The European champions travelled to the Liberty Stadium to face Swansea for last weekend’s Saturday kick off. The Blues, having suffered a controversial defeat at the hands of Manchester United at home a week before were targeting all three points as they
hoped to continue their dominance in the league.
However, Swansea are a force to be reckoned with at home, and frustrated the visitors as they fought back to claim a vital point against Chelsea.
Chelsea had taken the lead through http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Victor-Moses-c36075 in the first half, but were denied victory by a late Pablo Hernandez strike.
http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Roberto-c31294 Di Matteo’s men stay behind league leaders Manchester United despite a strong performance in the Capital One Cup last week.
Chelsea had a number of key players missing from the starting line-up; http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/David-Luiz-c10542 was ruled out with an injury.
Juan Mata was rested for the game after the Spaniard played a tedious 120 minutes in the Capital One Cup. Cesar Azpilicueta started at right-back to allow http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Ashley-Cole-c6809 resumed his place at left-back.
http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Oscar-c28720 in the centre. Chelsea had considerable fire power up front, with a trio of Torres, Hazard and Moses.
However, the team still struggled to make an impact. The game was quite open, with both teams going for the win and playing attacking football.
Swansea manager http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Michael-c25261 Laudrup made only two changes from the side that travelled to Manchester City and put up a strong fighting performance against the English champions. Michael Vorm made way for Gerhard Tremmel and Gary Monk replaced Chico Flores in
central defence.
Chelsea had a slow start, but were never bothered by Swansea. The visitors had two great chances to score a goal in the first half, but were unable to do so.
Oscar struck his shot well wide of the goal, and Hazard also fired over the cross bar in the 17th minute. The first half ended in a stale mate, and it seemed that both sides would’ve had to make changes to have an impact.
Di Matteo took off Romeu in the second half and brought on http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Chelsea-c38786 dictate the game, but Swansea were disciplined at the back and crowded the midfield to keep Hazard and co at bay.
Chelsea had a good spell just after the half mark, and got their reward when Moses clinched his first goal for the Blues. Hazard delivered a killer cross which found Gary Cahill and went off Moses’ head on its way to goal.
However, Swansea had the last laugh as Pablo Hernandez scored a screamer with only three minutes remaining on the clock. The Spaniard found himself on the edge of the box, and drove home a ferocious shot which went past http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Petr-Cech-c29837. The goalkeeper could only
look on as the ball found the back of the net.
Chelsea were held, despite their dominance, and Swansea managed an important and impressive home draw.
The Blues have some issues to address, particularly their lack of options up front. http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Daniel-Sturridge-c10076 is more of a right forward, and
with almost the entire season left, Di Matteo has a lot to think about if he wants his team to challenge for the Premier League title.
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