Porto 0-1 Chelsea : Group Winners but not impressed!

Chelsea beat Porto last night 1-0 with a goal from Nicolas Anelka to top the Champions League group stages last night. The result mean't that the group was done and dusted with a game to go against APOEL at the Bridge and a chance for us to rest some players.

The 1-0 win last night turned out to be enough on the night to see us through but I have to say I wasn't impressed at all with our performance. The commentator claimed that "The Chelsea machine marches on" but you have to say we were lucky!. Mikel was caught out of position twice in the first half and a fantastic double save from Cech and the crossbar kept Porto at bay!. The second half they had much more chances than we should of been comfortable with and the "HULK" definatley caused us problems.

The thing for me about last night is that we should never of been in that situation. How many times did you hear that we are playing in 2nd or 3rd gear. That we lacked a spark and came into the game to do a job?. Ok so Ancelotti was pleased with the result and the fact that it was job done but we should & could of done so much better.

Drogba didn't really do alot at all, Deco was a nightmare apart from a shot in the second half that went close and don't get me started on his corners!. I had picked out Zhirkov to have a storming game and he didn't really get into the swing of the game. His one contribution was to link up with the hard-working Malouda to tee up the goal on a plate for Anelka.

Mikel was steady, but as I have said, twice got caught out of position, sold himself short and they got free run at our back four and nearly scored twice! Ballack was steady but didn't do anything of note. I thought Ivanovic tried on the right hand side, but once he got forward his crosses were awful. Again, solid at the back though. JT was solid with Carvalho. Cech was great when called upon.

The two stars for us on the night were Anelka and Malouda. Both were busy and creative on the ball and always posed some kind of threat against Porto and put them on the back foot. I still don't like the fact that Anelka comes so deep to collect the ball, maybe its because of the way we set out in the game but still, he should be up there next to Drogba.

Essien & Joe Cole looked busy when they came on and you could say made a difference. I still feel that Joe Cole should of got the start in front of Deco as he will look to create alot more than Deco does. Deco's short flick passes are ok when he is in space, but time and time again last night he gave the ball away or played poxy one two's with Ivanovic and put Ivanovic under pressure on the byline!!

But for me our overall play was too slow and laboured. We should of been at em and took the game to them. We had tonnes of possession that was about it. Anelka fired a shot at the keeper first half which was really our only shot of note. I know that Porto has a great record at home and they were on form but we should of played at a much higher tempo, that most european sides are unable to cope with and put them to bed early.

But at the end of the day, we won it 1-0 which I guess we all would of taken before the game and won the group. Let's hope we raise our game for Sunday at the Emirates.