Bad defending and bad refereeing condemned Town to their second 4-1 away League defeat in succession. An early goal from Marcus Stewart, his seventh in consecutive games put the Blues ahead, but an equaliser on half-time and a disastrous second half followed. Referee Andy D’Urso also controversially sent off John McGreal in the aftermath of a penalty decision which led to Chelsea’s fourth.
Town started with Hermann Hreidarsson taking up Titus Bramble’s centre-half position. The young defender was suspended after reaching five bookings. Mark Venus hadn’t recovered from injury enough to even make the bench and Gary Croft slipped into the Icelander’s normal left-back role. Dutch youngster Nabil Abidallah made a surprise appearance amongst the subs.
Town started very brightly and Alun Armstrong and James Scowcroft both had chances where they might have scored. Town did go ahead not long after when Marcus Stewart latched on to a ball played behind the defence and beat Cudicini to the ball and slipped it over the Italian keeper.
Town were running the show and could have gone further ahead through a twice taken Jim Magilton freekick. The first was charged down by Dennis Wise who was less than five yards from the ball when the kick was taken. Wise was booked and the freekick was moved ten yards nearer. Magilton hammered the ball against the wall.
Referee D’Urso showed fans some of what was to come when Gianfranco Zola very obvious controlled the ball with his hand inside the centre circle. This allowed him to play the ball to Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink who could well have scored, but luckily for Town (and D’Urso) he hit the side-netting.
As at Sunderland Town sat back more once they were one ahead and as the half wore on Chelsea got more into it. The pivotal moment came a minute before half-time when Chelsea drew level. A corner from the right flew into the front post where Hermann Hreidarsson inadvertently flicked the ball up, high and into the six yard box. Wright failed to get through the crowd of players and Hasselbaink headed goalwards and Wright saved. The ball came back in and Croft weakly kicked out and Poyet hit the ball home. The goal was a bad one with most of the defence to blame at some point.
The second half began and Town looked a bit more positive than they had in the latter stages of the first. Unfortunately this didn’t last too long and on 58 minutes Chelsea went ahead. The ball was played into Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink on the edge of the area. He moved the ball towards the right hand side of the area with McGreal behind him. Hasselbaink twisted and turned and McGreal somehow managed to lose him. It appeared he was expecting the flank to be covered by Croft, however, this allowed the Dutchman to cross for Dennis Wise to score.
Town tried to get going again, but by now Chelsea had got their game going. Town had a short period of possession without really creating much before they conceded a third. Jim Magilton was caught in possession on the edge of the Chelsea box, but with Town pushing forward this meant trouble. Hasselbaink ran pacily forward while Poyet ran hell-for-leather on his right with Fabian Wilnis in tow making no headway. Hasselbaink laid the ball off perfectly and Poyet beat Wright with ease.
It was always going to be up hill from there, but with twenty minutes to go it got even worse. Fabian Wilnis won the ball from Gianfranco Zola on the byline, however, to the astonishment of the Town players as much as anything, referee D’Urso game a penalty. Many Town players crowded round him with McGreal and Magilton leading the protests. Holland was trying to keep the calm, but it was such an obviously bad decision (on top of quite a number of bad corner calls etc, the Zola handball and some very weak freekick decisions) that the players were understandably cross. Eventually the referee was left alone, but he called McGreal back, presumably to book him. But it was a red card that was produced we would guess for something McGreal said (if D’Urso thought it was McGreal who made the tackle he should be immediately struck from the list) and the Scouse defender was on his way. Wayne Brown came on as Armstrong went off.
The rest of the game was damage limitation really on the pitch while boos and chants of derision at the referee dominated the terraces.
Another away loss of such proportions must be a worry, particularly as some of the circumstances were so similar to the loss at Sunderland. A lot to think about for George Burley. And once he’s seen Match of the Day a lot to think about for D’Urso.