English Premiership: If Jose Mourinho is bringing something new to the Premiership, English football also has surprises in store for him. This result had him racking his brains for another occasion when one of his teams had let slip a 2-0 lead. "Never, never, never," he announced. "It was the first time."
Despite admitting he could have no complaints if the opposition chose to depend on height and heft, Mourinho was disgruntled: "They play a style of football you don't see a lot any more."
Though he implies Bolton belong in a museum, Sam Allardyce's team are stationed in the upper reaches of the table.
Like Mourinho, Graeme Souness took exception to their methods when Newcastle were beaten at the Reebok. The Allardyce approach is nothing like as grotesque, however, as the fulminations of managers whose squads are a throng of extremely expensive talent. The onus is on them to make those riches count.
Mourinho's principles are also selective. He beamed when well-schemed dead-ball manoeuvres delivered a total of four headed goals in the wins over Porto and CSKA Moscow at Stamford Bridge.
Bolton have now managed 2-2 draws with Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester United, while beating Liverpool and Newcastle. Mourinho, who had run through the visitors' set-piece repertoire just before the delayed kick-off, was frustrated.
All the same, he let his players off too lightly when he argued that Bolton's players were too big to be stopped. The goalkeeper, Petr Cech, is 6ft 5in, but he did not compete for the Gary Speed free-kick that Kevin Davies headed home, with a deflection off Radhi Jaidi, to cut Chelsea's lead to 2-1.
"When they're sitting comfortable and all of a sudden a goal pops out of the blue, they're going to feel a little shaky," Allardyce noted.
Chelsea were certainly nervous at the equaliser three minutes from the end.
Bruno N'Gotty clipped a free-kick forward and Davies employed his bulk to hold off the otherwise impressive Ricardo Carvalho and head the ball towards the right. It is standard procedure to nullify target men by making sure team-mates around them are claustrophobically marked, but the Tunisian had space to fire home.
Until Saturday, the only Premiership goal that had been conceded from within Chelsea's area was Nicolas Anelka's spot-kick for Manchester City. Mourinho's side lost that day and reacted with a sequence of eight wins.
Bolton have halted that run, but Chelsea's lapses are liable to be infrequent.
As Mourinho commented, Chelsea could have countered Bolton by outscoring them. After 35 seconds, Arjen Robben showed good control before Frank Lampard released Damien Duff behind Jaidi and the Dubliner rounded Jussi Jaaskelainen to finish.
With Jay-Jay Okocha free of injury but far from fit, Bolton were ill-equipped to match Chelsea's technique and the game seemed to have been settled by a second goal in the 48th minute. Duff and Robben combined for the Dutchman to find Tiago and see him convert a nicely angled volley.
Even the rejoinder from Davies did not break Chelsea's domination. They were let down as Eidur Gudjohnsen is no predator and, from four yards, he hit a shot that Jaaskelainen was able to save.
Guardian Service
