Blackburn 1-2 Chelsea: Premier League Match Gallery, Analysis and Reaction
The current league table leaders arrived at Ewood Park with vengeance in mind.
Last season Sam Allardyce's boys had defeated the Blues, 2-1, in the same stadium which had thrown the team's season into turmoil. The Blues survived their poor form and went on to win their third English Premier League title.
Carlo Ancelotti and his in-form boys arrived with the sole objective to take home the three points and get their vengeance, which they did but rather tediously.
Benjani Draws First Blood
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Chelsea were travelling without the injured Frank Lampard, Ramires and Yossi Benayoun. They have been in top form and were high on confidence arriving at Ewood Park.
But the Rovers, who have been struggling, turned up and launched a full-scale attack on the visitors. The Rovers saw a handful of chances wasted or blocked, and the Blues did just enough to hold on to their clean sheet. Petr Cech had nothing to do when Benjani rose above all to head home a cross from El-Hadji Diouf.
Anelka Brings the Blues at Par
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Last year's Double winners were looking nervous and out of sync in front of the Rovers' assault. They failed to create chances and Michael Essien's shot in the 37th minute was the Blues' first shot on goal.
But then they created their first chance to score and drew level as Florent Malouda's cross was headed down by Didier Drogba for Anelka to net the equaliser.
Blackburn Fails to Convert Chances
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The equaliser did nothing to make the Rovers nervous and they continued attacking Chelsea. They dominated possession mostly, but failed to convert their opportunities.
Mame Biram Diouf bundled a golden chance to take the lead when he failed to convert Morten Gamst Pedersen's set piece.
But the match changing miss was made by Jason Roberts, when he missed the goal with no one to defend. He dribbled past Ashley Cole and with the Chelsea goal at his mercy, the Rovers striker shot wide past it.
This changed the game in favour of Chelsea.
Ivanovic Earns Chelsea the Three Points
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Blackburn dominated most of the game, but failed to convert chances. They were made to pay for those mistakes when in the 84th minute Chelsea's Serbian defender, Branislav Ivanovic, nodded home the winner.
A cross by Yuri Zhirkov across the left corner was headed into the far post by Ivanovic as Chelsea earned their toughly fought three points and vengeance as well. Blackburn boss Sam Allardyce was left pondering of what could have been had his boys converted the chances that came their way.
Man of the Match
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Though Chelsea won the match, they did so narrowly as the Rovers completely dominated the Blues all through the match.
There were many outstanding performers, but the man of the match should go to Chelsea goalkeeper Petr Cech. Had the Czech goalie not made some fine saves, the defending champions could have been in deep trouble.
Cech made some outstanding saves to deny Blackburn any more goals and he stood his ground against the Rovers' onslaught.
He is the man of the match.
