Chelsea: 1, Bolton: 0

Chelsea coach Avram Grant is finally putting a mark on the win column in their English Premier League campaign, beating out hosts Bolton Wanderers at the Reebok Stadium 1-0 over the weekend. The last time Chelsea won in an English Premier League match was back in August when they beat Portsmouth 1-0.

Chelsea’s European Champions League campaign is a little brighter with a recent 2-1 away win against Valencia. But then, Chelsea’s problems have really been in the Premiership where their most recent results include a 2-0 defeat against Manchester United and a home draw against Fulham.

Chelsea’s Salomon Kalou scored the lone goal of the match in the 41st minute, and that was enough to overcome a stubborn Bolton Wanderers.

Chelsea welcomed back their vice-captain Frank Lampard, who was out for a few matches following a thigh injury. Lampard was influential in the midfield, and looked to be in good health. But Chelsea found it hard going against a Bolton side who have registered just one league win this season. Chelsea should have made a perfect start when Steve Sidwell turned quickly in the area and found Kalou, but Kalou’s weak header went straight into the arms of Bolton goalkeeper Jussi Jaaskelainen.

Chelsea had more chances early on when Florent Malouda thumped a shot over the bar after being released by Kalou, but Jaaskelainen was equal to Malouda’s effort. Bolton also had their chances with Kevin Davies and Ivan Campo tested Chelsea goalkeeper Petr Cech.

Bolton’s leading scorer Nicolas Anelka suddenly sprung into action in the 34th minute after a good ball from Danny Guthrie. Anelka got away from Chelsea defender Ricardo Carvalho, but keeper Peter Cech came out to narrow the angle and made a vital block against Anelka.
Bolton had several chances in the second half to draw with Chelsea with efforts from Bolton’s El-Hadji Diouf, substitute Stelios Giannakopoulos and Nicolas Anelka. However, none of their efforts could get past Chelsea goalkeeper Peter Cech, who deserves a lot of credit for Chelsea being able to collect all three points.

Chelsea head coach Avram Grant commented, “It is not easy against Bolton but three points is what mattered. It was very good for the team after we did not start the season so well.”

Chelsea’s win puts them at 7th place in the English Premier League standings with 15 points. Arsenal is on top of the Premiership standings with 22 points.

Chelsea’s next match for the 2007-08 season of the English Premier League will be away against Middlesbrough on October 20. Following that, Chelsea will hope to improve their Champions League campaign when they host German Bundesliga side Schalke at Stamford Bridge on October 24. Hopefully, by then Ajax coach Henk Ten Cate would have finalized a deal with Chelsea, and come on board as an assitant coach to Avram Grant.

The weekend of October 13 to 14 will be reserved for UEFA Euro 2008 Qualifiers. Some of the Chelsea players expected to play for the Euro 2008 Qualifiers with their respective countries include Frank Lampard, Ashley Cole and John Terry for England, Ricardo Varvalho and Paulo Ferreira for Portugal, Florent Malouda and Claude Makelele for France, Petr Cech for the Czech Republic and Andriy Schevchenko for Ukraine.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 9th, 2007 at 7:01 am and is filed under Chelsea, Czech Republic, Didier Drogba, England, English Premier League, France, Frank Lampard, Portugal, Soccer News, Sports News, UEFA Champions League, Ukraine, sport. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.