The thin Blue line is fraying

14 April 2012
Chelsea 2 Reading 2

Losing two goalkeepers remains more serious than losing two points but Chelsea will not reflect fondly on their Premiership encounters with Reading this season.

Nobody was hurt yesterday, Steve Coppell's decision to leave Stephen Hunt on the bench removing any real possibility of another life threatening collision.

But Chelsea suffered serious damage of a different kind, a bizarre own goal from Michael Essien presenting Manchester United with the opportunity to extend their lead at the summit of the table.

Hunt will no doubt have to shoulder much of the blame for the outcome of both matches, given that it was the young Irishman who left Petr Cech with a head injury from which he is not expected to return until next month.

With Cech and John Terry absent from a defence that prides itself on solidity, Chelsea have conceded goals with alarming regularity. Two at Everton and two at Wigan were followed by two here, and on this occasion it proved too much even for the formidable Didier Drogba.

As a magnanimous Jose Mourinho rightly pointed out, two goals for the opposition means you need three to win' and that was always going to be difficult against a determined, well-organised Reading.

Drogba twice secured the lead, scoring after 37 minutes before responding to a Leroy Lita equaliser with another beautifully executed header. But when Ashley Cole met a Kevin Doyle cross with a clearance that rebounded off Essien and bounced beyond the reach of Henrique Hilario, the five minutes that remained of this contest was not long enough for Drogba to muster up another match winner.

Mourinho blamed injuries and a shortage of centre halves for the difficulties his side are experiencing, and the sight of Essien alongside Ricardo Carvalho for the last 20 minutes underlined how much his expensive squad is being stretched.

Yet sympathy from his fellow managers could be hard to find. The fact is, this result has been coming for a while for Chelsea.

Drogba came to their rescue in spectacular fashion at Everton and Arjen Robben followed that with another late strike at Wigan last weekend, but Frank Lampard said they would get caught out eventually if they continued to adopt such a high-risk strategy and so it proved. It was a fair result,' admitted Mourinho, and indeed it was.

Coppell chose to omit Hunt from his starting line-up — because this game had been hanging over Hunty in recent weeks and he has not played well' — and it turned out to be the right decision. Booed during the warm-up, when his name was read out and then when he jogged up and down the touchline, it would have been a torturous afternoon had he actually been on the pitch.

With Doyle instead deployed on the left and a lively Lita up front, Reading were able to relax and work on exploiting the weaknesses that had been exposed in Chelsea's previous two Premiership games.

They had to accept that possession would be limited, just as they had to keep their heads after Drogba had used his to secure the lead for Chelsea in the 38th minute.

After sending a deflected shot against Marcus Hahnemann's lefthand post, the Premiership's leading goalscorer rose above Reading's goalkeeper to guide a Lampard corner across the goal-line. Reading's fans had branded him a donkey' in the wake of a miscued shot earlier in the game but now the joke was on them, Drogba using his hands to create two donkey ears.

The early stages of the second half were memorable only for the premature exit of Andriy Shevchenko, replaced by Shaun Wright-Phillips for what turned out to be an astute tactical change by Mourinho.

Before Wright-Phillips made his most crucial contribution, though, there was a goal for Lita, who met a cross from the excellent Glen Little with a header that dropped between Hilario and his right-hand post. Once rejected by Chelsea, Lita celebrated over-zealously with a leap into the stands and was booked for his trouble.

Three minutes after Lita' s equaliser and Mourinho made another bold change, replacing Wayne Bridge with Ashley Cole and Geremi with John Obi Mikel and switching to a 3-5-2 formation that forced the remarkably versatile Essien to drop into defence again.

It had the desired effect, a surging run from Wright-Phillips that left Nicky Shorey looking rather foolish ending with a fine cross Drogba was only too happy to head home.

Chelsea seemed far from comfortable, however, Michael Ballack picking up a booking that leaves him suspended for the match at Aston Villa on January 2, while Reading attacked with conviction.

There were chances for Steve Sidwell, Doyle and Brynjar Gunnarsson, who perhaps should have done better with a header that drifted wide of the target.

But when Doyle escaped the clutches of Paulo Ferreira, who had been switched from centre half to right back, he delivered a teasing cross that Cole must have thought he had dealt with satisfactorily before suddenly seeing the ball strike Essien and fly past his goalkeeper.

Drogba did all he could to perform another rescue act, having already saved Hilario with a fine defensive clearance, but the one header he unleashed from another Lampard corner flew straight at Hahnemann.

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