ENGLISH PREMIER LEAGUE QPR 0 Chelsea 0:THE ACCUSATION, when it came, was delivered through a half-smile and greeted with relief all round that the grievance centred upon a footballing flashpoint rather than anything more sinister.
Ryan Nelsen fairly bristled at the suggestion he was fortunate not to concede a first-half penalty for a foul on John Terry, his own version of events pointing towards an over-eagerness from the Chelsea captain to go down.
“I was holding him, of course, but he just fell down,” said Nelsen. “He does it to everybody in their box. He was nowhere near the ball, was never going to win it, so he just fell down. He was just trying to get a penalty, so I wouldn’t make anything out of it.
“He’s bigger than me so he actually made me look really strong, but if the referee had given anything it would have been ridiculous. That’s never a penalty. I actually said to him: ‘That was a bit embarrassing, John’ and he laughed as he ran off.”
After talk of the handshakes had dominated the build-up, perhaps it was inevitable that such a tense occasion would end with scrutiny of tangles of arms and legs in the penalty area.
Chelsea and Terry would dispute the Kiwi’s assessment of the clumsy first-half coming together as the centre-halves heaved to connect with a flighted free-kick, and the visitors could point with some justification to Shaun Wright-Phillips’s illegal touch on a galloping Eden Hazard which was also ignored by Andre Marriner.
Yet, as west London digested this stalemate, the overriding emotion was one of relief that a potentially fractious occasion had passed. Next week’s Football Association hearing, almost a year in coming, may provide a more far-reaching level of closure.
There were no real surprises, with much going with the prescribed script. Anton Ferdinand had opted against shaking Terry’s hand and spurned that of Ashley Cole, too. The full-back, who had offered court evidence in defence of his captain before Terry was acquitted of a racially aggravated public-order offence back in July, saw the snub coming and chose to spit matter-of-factly over his right shoulder before shaking hands with the next Queens Park Rangers player in the line-up.
The home captain, Park Ji-sung, twice failed to acknowledge Terry, perhaps a legacy of playing alongside Rio Ferdinand at Manchester United, but none of it really constituted a surprise, with the football that followed predictably as scrappy as it was ferocious.
That would have suited both the centre-halves in focus, a full-blooded occasion into which they could fling themselves and forget their distractions. Both were excellent, even if each departed limping. Chelsea will continue to assess Terry’s right knee ahead of Wednesday’s intriguing visit of Juventus. Ferdinand ended marooned upfield as a static right winger with heavy strapping on his right hamstring.
“He was fantastic given all the unnecessary pressure that had been put on him,” said Nelsen. “He didn’t deserve this. He and his family have been through so much, so to put in a performance like he did today showed the character of the man.”
The same could be said of his opposite number.
The personal tete-a-tete aside, this was a collision of two teams still seeking to gel. QPR’s progress has been steady since their opening-day mauling by Swansea, even if they must have been dismayed to lose Andrew Johnson and Fabio Da Silva to what scans may reveal to be long-term knee and hamstring injuries respectively.
Julio Cesar excelled on his debut, while Nelsen, at almost 35, looked anything but a player who had only arrived back from Auckland on Thursday afternoon. A confrontation with Fernando Torres was more daunting than that with the Solomon Islands in World Cup qualification last Tuesday.
“But he’s gone up against a striker of world renown and really dominated him,” said Mark Hughes. “Given the week he’s had, credit to him.”
Yet the resumption of European competition may coax something other than mere defiance from Torres and the reigning champions. Chelsea know they will be marked men, their reputations established by events in Munich back in May, but there is an eagerness to defend that title against fierce competition.
Guardian Service
