Conserving energy for the Champions League is all well and good, but this game was played at a slower pace than a warm down. In retrospect, perhaps the worst thing we could have done was score so early. A straightforward header by Carvalho from a good free kick by Wayne Bridge.

Mikel impresses in a frenzied game with his cool play, but in a match that cried out for Chelsea to lift the tempo his nonchalance was annoying and, when allied with Ballack’s languid style, destructive to the game.

There’s almost nothing good to say about this performance. Drogba strolled through the 90 minutes seemingly oblivious to the team’s needs and insisting on being the general at set plays – not in the centre where he should be, but over the ball.

In one ludicrous, bone-headed moment he insisted on masterminding a free kick nearly the left by-line by the penalty area. It cried out for a clever chip into the box for Terry, Drogba and Carvalho to challenge. Instead the Ivorian improvised a play with a confused Ballack that went nowhere. It made you wonder whether the manager practises set plays and makes clear to his players the roles he expects them to play.

By the last 20 minutes, our stroll had become a nervy scramble and Boro could and should have equalised.

Every pass of ours seemed to go to an opponent. Cudicini raced from his line and slid by a ball played long and wide to Alves. Alves then shot towards an open net from 30 yards with only Terry covering. The ball hit the right-hand post dead on and bounced back nicely to the goalie. That big warning went unheeded and we had an even bigger let off 10 minutes from the end when Alves and Wheater hit the bar in successive plays from point blank range and Aliadiere blazed the last rebound over the open goal.

It’s true that the substitution of Ballack by SWP had briefly brought us to life, but SWP confirmed he couldn’t hit a barn door from a few feet by firing first wide and then high from two gilt-edged chances to wrap the game up.

With a quarter of an hour to go, Grant finally introduced Anelka but this wasn’t to create the dynamic duo with Drogba that had torn Arsenal apart. Anelka seemed to play deep at first and then wide and when he did go into the middle, Drogba seemed to drop back to try his hand again at being the midfield general with predictable results.

Let’s be charitable and say this is the type of game you have to win to be champions – a day where we were totally off-colour and yet eked out a win. Yes, let’s try very hard and pretend that’s the case. Nope. I can’t do it.

RATINGS:

CUDICINI – 6. Actually played quite well and his handling on crosses was very good. His one rush of blood to the head came when he raced out wide to clear and slid under the ball allowing Alves a pot shot at the unguarded goal.

BELLETTI – 4. Not sure he made a tackle all game. Downing had the beating of him all day, but wasn’t good enough to make it count. Yes, he looks impressive going forward, but his defending is crap.

CARVALHO – 7. By the end he had caught the give-the-ball-away-when-under-no-pressure disease, but for most of the match was the only player to look like his normal self.

TERRY – 5. He’s supposed to be an inspirational captain, so why was he slowing the game down so much in the first half when we badly needed an injection of urgency into our play? When Boro were bombing us with high balls late, he was less than commanding.

BRIDGE – 6. For a long time, he and Joe Cole seemed the only two players who wanted to pick up the pace. Defensively sound and relatively ambitious going forward. Great free kick for our goal.

MIKEL – 5. So skilful and so languid. Anyone ever seen him sprint? Nope, nor have I.

BALLACK – 5. Had a decent 20 minutes and then became invisible. Never got into Lampard-type positions to trouble Boro.

ESSIEN – 6. Just the type of player you want to inject urgency, but never seemed very sure of what he was supposed to be doing. Mixed good passes with some bad, but at least got into some dangerous positions. On one occasion in the first half he drove to the by-line, crossed hard only for Kalou’s effort to be blocked. Where was Drogba? Lounging around beyond the back post.

J. COLE – 7. The only creative player on the park- put in enough balls for a determined Drogba to feast on, but our striker wasn’t interested today.

KALOU – 5. Back to his frustrating worst -had chances but took none of them.

DROGBA – 3. Only gets three points because of his past deeds. His attitude was crap and he played like the boy who had brought the ball and insists on being captain and playing every position. Hardly ever harried Boro defenders like he used to. Gave every indication that he thinks he’s above the club and can do what he wants. A sharp attitude change is required or we should give him what he has so often wanted – a transfer out of the country.

Subs:

SWP (for Ballack, 65 mins) – 5.5. Brought on to reprise the central role he performed so well during our injury crisis and started out brightly. Dragged his first touch across Shwartzer and wide of the far post and ballooned his second touch over goal when faced with only the goalie. Then he disappeared into the dross we had become.

ANELKA (for Kalou, 78 mins) – 6. Not sure from TV what position he was meant to play, except that it wasn’t up front in a central role with Drogba.

ALEX ( for Drogba, 89 mins), n/a.

When Makelele and Ballack were replaced by Belletti and Anelka 20 minutes from the end and with us down by a goal, the always-there dissatisfaction with our manager rang around the Bridge. It didn’t help Grant that neither of the replaced players looked best pleased.

Of course, it’s possible to argue we were in the position we were in because we started with Essien at right back, a move often favoured by Jose, but dangerous against an Arsenal attack whose movement could beweilder a seasoned fullback. That Essien was confused was obvious and we were fortunate that Carvalho in particular moved over to snuff the danger on our right side as Essien left acres of space behind him for Arsenal to exploit.

Didier Drogba has always been the scourge of Arsenal and so it proved again here after a first half in which he passed up two great chances to score. Instead of his usual patsy Senderos to boss around, he had our old boy William Gallas to contend with. That didn’t make much of a difference as the Ivorian invariably got a head or chest to every ball pumped forward. This is what we had been missing for much of the season.

At half time the game was evenly balanced with each team pointing to missed chances and spells of dominance. This was not a Liverpool 0-0 match because you knew one of the teams was going to score. When Sagna got in front of Lampard at a corner to head in at the near post, you thought briefly Arsenal could run away with this, catching us on the counter-attack as we pushed forward. Instead, we continued to create chances and miss them, the worst being Ashley Cole’s feeble header when unmarked at the far post.

Then came the substitutions and the crowd chant … and the explosion of relief when Drogba smashed a loose ball in the area past Almunia, who had looked very good. It was now one-way traffic and Anelka pulled a decent chance wide of the post before Drogba rammed in an Anelka header. It could have been a hattrick shortly afterwards but Almunia made a brilliant save to push the ball around the post.

Arsenal made their substitutions but with Terry and Carvalho immense at the back, we weren’t in trouble despite five minutes of added time. Now we’re in second place, five points back of Manure. The odds are long, but Manure will be less happy with us chasing them than the fading Arsenal.

As for Grant, he has silenced the doubters for now. Silenced, but not converted.

RATINGS:

CUDICINI – 6. Didn’t have any really tough saves to make and is entitled to have expected his defenders to get to the near post header first. Still, that’s four set piece goals againt in the last two games.

ESSIEN – 5. As a right back, he would get 3 or 4, but made more of a mark in midfield without really convincing that he’s over his blahs.

CARVALHO – 8.5. Magnificent performance. Can’t remember him putting a foot wrong. He and Terry shut down Adebayor and anyone else who tried to come through the middle.

TERRY – 8.5. If Capello didn’t see an England captain in this performance, then he’s a muppet. And no one can take shots against his behaviour in a highly charged atmosphere. Read the game brilliantly and only once was forced to expose himself to Adebayor’s pace.

A. COLE – 7. Kept the scowl off his face and concentrated on football, bombing forward all game and doing the job defensively.

MAKELELE – 6.5. He’s been encouraged to be more creative with the ball, which is good, and bad. Several times was guilty of losing the ball in dangerous positions, though Arsenal were never able to exploit the breaks mainly because Van Persie is clearly not match fit.

BALLACK – 6. Got into some good positions in the box during a first half in which Lampard was invisible, without ever catching the ball correctly. Arsenal’s speed through midfield often exposed his lack of pace.

LAMPARD – 6.5 Could never get into the game in the first half, but increasingly showed up in attack as we tried to come back from one down. His lacklustre first half does make you wonder about how happy he is playing with Ballack.

J.COLE – 7. Not the influence of the past few games, but still worried Arsenal enough. He was the variant to the direct approach to Drogba.

KALOU – 6.5. Air kicked a great chance in the first half and struggled to make a mark. But like Cole, he has the skills to open the tightest defence and helped stretch Arsenal.

DROGBA – 9. The great thing about being a striker is that you can amateurishly knee away a one on one with the goalie one minute and be hero by the end of the game. Yet he was much more than our goalscorer. Long passes from defence were turned into dangerous attacking moves because he won most of those balls. The Arsenal defence started to stand off him, allowing him to turn defence into attack in an instant. If he can remain as motivated for the rest of the season, we are in with a chance.

Subs:

BELLETTI (for Makelele, 70 mins) – 6.5. His role was to put in better crosses from the wings than we had been getting and he did that.

ANELKA (for Ballack, 70 mins) – 7. For 18 minutes we saw him paired with Drogba in the centre and they caused havoc. Let’s see them together again.

MIKEL (for J. Cole, 88 mins) – n/a. Reinforcement in front of Terry and Carvalho and comfortably held out against Arsenal until the final whistle.

1) Barnsley had in Odejayi the best player on the pitch. 2) The pitch bobbled as much as a 10-foot boat on the ocean. 3) We played utterly crap.

We can’t claim bad luck — Barnsley hit the post in the first half. We can’t claim bad team selection — this was a team well-equipped to deal with a Championship club, even though Lampard was ruled out before kick off with a slight injury. That shouldn’t have been a factor.

We created easily enough chances to win, but astonishingly wayward shooting meant we never properly tested their goalie. Cudicini was tested once and failed miserably; being out jumped by Odejayi to a routine cross, flopping feebly to the ground in the vain hope the ref might follow regular practice and blow his whistle because an opponent breathed on the goalie.

Yes, the pitch worked against slick passing along the ground, but then that has never been a problem for us in the past since we’re well-equipped to take the aerial route. The problem was so many of our vital players had shockers including, but not confined to, Anelka and Ballack.

This will take a lot of living down and especially hurts because the FA Cup was there for the taking after Manure’s exit earlier today. Mourinho never lost to a lower division team, so that’s another standard Grant has failed to match. I want to make him the scapegoat for the loss — and he will be made one because you can’t take credit for the wins if you don’t do the same for the losses — but too many of his rich players failed to do their job. You’ve got to think some of them won’t be around next season either.

RATINGS:

CUDICINI – 4. Totally at fault for the goal. A keeper with the advantage of being able to raise his arms above his head should take crosses like Barnsley’s 100 percent of the time. He seemed to take the wrong route and ended up almost behind Odejayi. If he had gone in front he would surely have caught the ball or been fouled. The rest of his performance doesn’t matter. His mistake cost us the game.

BELLETTI – 6. Did about what was expected. Relatively untroubled defensively, he did his part in attack and it wasn’t his fault that we could have played another 90 minutes without shooting on target.

CARVALHO – 5. Strangely uncertain today, he gave Odejayi the room to look a world-class striker. Was also slow to close down a threat in the first half that saw Barnsley hit the post.

TERRY – 6. Thought he played well and no one could say he looked like he couldn’t be bothered. Bit of a shame that our last chance fell to him in the box. He showed the style of Jonny Wilkinson in leaning back and hoofing well over the bar.

BRIDGE – 6. Like Belletti, he defended well enough and got forward well. Took a couple of poor free kicks, but generally provided decent service to the front men.

ESSIEN – 4. Brought his strength, but no finesse. His struggles continue.

BALLACK – 5. Very disappointing. Looked in last season’s form and disappeared for long stretches.

WRIGHT-PHILLIPS – 4. Frequently showed some wonderful touches to spin away from close markers, but what use is that if you display a club foot when you distribute the ball? He is never going to be able to consistently deliver an end product.

MALOUDA – 3. Grant never signed him so we can’t blame him for that. But the man was a waste of a blue shirt. Displayed no special skill to distinguish himself from the red shirts and not nearly the same desire.

J. COLE – 7. Our best performer by a mile. Should have scored early in the second half, but the ball clearly bobbled as he tried to shoot. Was able to display his tricks despite the surface and with any half-decent colleagues we would have cashed in on the openings he created.

ANELKA – 3.5. An extra half point because no one was as bad as Malouda. The biggest disappointment was how he was beaten to most balls played forward, allowing the defender to nip in before him to take the ball. Took an age to get off shots, or slipped at the crucial moment. A nightmare.

Subs:

KALOU (62 mins for Malouda) – 5. Took Malouda’s spot on the left wing and had the beating of his defender, but couldn’t really impose himself on the game.

PIZARRO (78 mins for Belletti) – 6. Displayed some good control, but wanted too long to shoot. It must be said that Barnsley had about nine bodies diving around to tackle and block in the penalty area so it wasn’t easy to see daylight.

The match facts are that Cech made another big game mistake to cost us the winning goal, but we lost this in the team selection. The decision to play Anelka wide left, leaving Joe Cole on the bench was disastrous.

The new signing looked completely lost like most of the rest of his team mates and it was Spurs who made the majority of the running throughout, creating chances and forcing us into hopeful punts up field.

Despite Essien, Mikel and Lampard in midfield, Spurs controlled play from the opening whistle when Belletti contrived to double kick a simple pass into the path of Keane who had his shot deflected by Terry for a corner.

As we waited, and waited, for the game to settle down and our passing game to pick up, Spurs created and missed chance after chance. We couldn’t string three passes together and our only threats came from free kicks 25 to 30 yards out created by rash Spurs challenges. From the third of them, Drogba slotted it in with Robinson trying to hide behind his wall.

An injustice to Spurs, but so typical of us and you expected us to make a decent fist of the second half and probably catch them on the break for a decisive second.

It wasn’t to be, although we seemed much more comfortable than in the first and it was a chintzy penalty that undid us. Bridge twice touched the ball with his arm, although the first was clearly ball to arm.

Game on and in fairness we did pick up our game a bit. But Spurs should have won it when Zokora raced through with only Cech to beat. The goalie blocked the initial shot with his face, but that left Zokora now with a goal guarded only by two defenders. The man who has never scored in 70 games for Spurs showed why with a blast over the bar.

Surely we’d start to click in extra time when Thursday’s UEFA Cup game would sap the strength from Spurs’ legs? The answer came quickly when Anelka bundled over a Spurs player completely unnecessarily. The curling free kick left Woodgate and Cech on a collision course. Woodgate missed with his head but Cech punched the ball straight at the Spurs defender and the rebound bounced slowly into goal.

All our three subs did pretty well, although I question why it was Kalou who replaced SWP after the Spurs equaliser and not Cole. Cole finally saw the pitch after we went behind and we went to 4-4-2. Spurs responded by taking off Keane and bringing on Kaboul as a third centre half, a decision that would have been questioned by Spurs fans if they had failed to win.

The double switch gave us a monopoly of the ball and we had several good chances to tie it up with Kalou shooting against Robinson’s foot and Cole just failing to get enough steam on a left-footer, allowing Robinson to make a comfortable save.

The last kick of the game saw Kalou breaking into the Spurs area and it was fortunate for Mark Halsey that his shot rebounded from the post because had it gone in there would have been many questions about the timing of the final whistle, which is usually blown with the ball in neutral territory.

If this disaster is to mean anything, it must serve as a wakeup call to Grant that more positive football isn’t an afterthought, but a necessity. If we’re going to play Anelka and Drogba together, we’re going to have to change our formation to 4-4-2, something we can afford to do most games at home. Away from the Bridge, we need real wingers, not a square peg in a round hole.

RATINGS:

CECH – 6. Our last loss was at Arsenal when Cech missed a cross. Ironically, we would have been better off had he missed the cross today. The ball would have gone wide. Apart from that, he stood tall and made several excellent saves.

BELLETTI – 5. Set the tone from the kick off with an atrocious pass to Keane and struggled for the first half hour as Berbatov moved to his wing. Settled down thereafter, but hardly ever got forward.

CARVALHO – 6. Failed to pick up Berbatov in the first half and the Bulgarian should have scored from a Lennon cross. Like Terry he struggled in the air against Berbatov, but did a decent job of sweeping up the danger.

TERRY – 6. One of his more subdued displays and had big problems in the air with Barbatov winning most of the punts up field. Seemed to be orchestrating the negative play with orders to his colleagues to pass back to Cech for a hopeless hoof up field.

BRIDGE – 6.5. Wanted to give him a half-point extra because of his attacking intent. Slightly unfortunate with the penalty, but generally coped well with threats down his wing, which were few as Spurs obviously had targeted Belletti. He was lucky they did because Anelka wasn’t the best at tracking back.

MIKEL – 5. Has to take a lot of the blame for giving the ball away and wasn’t the influential presence in front of the back four that Makelele has been most of the time for the last months.

ESSIEN – 6. Seemed a bit unsure of his role, which isn’t that surprising since it mostly involved chasing around midfield trying to get the ball.

LAMPARD – 6. Linked play quite effectively and seemed happier to have Drogba to aim at. But most of his duties were defensive as we were constantly on the back foot. Got his corners right in the second half after several dreadful deliveries in the first.

WRIGHT-PHILLIPS – 3.5 Infuriatingly lax with his ball control and managed to lose the ball most times that he did gather it successfully. A mystery how he survived for 72 minutes.

ANELKA – 4. OK, he was in a strange position, but he achieved nothing. Caught SWP disease in the second half when he let a ball under his foot when promisingly placed in the penalty area. Has to be played in the middle or not at all.

DROGBA – 7. Was our best player, even if we could do without some of the dramatics. Despite being controlled in the air by Woodgate and King, he was always a threat when the ball was played to feet or chest. How did we manage without him?

Subs:

KALOU (for SWP, 72) – 6.5. Looked confident and dangerous on the ball. Should have tied up the game, but shot too close to Robinson. Was 200 per cent more dangerous than Anelka coming in off the left wing. Seems to have discovered his left foot in Africa.

BALLACK – 6. We took over midfield when he came on, but that may have been more due to a tiring Spurs.

J. COLE (for Mikel, 98) – 6.5. Why oh why did Grant wait so long? We desperately needed his trickery to raise our game earlier.

Crouch whistled one shot inches wide of the post in the first half and Ballack cushioned a volley inches wide of the post with 10 minutes to go, but that was about it for goalmouth action as neither goalie had a decent save to make. We barely strung three passes together all game and Liverpool were well-organized, so well that even Kuyt looked menacing in the first half. Every loose ball in the midfield was picked up in the first half by a player in red and on the rare occasions a man in blue got there first, it was usually passed straight back to the opposition.

Chief culprits were Makelele and Lampard, with willing assistants in SWP and even Joe Cole whose flicks and tricks never came off. This wasn’t the best game for Lampard to make his first appearance since Boxing Day. There was no time in midfield and his rustiness was there for all to see. It might have been better to bring him off the bench late in the game when tiredness would allow more than a split-second on the ball.

Should Arsenal win tonight, the gap will be eight points with 12 games to play, almost certainly too big. The only consolation is that second place is closer now thanks to Manure’s capitulation to their city rivals.

RATINGS:

CECH – 6. Never stretched and handled everything else as we have come to expect.

BELLETTI – 6. Up against it early on after a yellow for handball and with the speedy Babel looking like he would run at the Brazilian at every opportunity. Fortunately, Babel quickly lost his appetite and Belletti nullified his threat. However, it meant he wasn’t able to get forward like he usually does.

ALEX – 7. Struggled with Crouch in the air, but did enough to ensure the Liverpool man couldn’t cause damage.

CARVALHO – 7.5. Swept up everything around him and was steadier in his distribution than most of his teammates.

A. COLE – 7. It’s fashionable to knock him these days, but was our most dangerous provider in the first half and put in a good performance.

MAKELELE – 5. It’s near heresy not to laud his every game and he has seemed in recent games to have discovered a creative role hitherto unseen. Well, Liverpool seemed happy to let him have the ball rather than Ballack and Lampard and it paid off for them handsomely. In the first half his pass success rate must have been about 30% and that’s not counting the number of times he was caught in possession.

LAMPARD – 5. A poor return for the dynamo of our team who needs to find his feet quickly if he is to justify his place in the team. I can’t remember a single good pass from the man we have relied upon so much in previous seasons.

BALLACK – 7. Not the German’s greatest game, but anything we created usually went through him. Pushed up when Lampard was taken off and so nearly won it near the end when our best move of the match ended with him cushioning an awkward ball just by the far post.

WRIGHT-PHILLIPS – 5. Could have been a mismatch up against Riise, but Liverpool’s swarming defence mostly kept SWP, back again on the right wing, a peripheral figure.

J. COLE – 5.5. Rarely had the space or time to produce anything special. The one occasion he got room — when Gerrard gave the ball away in the final third — he inexplicably chose to play an early long ball instead of running at goal.

ANELKA – 7. Grant will have to play two up front when Drogba returns because he cannot leave out Anelka. The man ran willingly and won his fair share of ball against a tigerish defence led by Carragher. With him and Drogba marauding up front, I can’t see a defence that will be able to control them.

Subs:

MALOUDA (for SWP, 64) – 6. His left-foot delivery into the box gave us more options and we looked instantly more dangerous when he came on, though that wasn’t difficult.

MIKEL (for Lampard, 71) – 7. Played in front of Makelele, allowing Ballack to get forward more. Glad he’s back. No silly lunges, either.

PIZARRO (for J. Cole, 86) – 6. Only on for a few minutes and caused discomfort to the previously assured Liverpool back line. Chased around madly and used some close control to fashion a shooting chance. Kind of spolied the effect, though, by concluding with a virtual air shot with his left foot.

At times our attacking play was as good as I’ve seen in years, with our fullbacks storming forward to create a stream of balls into the box. At times, the midfield was a barren patch of ground as we threw everyone forward to try to win the game. That we didn’t was down to Pompey keeper James and some sloppy shooting.

The all-out attacking meant we were vulnerable to counter-attacks and Defoe had two good chances to grab the winner for Pompey. Even Makelele couldn’t cover the amount of ground we abandoned to push men forward.

The first half had been fairly tame with us relying on counter-attacks and neither goalie was particularly tested although Ballack had a header cleared off the line and only the post saved us when Pamarot glanced a header from a corner. We looked comfortable and you thought we would grab a second-half goal and snatch the three points as we have so often this season.

The script was going perfectly to plan when Anelka finished off a simply brilliant move, which saw us counter-attack at lightning speed. Malouda sent over a long cross to Joe Cole at the far post and he cushioned a volley to Anelka who magnificently hooked the ball past James.

Within 10 minutes we gave up one of the worst goals of the season. A long punt from James was nodded on by the woeful Milan Baros and suddenly debutant Defoe was left alone in front of goal to poke the ball past Cech. Replays showed Ben-Haim went to sleep to allow Defoe free and that Belletti must take some blame for playing Defoe onside.

A stirring game, but who else would have settled for a yawner and three points?

RATINGS:

CECH – 7. Left totally exposed for the goal, but so he was on two other occasions when he blocked shots from Defoe and Baros.

BELLETTI – 6.5. Almost all his marks are for his wonderful attacking play.
But as we know he is not the best defensively and more than once he hung back to play attackers onside.

ALEX – 7. Continued his strong play of late and was a force at corner kicks. Has meant we really don’t miss John Terry much.

BEN-HAIM – 6. Thought he was excellent in the first half and was ready to say I was wrong about missing Carvalho. But he lost his concentration on their goal and left Defoe completely alone. His only excuse could be that he thought Defoe would be offside. But that didn’t take account of Belletti hanging back.

A.COLE – 7. Thought it was one of his best games for us. Maybe he should screw around more often. Was a huge attacking force and comfortable defensively.

MAKELELE – 7. Even he found it difficult to plug the holes in the second half as the game became very stretched. Safe to say that without him we would have lost.

BALLACK – 7. Not as dominant as in some of his recent games as we struggled to get hold of the midfield in the first half. Linked our play well in the second, spraying the ball wide to our ever-dangerous wingers.

MALOUDA – 5.5. Wonderful cross for our goal, but will be the first to go when our big players return. Far too tentative. We know Glen Johnson’s defensive weaknesses well from his time with us, but he looked a defensive tower up against Malouda, although to be fair Malouda occupied him enough to allow Ashley Cole to break through often enough.

WRIGHT-PHILLIPS – 6. The usual mix of skill and spill, but this time the bloopers outweighed the positives. Had a fantastic chance late when sent through on James, but he chipped the ball over the goalie and wide of the far post when he really should have scored.

J.COLE – 8. Seemed able to beat Pamarot at will and again always looked the most likely to create an opening. Superb, unselfish cushioned volley to Anelka for the goal.

ANELKA – 7.5. Very quiet first half in which his main contribution was exercising the linesman’s offside flag. Burst through late only to be foiled by James. In the second half, he seemed at the centre of most of our moves, often moving wide on the left to show Malouda how easy it is to beat Johnson. Took his goal very well because he had to reach awkwardly for the ball. Was six inches too close to the goal-line to put away a Belletti centre late on.

Subs:

PIZARRO (for Malouda, 74 mins.) – 6. In his own lumpish way, kept the pressure on Pompey. Trundled around gamely and even won some 50-50 balls. Had one clear sight of goal and stubbed his shot.

All that changed in the second half when Anelka nudged a beautiful chipped through ball by Belletti past the onrushing Kirkland. Wigan roused themselves and a master display of the dark arts by arch villain Michael Brown brought some spice into the game. Where Essien received a red card for a forearm to an opponent while within a yard of the ball, Brown escaped any punishment for a forearm into Makelele’s face with the ball at least 10 yards away.

The match seemed over when SWP slotted home after Anelka had done all the hard work, but Belletti displayed his occasional defensive weakness when he stood off and admired Sibierski chest the ball down, swivel and shoot into the top corner with a couple of minutes left. A great shot by Markus Bent in time added on hit the top of the crossbar, but a very tired Chelsea played out the last seconds to advance to the 5th round again.

RATINGS:

CECH – 7. No chance on the goal, but exuded confidence in everything he did despite a pitch that looked like it had just hosted a ploughing match.

BELLETTI – 6. Never got a chance to reproduce the bullet he fired last time we were at the JJB, but got forward at every opportunity. Wobbled occasionally in defence.

ALEX – 7. He and Carvalho had their hands full in the air with Heskey and Bent, but owned their opponents on the ground. On a pitch that didn’t reward subtlety, Alex was right at home.

CARVALHO – 7. Another commanding performance until late in the game when he seemed to think he was playing midfield as well. Hared around like a madman chasing the ball when it would have made more sense tactically to ensure the back line was properly manned. Picked up a yellow card, his fifth, and will be suspended for the visit to Portsmouth, which is what we don’t need.

BRIDGE – 6. Up against a potentially tricky winger in Valencia, but never let him past. Seemed one of the players most put off by the churned up pitch and didn’t look confident going forward.

MAKELELE – 8. You could almost write the same thing after every game. He harried Wigan out of their stride and was always there to clean up any loose ball.

SIDWELL – 5. I really wanted to give him more, but he is so limited in what he can do. Did well to play in Cole in the first minute, but that was about it apart from some honest running around.

WRIGHT-PHILLIPS – 6.5. Some brilliant turns and touches followed by basic lapses in technique. Gave him an extra 0.5 for playing both games after looking hurt enough to miss several games after the injury a week ago.

MALOUDA – 6. OK, but opponents know he only has a left foot and seem ready for him, meaning he has only a fitful impact on a game.

J.COLE – 7. Always seemed most likely to create the opening for a goal, even if that never happened. Had the beating of Kilbane any time he wanted and he put in several dangerous crosses. One incredible trick to get by Brown in the second half.

ANELKA – 9. Class in everything he does. Even when wrongly flagged for offside, he shrugged and got on with it. Deserved to get away with what looked like a slight push on a defender in the lead up to our second goal. Could have shot, but unselfishly set up SWP for a much easier chance. Can’t wait to see him with Drogba.
Subs:

FERREIRA (80 mins. for Malouda) – 6. Meant to close the game the game down, but that didn’t happen, did it?

PIZARRO (90 mins. for Anelka), n/a.