Chelsea 2-0 Marseille - Job done but can do better.

Chelsea beat Marseille last night 2-0 with goals from Captain John Terry and a Nicolas Anelka penalty in the first half. If you hadn't seen the game you would have the feeling of job done and that's two wins out of two, but watching the game and for the opening 30 minutes of the second half there is no question that you would be slightly disappointed that we sat back and let Marseille into the game.

Even doing that, Chelsea remained strong and disciplined at the back. Chelsea restricted Marseille to long range efforts and apart from one or two "scares" Petr Cech was never really tested and forced to make a save.

The big thing for all of us was the result last night first of all followed by the performance after defeat at the weekend. So it was pleasing to see that Chelsea looked much better in the first half. With Cole, Zhirkov and Malouda all playing down our left hand side, they all provided a constant threat to Marseille. Cole and Malouda in particular were much more involved in the attacking third and time and time again caused no end of problems.

Chelsea took the lead as a Gael Kakuta corner was under hit low towards the near post, JT had made a run towards the post, saw the ball was underhit and carried on running towards the ball, beat his man and flicked the ball goalwards with the outside of his left foot. His touch managed to divert the ball towards goal and the Marseille defender on the line was too slow to react. The ball flicked past his leg and the post to make it Chelsea 1-0. If you were Didier Deschamps you would have to be gutted that it found it's way through.

Marseille were struggling to cope at times with our attack. Chelsea had far more possesion of the ball and Marseille, when they had a chance, would fire long range efforts at Cech with no problems for the big man.

Chelsea made it two after a penalty was given. Essien picked up the ball on the right hand side and looked to cross the ball back in the box, the Defender had come towards Essien to close him down, saw the cross about to come in, and jumped up in the air. The ball hit his arm as he was in the air and a penalty was given. Maybe it was harsh, but once again we weren't bothered. Anelka took two steps and calmly slotted the ball into the right hand corner of the box as the keeper remained rooted to his spot. 2-0 Chelsea and you had to say it was more or less game over.

The second half was a different story altogether. Marseille, chasing the game, came out and bossed the game which was disappointing for me and the Chelsea fans. Yes I know Chelsea were cruising and they never posed us any real threat to our goal, but we sat back, remained compact in our half and made it difficult for Marseille to break us down.

Kakuta came off for Ramires which pushed Zhirkov up front on the left hand side and brought Malouda over to our right hand side with Anelka through the middle. Up front we looked unbalanced. Zhirkov faded out of the game, Anelka couldn't get any service or hold onto the ball and Malouda found himself isolated and not effective at all.

Another change was made, Zhirkov came off and Sturridge came on up front on the right with Malouda back over to the left hand side and with 15 minutes to go Chelsea, under the kosh for 30 minutes sprang back into life as an attacking force.

Ashley Cole was able to push forward and link up with Malouda/Anelka and we started to create more problems. Alex fired a 35 yard free kick against the post, Essien fired a shot against the post from the edge of the box after a great flowing move down the left. The ball was played inside to Ramires and his square ball to Essien found our man wide open. He opened his body up and side footed the ball towards the left hand corner that hit the post when it was probably easier to score.

Essien clipped the post once more as he took one touch from right to left on the edge of the box and blasted a left foot rocket the clipped the post and went wide. Chelsea were now on top and playing like we know they can.

Chelsea's final chance to make it three came as Ashley Cole was played in once more down the left hand side, looked up and spotted Sturridge in the middle. His perfect cross for Sturridge just needed a tap in from 8 yards but Sturridge made a mess of it and the ball went wide. Should have scored. Josh McEachran came on for the last 10 minutes or so for Mikel and had some nice touches. Chelsea saw the game out 2-0.

For 60 minutes we played well as an attacking side. For 30 minutes we demonstrated how strong we are at the back. We could be very critical of our performance at the beginning of the second half but maybe we did have one eye on Sunday against the Arsenal. Saying that we still had four chances to score in the second half and much closer than Marseille managed all game. This was an important result and puts us top of the group on goal difference from Spartak Moscow with two games against them to play.

After the game both Managers spoke of the game. Carlo Ancelotti said:

"The win was not comfortable because we had a difficult game in the second half, We played very well in the first half and the second half was more difficult because Marseille wanted to come back into the game and put more pressure on our midfield. We didn't play so well but we still had a lot of chances in the second half.

Marseille have good attacking play and they wanted to score and we had a good defence second half, In the second half we had more difficultly in playing from the back because they put more pressure on us there. They took a risk of conceding a counter attack and we did have the good chances but Marseille was in the game until the end.

Kakuta was good, He was involved in the game and he plays for the team and this is the most important thing for a young player because sometimes a young player wants to show his ability and quality. It was important for us that he can play for the team and I have to congratulate him for the performance.

It is a good step this victory but the next two games will be very important, but we have a good chance to arrive in the first place."

Didier Deschamps also spoke and said:

"You could say that was a fine detail and I prefer to concentrate on the decisive detail, the huge difference between the two sides. We were dominated both technically and physically and Chelsea had a very effective first half. We found really tough, hard to hold the ball up front, it kept coming back at us, and we lacked a little aggression in certain areas. We tried a bit hard second half and we had more of the ball but Chelsea could have got a third.

Florent is in a great vein of form at the moment. He found space and technically his skill was superb. He works well in tandem with Ashley Cole."

So its six points out of six for Chelsea. Let's focus on some positives here. We played well for 60 minutes. No Drogba, Lampard, Benayoun or Kalou and played well within ourselves. We showed solidity at the back and Cech was never really tested. So apart from a dodgey 30 minutes it's job done!.

The thing is, we all know it could have been so much better!.

CAREFREE & KTBFFH.