Defiant Chelsea get back on track

IT is so often the case in football we have to look to the opposite to see the true context.

For instance, what if a Chelsea defeat had seen them fall 12 points behind Manchester City? What if John Terry had not swapped shirts with Yakubu afterwards? And would the atmosphere have been even stranger if Blackburn had, as they should have, been a goal up when a plane flew overhead towing a banner that read ‘Steve Kean out!’? Chelsea’s victory, which followed back-to-back Premier League defeats to QPR and Arsenal, did not necessarily tell us that they have a chance of reeling City in but it kept them in with a shout.

But, as if we did not already know, it made it clear that although Terry enjoys the total support of Chelsea’s fans, non-Stamford Bridge supporters have not taken kindly to the latest furore that surrounds him.

Of course he has not been found guilty of anything yet, as the Metropolitan Police and the Football Association continue their investigations into his alleged racist abuse of Anton Ferdinand, but just as Chelsea supporters sense the need to defend him, other fans relish the opportunity to do the opposite.

How he is received by the wider English public when he turns out against either Spain or Sweden later this month remains to be seen but his trip to Ewood Park, gestures or no gestures, left a big fat clue.

Whichever way the investigations go — and surely Terry will know the results the next time he is in action for Chelsea — at least his team can still conceive of a way to catch City.

The reaction of Andre Villas-Boas at the final whistle — pumping his first much as Jose Mourinho did after a significant victory here in 2005 — said it all.

And Frank Lampard, whose sixth goal in eight matches secured the scrappy win, summed up Chelsea’s position nicely.

“Last year I think we were 15 points behind and we got back to where we could have won it at the end,” Lampard said.

“You never write it off, but you have to see how well the other teams are playing, particularly City, and we don’t want to give ourselves that much of a mountain to climb at this stage.

“It’s enough of a gap as it is, but I think experience tells us there’s a long way to go. This was a nice win to get us back on track and now we have to go on a run of wins.

“At the moment, let’s hope it’s a turning point because the competition at the top is so fierce that you can’t afford to lose too many points.

“We’ve had two losses and we have a huge game against Liverpool in our next game at home so hopefully this will be a turning point, but it only will be if we carry on and keep doing the right things.”

They will certainly have to play better against even an out-of-sorts Liverpool to achieve that. With Fernando Torres dropped to the bench, a forward three of Daniel Sturridge, Juan Mata and Florent Malouda failed to click.

Yakubu’s early chance, which resulted in Petr Cech sustaining a suspected broken nose, should have been converted and Lampard punished that miss with a stooping header to Branislav Ivanovic’s fine left-foot cross just after the interval.

Even with Chris Samba limping off with a hamstring problem, Blackburn still caused plenty of problems with their long-ball approach and even when they found a way through, they were denied by Cech before Ivanovic hit his own crossbar late on.

Blackburn have managed just three wins in 25 Premier League matches but an easier run awaits and it seems that under-fire manager Steve Kean will be given the chance to pull Blackburn out of trouble.

Before it was easy to ridicule Kean as a David Brent-type figure but there was real conviction to his words after another improved display from his team.

“We’re playing well and maybe we just deserve a little break,” Kean said.

“I’ve told them that everything we’re working on in training, they’re delivering and it’s very consistent. We feel we should have had something from this game .

“We’ve just got to keep at it because it’s an important run up to Christmas.”