Birmingham 0-2 Chelsea - What's your take on the game?

Last night Chelsea beat Birmingham 2-0 to progress through to the Quarter Finals of the FA Cup and a home tie against "and Leicester" with goals from Juan Mata and a cracker from Raul Meireles. Danny Sturridge missed a sitter from 6 yards and once again against Birmingham, Juan Mata missed a penalty.

Roberto Di Matteo went with a 4-2-3-1 formation that enabled Juan Mata to play in the hole behind the striker. Ryan Bertrand came in for the injured Ashley Cole, Mikel came into the two man midfield alongside the recalled Raul Meireles, Salomon Kalou played wide left with Mata in the middle and Ramires out wide right and Fernando Torres as the lone striker.

Overall it was a good result and a better performance for me. Mikel came in and had a good game, Kalou was busy but not quite as effective as Ramires down the right, Torres was busy and skewed a left footed shot wide from the edge of the box and Raul Meireles had one of his better games for Chelsea.

There were a couple of hearts in mouths moments as Birmingham kept Petr Cech busy in goal but for the most part, Luiz and Cahill marshaled the back four well.

It was a shame that Torres looks like he was offered the penalty by Mata and he turned it down, maybe superstition as I can't remember him taking penalties anywhere else to be fair, but it was a chance to grab a goal and kick start his season again.

Chelsea's performance was professional and committed. We had a desire to win the game again, the players knew what was expected of them and wanted to deliver the kind of performance the supporters have been wanting to see.

There is no point in going overboard about this one, we will take it as a good start with a clean sheet which again is important. There is plenty of work still to do here but tonight, we're through the to next round and as Di Matteo says, we need to take things game by game but for now, we are through to the Quarter Finals.

What did you make of the game?



KTBFFH

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