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| September 18, 2005 | Sunday | Sha'aban 13, 1426 |
Chelsea brush aside Charlton challenge
LONDON, Sept 17: Second half goals from Hernan Crespo and Arjen Robben helped Premiership leaders Chelsea maintain their 100 per cent start to the season with a 2-0 victory over second placed Charlton at The Valley on Saturday.
Chelsea have now won all six league games without reaching their best and their title rivals Manchester United and Arsenal must be worrying about keeping pace with Jose Mourinho’s outfit.
The Portuguese manager’s only change of note saw Argentinian forward Crespo preferred to Didier Drogba up front and there was still no place in the starting line-up for Joe Cole.
With each team defending their perfect records, something had to give and it was a cautious opening, though the champions had the clearer opportunities in the early exchanges with a deflected 20 yard volley from Frank Lampard whistling just wide of Stephan Andersen’s goal.
On 12 minutes, the lively Robben picked up the ball near the halfway line and skipped past two men before unleashing a vicious shot from the edge of the box which stung the Charlton goalkeeper’s finger-tips.
Alan Curbishley’s men were more than holding their own without creating clear cut chances and Jerome Thomas chose the wrong option when he fired tamely into the side-netting.
However, the best opportunity of the first half fell to Crespo on 21 minutes and it came after a dreadful mistake by home midfielder Radostin Kishishev who was caught in possession in midfield.
Summer signing Michael Essien nipped in and sent the Argentinian racing clear on goal and he slipped his shot underneath Andersen only to see it hit the base of the post before it was hacked away to safety.
As the pressure mounted, Chelsea did not have to wait long for the opener and it was the makeshift midfielder Kishishev who again put his team into trouble by losing possession.
This time Crespo was in no mood to let him off the hook and he met Essien’s cross which a delightful header from 12 yards which flew into the top corner despite Andersen’s best efforts to keep it out.
Before the hour mark, the points were all but secured courtesy of a delightful second goal from Robben. The Dutch international winger collected the ball from Gallas and curled a sumptuous left footed shot in from the edge of the box.
Considering Chelsea had yet to concede a goal in the league this season, it looked a long way back for Charlton and the size of their task was emphasised as Duff made way for 21 million pounds (38 million dollars) signing Shaun Wright-Phillips.
English Premiership results
Charlton 0 Chelsea 2
Fulham 1 West Ham 2
Portsmouth 1 Birmingham 1
Sunderland 1 West Brom 1
Playing later:
Aston Villa v Tottenham (1615 GMT)
Playing Sunday:
Liverpool v Manchester United (1100 GMT)
Blackburn v Newcastle (1300 GMT)
Wigan v Middlesborough (1400 GMT)
Manchester City v Bolton (1500 GMT)
Playing Monday:
Arsenal v Everton (1900 GMT)
Scottish Premier League results
Dundee Utd 2 Livingston 0
Dunfermline 0 Aberdeen 2
Inverness CT 0 Hearts 1
Motherwell 5 Falkirk 0
Rangers 3 Kilmarnock 0
Playing Sunday:
Hibernian v Celtic (1300 GMT)
Bundesliga (German) results:
Cologne 2 Borussia M’bach 1
Arminia Bielefeld 0 Kaiserslautern 0
Bayern Munich 1 Hanover 96 0
Mainz 1 VfB Stuttgart 2
Hamburg SV 1 Eintracht Frankfurt 1
VfL Wolfsburg 1 Nuremberg 1
Werder Bremen 3 Borussia Dortmund 2
—Agencies
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