Chelsea 4 Bolton 3:EVEN THE threat of potential disaster is playing into Guus Hiddink's hands at present. The Chelsea manager might have been vaguely guarded against complacency already ahead of tomorrow's Champions League quarter-final second leg against Liverpool, though the final exchanges here gave his players their wake-up call. This team may have jettisoned capitulation from their system.
The Dutchman had returned to a stunned dressingroom on Saturday evening as his players, baffled by their vulnerability, conducted an inquest into a display that had lurched from a rout to the ridiculous. In eight minutes a Bolton side apparently buried by an avalanche of goals somehow scored three times and, amid the late jitters, may have restored the unlikeliest of parities. Liverpool must conjure their best result at Stamford Bridge in 19 years to progress to the semi-finals at Chelsea’s expense, though they need not now become the first opposition side this term to score three times there.
Hiddink’s instinct might have been to roar his disapproval. He was certainly livid on the touchline as his back-line and goalkeeper shrunk while Kevin Davies and the lively substitute Chris Basham spread panic.
“If you concede because you are outplayed or outpaced you get angry but, when you calm down, you accept it happens in football,” said the Chelsea manager. “But when you outplay yourself . . . You simply cannot have that. That’s why you get angry.
“We expressed ourselves to the players and addressed it after the game. I have been known to throw the odd cup of tea around which might be there in the locker-room. Every now and then it happens. But this time they knew without me having to tell them.”
There was relief that victory was preserved when, deep into stoppage time, Gary Cahill’s shot flicked off a huddle of bodies in the six-yard box to dribble beyond the far post. Concentration had long since drained, Chelsea having relaxed when four goals to the good and with Didier Drogba and Frank Lampard, both outstanding, had been withdrawn.
The goals pilfered by Andy O’Brien, Chris Basham and Matt Taylor, all from close range and with Davies’s involvement in each, exposed the hosts’ soft underbelly.
Petr Cech’s confidence fractured, while Ricardo Carvalho and John Terry panicked; the rearguard will be grateful Liverpool boast no Davies in their ranks. Fernando Torres may be in glorious form, but Chelsea know how to combat his searing pace.
Hiddink will be aware of Liverpool’s threat. While manager of PSV Eindhoven he overturned a two-goal deficit from the semi-final first leg in Milan only for the Rossoneri to deflate the Dutch with an 89th-minute away goal.
“One goal can change everything,” said Hiddink. “We were almost through and then we conceded in Eindhoven. Liverpool have that same kind of quality that Milan had. That’s why this is such a good lesson for us.”
Bolton, too, emerged encouraged from the late frenzy, though Gary Megson, with safety so close, will not have been hoodwinked by the unlikely revival. His side’s bright opening had been obliterated by Chelsea’s slick passing in a 23-minute period either side of half-time in which Michael Ballack, Lampard and Drogba, twice, plundered at will.
The hosts’ football was glittering as they swarmed over befuddled opposition. Liverpool may prefer to forget that spell and concentrate on the mayhem.
