could at least comfort himself with the knowledge that stability has
been restored but, at the back of his mind that nagging question:
could life be better than this?

On the occasion of Abramovich's 41st birthday yesterday, his friends,
cronies and hangers-on will have been asking the same question they
pose around this time every year: what do you get for the Russian
billionaire who has everything? The answer could be found 24 hours
earlier in the Emirates Stadium where Arsenal ran riot against Slavia
Prague, scored seven goals and sent their supporters home in raptures.

Grant will have felt a little more deflated than usual after a
post-match press conference in which he was deluged with questions
about entertainment value and comparisons with Arsenal. So far
unflappable, even Grant seemed to be tiring. "I respect Arsenal but we
are not taking an example from other clubs," he said. "We want to play
our game. We are going step-by-step, even Arsène Wenger said he needed
more than a year."

Grant has to take responsibility for making that particular rod for
his own back – he even mentioned entertainment in his programme notes
again yesterday. Florent Malouda was gifted a goal within five minutes
through an appalling error by goalkeeper Manuel Neuer – who seemed
personally determined to give Abramovich a birthday present. Within
two minutes of the second half beginning, Didier Drogba hit Schalke
with the classic sucker punch and put Chelsea two ahead.

The German side are renowned as the Bundesliga's nearly men and they
nearly put up a decent fight last night. Carlos Grossmuller had a goal
wrongly disallowed for offside, Soren Larsen headed against the post
and the striker should have had a penalty when Alex da Costa pulled
him down in the 85th minute. Even so Schalke, who lost striker Kevin
Kuranyi minutes before kick-off, were strangely insipid.

The linchpin for Chelsea once again was Drogba who was given no stick
whatsoever from the Stamford Bridge faithful for his declaration last
week that he wanted to leave the club – and his subsequent bizarre
retraction. Doubtless because anyone who knows Chelsea know they would
be half the team without their main man – they would sooner give away
every other striker on the books than him.

"Didier is a positive guy, he speaks on the pitch and that is where he
needs to do his talking," Grant said. Four wins on the spin for the
new manager before the visit of Manchester City on Saturday but Grant
would be naive to think that would be enough to earn him the plaudits.
The mantra of entertaining football will follow him all season.

Malouda scored when he took on a flick from Drogba on the left, went
outside Gerald Asamoah, cut back inside and drilled a low harmless
shot straight at Neuer and through the German's legs. The Schalke
goalkeeper made a similarly disastrous mistake against Hansa Rostock
in the Bundesliga at the weekend and ominously vowed after that match
to make up for it. Paul Robinson can rest easy that there are some
having a far worse time of it than him.

The killer blow from Chelsea took another 45 minutes to arrive. As
usual, the likes of Claude Makelele and Ricardo Carvalho were
exemplary but it was ever thus. The spark was still missing from
Malouda and Joe Cole. Two minutes after the break Schalke allowed
themselves to be easily opened up. For once, Chelsea got the ball
moving quickly on the counter-attack, Frank Lampard switched the ball
out right to Paulo Ferreira and the full-back whipped in a cross that
Drogba dived to meet at the near post.

It was a brilliant finish and Drogba's fourth goal of the season. The
Swedish referee should have given a penalty against Alex for his foul
on Larsen, but equally Drogba should have had one a few minutes later
when he was brought down by Jermaine Jones. On the Chelsea bench for
the first time was Henk ten Cate, the new assistant to Grant, who, it
was pointed out in the programme, coached an Ajax team that scored
more than 100 goals in 41 games last season.

Those are the kind of numbers that Abramovich hopes Chelsea are
posting by the time he turns 42. It is becoming an obsession at the
club and it will not be any easier to achieve if Drogba does decide
that his future lies elsewhere.

Chelsea (4-1-4-1): Cech; Ferreira, Carvalho, Alex, Bridge; Makelele; J
Cole (Shevchenko, 89), Essien (Mikel, 68) Lampard, Malouda (Kalou,
83); Drogba. Substitutes not used: Cudicini (gk), Pizarro, Ben Haim,
Belletti.

Schalke 04 (4-3-3): Neuer; Rafinha, Westermann, Bordon, Rodriguez
(Bajramovic, 82); Ernst, Grossmuller (Azaouagh, 77), Jones; Asamoah
(Rakitic, 61), Larsen, Lovenkrands. Substitutes not used: Schober
(gk), Howedes.

Referee: P Frojdfeldt (Sweden).

Group B

Results: Chelsea 1 Rosenborg 1; Schalke 04 0 Valencia 1; Rosenborg 0
Schalke 04 2; Valencia 1 Chelsea 2; Chelsea 2 Schalke 04 0; Rosenborg
2 Valencia 0.

Remaining fixtures: 6 November: Schalke 04 v Chelsea; Valencia v
Rosenborg. 28 November: Rosenborg v Chelsea; Valencia v Schalke 04. 11
December: Chelsea v Valencia; Schalke 04 v Rosenborg.
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Drogba's flying delivery brings home comforts to Grant and Chelsea

Kevin McCarra at Stamford Bridge
Thursday October 25, 2007
The Guardian

After the years of melodrama, this period of seclusion must be to
Chelsea's taste. They opened up a three-point lead in Group B without
inspiring bullish predictions that they are set to win the Champions
League. No one is fixated with them for the time being. Even the
referee Peter Frojdfeldt was not paying much attention when Alex,
after perpetrating a short backpass, brought down Schalke's Soren
Larsen in the 85th minute. No foul was awarded, no red card shown.

In reparation, Didier Drogba was denied a penalty almost immediately.
Despite legitimate squabbles about such events the justice of the
outcome is beyond challenge. Chelsea always had sufficient talent at
their disposal to win. Their rigour has been depleted to some extent,
however, and the club has to hope that this is explained wholly by the
absence of the injured John Terry.
Schalke, in the most ridiculous manner, failed to strain Avram Grant's
side. The visitors arrived with a gift of an early goal for
convalescent Chelsea. The single home game under the direction of the
new manager had been the 0-0 draw with Fulham, but Grant was not made
to wait long for a goal here last night.

With four minutes gone, Florent Malouda showed his characteristically
tenacious skill to get away from the right-back Rafinha, but his shot
was hit straight to Manuel Neuer. There was not any great speed on the
ball either, yet it still ran through the goalkeeper's legs. A blunder
on such a scale seemed to make Chelsea's fourth consecutive win
inevitable.

At the weekend Neuer had chucked a throw-out straight to an opponent,
so permitting Hansa Rostock their equaliser in a draw. Schalke must
believe that the fates are pursuing a vendetta. The striker Kevin
Kuranyi hurt himself before kick-off against Chelsea and, with the
line-ups already submitted, Soren Larsen had to be promoted from the
bench.

None the less, the visitors were never completely disheartened. They
had won 2-0 away to Rosenborg in Trondheim and occasionally attacked
with zest here. The intended evolution of Chelsea from the dry rigour
of the Jose Mourinho era has got no further yet than an increased
vulnerability.

Grant's side could not deal dependably with crosses and Carlos
Grossmüller was wrongly given offside when he tucked the ball home in
the 28th minute. There was errant flagging, too, after Joe Cole was
released by Drogba six minutes before the interval, but his effort had
been saved in any case.

While Neuer coped then there was still every reason to test him.
Another Cole effort in the 45th minute was shoved out into the middle
of the goalmouth, even if it did not run into the path of a Chelsea
player. The match was largely humdrum and Grant, who had not included
Shaun Wright-Phillips even among the substitutes, cannot have been in
the mood for frivolity. Chelsea put the emphasis on getting the ball
into the goalmouth in a direct fashion.

Michael Essien was as great a danger as anyone, twice threatening with
headers. It was a little odd to see him taking up such a role and
Frank Lampard was conservative by comparison.

Drogba, of course, is the best target of all for Chelsea and he
extended the lead in the 47th minute. Paulo Ferreira's run on the
right was full of good intentions but the forward, who might have been
off-side by a hair's breadth, had to supply true quality, connecting
with a diving header to beat Neuer.

Stereotypes about the Bundesliga were reinforced as the visitors
looked quite appealing without matching Chelsea's decisiveness. The
opinion, none the less, nearly had to be revised when Larsen's header
pinged off a post after Rafinha had picked him out in the 60th minute.

Chelsea, for all that, retained a sporadic sprightliness. Lampard
located Drogba with an especially perceptive ball but the Ivorian, for
once, could not overwhelm a defence single-handed. That was a rare
moment in which the lack of a striking partner for Drogba seemed a
disadvantage of the 4-3-3 system, featuring two wingers, so loved by
Grant's predecessor Mourinho

This was an unassuming win. The admirable visiting support teased
their opposite numbers for being subdued, but it was pardonable that
Chelsea minds should be drifting away from this fixture. The arrival
of the revived Manchester City on Saturday must, in particular, have
been starting to occupy Grant's thoughts.