Chelsea 4 Cardiff 1: Hazards controversial goal overshadows win as battling Bluebirds are ripped apart (and Jose is even sent off!) Just another quiet afternoon at Stamford Bridge then. Chelsea ran out convincing winners over promoted Cardiff City but not before an equaliser for the west Londoners that should never have been allowed and the later sight of Jose Mourinho sent off and sitting with the fans. It is fair to say it was a day referee Anthony Taylor may not forget in a hurry, nor indeed his assessors. It is also fair to say Taylor may find himself officiating at Championship games for the foreseeable future. It would seem churlish to suggest Eden Hazard’s controversial equaliser in the first half settled a game that ended in a thrashing, but there is no doubt it proved to be the catalyst. Until the 33rd minute Cardiff, facing Chelsea for the first time in the top flight in 52 years, had held an uncomfortable lead after Jordon Mutch had seized on David Luiz’s misguided leave from Ramires’s back-pass and chipped the ball over Peter Cech into the empty net after 10 minutes. It was an extraordinary goal in its own right because Luiz ran away from the ball assuming there was not a Cardiff player anywhere near him. In most games this would be the major talking point, especially as the accident-prone Luiz was in the thick of it. But all this would change 12 minutes from the break when David Marshall collected the ball. As the Cardiff goalkeeper quite clearly bounced it on the turf, Samuel Eto’o crept up from behind, stole it and fed Hazard. The midfielder then squared the ball to Eto’o, who was tackled in shooting, but when the loose ball rolled to Hazard, the Belgian made no mistake. It prompted memories of George Best’s disallowed effort against England’s Gordon Banks in 1971, Gary Crosby’s goal for Nottingham Forest against Manchester City’s Andy Dibble in 1991, Dion Dublin’s cheeky steal off Shay Given in 1997 while playing for Coventry against Newcastle and Thierry Henry’s disallowed goal against Brad Friedel’s Blackburn. If the referee had studied Law 12 of the Fifa regulations, he might have made a different decision. It states: ‘When a goalkeeper has gained possession of the ball with his hands, he cannot be challenged by an opponent. A goalkeeper is considered to be in control of the ball while the ball is between his hands and any surface (e.g. ground) and while in the act of bouncing it on the ground.’ Afterwards Taylor told incredulous Cardiff manager Malky Mackay he believed Marshall had dropped the ball, which is why the goal was awarded. He was probably the only one of the 41,475 crowd inside the ground who saw it that way. Despite this, Cardiff, with their new, 23-year-old Kazakh head of recruitment Alisher Apsalyamov, watching from, the directors’ box, were good value to be on level terms at the interval. But after such a lucky break there was a ring of inevitability about Chelsea’s second-half performance. The Hazard-Eto’o combination worked to good effect again in the 66th minute, this time legally, as the Belgian fed the Cameroon striker, who cut inside Cardiff captain Steven Caulker before firing a low shot past Marshall to score his first goal for his new club. All eyes were diverted three minutes later to the touchline. Mourinho, not for the first time, had wandered way out of his technical area to complain when referee Taylor had accused Branislav Ivanovic of time-wasting, the same offence that earlier saw Cardiff keeper Marshall booked. When the manager first remonstrated then refused to go quietly, Taylor pointed to the stands, prompting the most colourful boss in the Premier League to sit eight rows back from his dugout. He was punching the air in the 78th minute when substitute Oscar, after collecting the ball from Ramires, fired a swerving, rising shot into the net. There was still time for a fourth goal for Chelsea when Hazard cut inside and sent a low shot just to the left of Marshall from a tight angle. On most other days the beleaguered keeper would have undoubtedly saved the modest effort … but not on a day like this. Cardiff will not stay up or go down because of a bizarre afternoon at the Bridge, however, and Mourinho will not become a shrinking violet, either. But it was a day neither Cardiff nor Chelsea will forget for a while. MATCH FACTS CHELSEA: Cech 6; Ivanovic 6, Terry 7, Luiz 5, Bertrand 7 (Torres 64 min, 5); Ramires 5, Lampard 6; Mata 5 (Oscar 59, 7), WiIlian 5, Hazard 7; Eto’o 6 (Azpilicueta, 69, 5). SUBS: Schwarzer, Essien, Cahill, De Bruyne. MANAGER: Jose Mourinho 6. GOALS: Hazard 34 & 82, Eto’o 66, Oscar 78. BOOKINGS: Luiz. SENT OFF: Mourinho. CARDIFF: Marshall 5; Theophile-Catherine 6, Caulker 5, Turner 5, Taylor 5; Cowie 6, Gunnarsson 6 (Gestede 81), Medel 5 (Kim 56, 6), Whittingham 5; Mutch 7; Odemwingie 6 (Campbell 68, 5). SUBS: Lewis, Hudson, Noone, Maynard. MANAGER: Malky Mackay 5. GOALS: Mutch 10. BOOKINGS: Cowie, Marshall. MOM: Oscar REFEREE: Anthony Taylor 4. ATT: 41.475.
Posted on: Sun, 20 Oct 2013 05:42:15 +0000
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