Deco And Riccy Out

Ricardo Carvalho could be out for a month and Deco could miss two weeks of action.
Riccy limped off during the 1-1 draw with Manchester United on Sunday with a knee injury and the club's medical staff estimate he will be out of action for three or four weeks.
Brazil defender Alex is expected to take his place in the team after he was praised by the Chelsea boss Luiz Felipe Scolari.
He said: "He is a player that is very fast and he smells when the ball is coming. He can read where the ball is going to be and go."
Deco tore a thigh muscle in the warm-up before the Manchester United match but his injury could be covered by the imminent signing of free agent Mineiro.

Chelsea 1 Man Utd 1

Salomon Kalou’s late equaliser salvaged a 1-1 draw for Chelsea against Manchester United on Sunday and extended the Blues’ unbeaten streak at home in the Premier League to 85 games.

Park Ji-sung gave Manchester United an 18th-minute lead in a fiery game at Stamford Bridge, but Kalou headed home a freekick for Chelsea’s deserved equaliser in the 80th.

Referee Mike Riley showed only one of the eight yellow cards to Chelsea, but angered Blues fans by blowing the final whistle after striker Didier Drogba had been fouled on the edge of United’s area.

The bus taking United’s players from the stadium had its windscreen cracked by a bottle hurled by a fan.

The Blues moved up to second in the standings, ahead of Liverpool on goal difference but a point behind Arsenal, who won 3-1 at Bolton on Saturday. United have five points from four games and are 15th in the standings after only one victory.

“I felt we deserved a point,” United manager Alex Ferguson said.“They had a lot of freekicks around the box at the end, but we worked hard and I felt we deserved it. We played with great tempo in the first 20 minutes. The real shame was that we didn’t go for the jugular at 1-0 up. We had control of the match at that point, but we eased off and allowed them to get to halftime.”

United are expected to be fined, but Ferguson didn’t think the game merited the number of cautions.“The game is being screened worldwide. Everyone is watching it and something like that goes on,” he said of the yellow cards. “It was a competitive game but I did not think there was one bad tackle in it.”

Chelsea lost midfielder Deco with an injury during the warm-up, and manager Luiz Felipe Scolari said it made a big difference as his team struggled in the early stages.

“It affected our transition from midfield to attack and for 15-20 minutes, United made the pressure and made a goal,” he stated. “They played very well. After that we had more chances than them, but we missed some chances in front of goal.”

Scolari was amazed that Riley blew for fulltime when the Blues should have been awarded a freekick for a foul by Rio Ferdinand on Drogba.“This was strange for me, for the referee to finish the game at that time,” Scolari said. “But he’s the boss on the pitch and it is his decision and we need to accept that.”

Chelsea lost Ricardo Carvalho after only 12 minutes, while United goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar limped off with a leg injury midway through the first half after racing off his line to block a shot from Florent Malouda.

In a lively and entertaining opening spell, both teams missed chances before United took the lead.

Joe Cole shot wide with only Van der Sar to beat and then Chelsea goalkeeper Petr Cech deflected a shot from Ferdinand over the bar.

United went ahead with a well-worked move that started when Rooney sent Patrice Evra down the left flank and he crossed to Dimitar Berbatov. The forward’s low shot was blocked by Cech, and Park slotted the ball into an empty net.

Like the game between the teams near the end of last season, the match had plenty of spicy tackles and confrontations and Riley lectured several players for repeated fouls.

Chelsea sent on Drogba for the second half to partner Nicolas Anelka and add extra height to the attack, and United countered by bringing on Cristiano Ronaldo for Paul Scholes in the 54th.

Anelka missed an easy close-range chance from Joe Cole’s cross with 20 minutes to go and Rooney squandered a great opportunity to score a second in the 77th when he shot wide from Ronaldo’s pass.

Rooney was partly to blame for Chelsea’s equaliser in the 80th when he needlessly fouled Ashley Cole deep in his own half. Kalou was unchallenged when he met John Mikel Obi’s freekick to head home from close range.

Chelsea 4 Bordeaux 0

Last season's beaten Champions League finalists, began their new campaign with a convincing 4-0 victory over Girondins Bordeaux in their Group A match at Stamford Bridge on Tuesday.
Headers by Frank Lampard and Joe Cole, in his 50th European match for the club, put Chelsea in control after 30 minutes and only wayward shooting from Lampard and Nicolas Anelka before the break, prevented the London side winning by a bigger margin.
The goals in the final 10 minutes from Florent Malouda and Anelka gave the scoreline a far more realistic look as Chelsea dominated the game from the first kick to the last.
France striker Anelka slotted in his first Champions League goal for Chelsea from point blank range with the last kick of the match after a 30-metre shot from substitute Juliano Belletti was palmed on to the bar by Bordeaux goalkeeper Ulrich Rame.
Minutes earlier Anelka had fired against the post when it looked easier to score.
Chelsea coach Luiz Felipe Scolari, taking charge of a team in the Champions League for the first time, only had to wait 14 minutes to see his first goal when the unmarked Lampard headed in a simple chance from Jose Bosingwa's cross from the right.
It was only a matter of time before Bordeaux's shambolic defending and Chelsea's speed of passing and movement on and off the ball brought more goals and the Premier League leaders duly doubled their lead after half-an-hour.

Cole reacted first to Lampard's inswinging corner from the left and outjumped the much taller defenders Franck Jurietti and Fernando to leave goalkeeper Rame well beaten again.
The Bordeaux captain had saved his side eight minutes earlier though when he somehow got a hand to the ball and grasped it before it crossed the line after Fernando almost turned a Bosingwa shot into his own net.
The French side only seriously threatened twice in the match, firstly after only 10 minutes when midfielder Wendel lashed a 25-metre shot just over Petr Cech's bar after a misplaced clearance from John Obi Mikel.
The Brazilian also fired a free kick over the bar although Cech always looked to have the shot covered.
Chelsea were so much in control that little of note happened after the break until Malouda brightened things up in the 82nd minute when he made it 3-0 following fine approach work by Jon Obi Mikel and a Lampard backheel that set up the French winger.
Anelka rounded off a comfortable night for Scolari's team by scoring with the last kick of the game.

J.T. Red Card Rescinded

Chelsea captain John Terry is free to face Manchester United in their important Premier League clash after winning an appeal against the red card he picked up at Manchester City.
Terry was dismissed at Eastlands after bringing down City striker Jo as the Brazilian threatened Chelsea's defence in the 77th minute.
Referee Mark Halsey deemed it a serious foul play and showed Terry the red card, but Chelsea protested and submitted a claim for wrongful dismissal
Jo still had a long way to go to goal when the foul came in from Terry, whose fellow defender Ricardo Carvalho was close by.

The offence was a professional foul which carries a yellow card and therefore justice has been done.
An independent regulatory commission heard the appeal and the Football Association revealed they upheld Chelsea's claim, meaning England skipper Terry must no longer serve a three-match ban.

Alex Ferguson reckons a United player wouldn't have been so fortunate.

What planet is he living on.

The FA have consistently bent over backwards over the last decade or so to accommodate United's misdemeanors and it comes as a welcome change for someone else to get the benefit.

Man. City 1 Chelsea 3

It should have been a bright new dawn but ended up being more of the same for Manchester City as it slipped to a 3-1 defeat against Chelsea despite a debut-day opener from record signing Robinho.
The 32.5 million pound man paid off the first instalment of his British record price-tag by putting Mark Hughes' men ahead with a superb 13th-minute free-kick.
But it was downhill all the way after that as Chelsea scored three times without reply, through Ricardo Carvalho, Frank Lampard and Nicolas Anelka to register a seventh straight win over City even though England captain John Terry was sent off for a professional foul.
It was a reality check Hughes did not need, although it should ensure expectations are lowered - until January's transfer window opens - and in Robinho City have a talent to savour.
Given the amazing events of the last fortnight at what has now been dubbed 'Middle Eastlands' by the City support, it was perhaps no surprise Robinho should make the perfect start.
His pricetag ensures every move he makes will get monitored and a warm embrace with Luiz Felipe Scolari after the traditional pre-match handshakes did little to foster a feeling he has ended up where he wanted to be.
But any doubts over his commitment were swept away by the 24-year-old's reaction to a goal that could be a point historians will remember as the moment City's revolution began.
Carvalho was unhappy at the free-kick in the first place as Jo went down under minimal contact and Petr Cech was clearly agitated at the way his wall failed to take shape as he requested.
It just added to the theatre as Robinho ushered away all his team-mates, before reintroducing Vincent Kompany as a token presence. He then took aim and calmly stroked the ball via a deflction into the corner.
There was nothing too elaborate about his reaction, just a gleeful run towards the halfway line, thumb in mouth as South Americans do, before being mobbed by ecstatic team-mates.
With Shaun Wright-Phillips on his home debut keeping the visitor's defence on their toes with some mazy runs, all seemed set for an evening of celebration.
Unfortunately for the hosts, their lead lasted just three minutes as John Terry leapt for Frank Lampard's corner, saw his header strike Joe Cole and the rebound falling invitingly for Carvalho, who promptly lashed it into the roof of Joe Hart's net.
It was the start of a sobering period for City, which was outplayed for long stretches, with Robinho becoming largely anonymous.
Florent Malouda saw his cushioned header bounce back off the bar, then Nicolas Anelka wasted an excellent opportunity from Pablo Zabaleta's poor clearance as Deco's influence started to spread.
City was restricted to rare sights of goal, although Jo could easily have profited from one as his curling shot flew over after striking Carvalho.
Having established a loose stranglehold on the contest, Chelsea tightened its grip within eight minutes of the restart.
Lampard had already gone close once after Joe Cole's shot had been deflected into his path but City failed to heed the warning, offering its opponent far too much space down the middle of the field.
The move took Chelsea deep inside home territory and after skipping on to Florent Malouda's pass, Lampard surged past Richard Dunne before burying his shot into the bottom corner.
Stephen Ireland and Wright-Phillips created chances for each other but were unable to take them as City tried to find a way back into the contest, Carvalho excelling on both occasions.
But Chelsea was the better side, with Anelka denied a clear penalty when he was pushed over by Micah Richards, only for referee Mark Halsey to wave away the appeals.
And 20 minutes from time, Chelsea produced the killer blow as Joe Cole sent Anelka clear with a superb pass. With only Hart to beat once more, this time Anelka made no mistake, slipping the ball under the advancing City keeper.
Before City could kick-off again, Scolari sent on Didier Drogba.
The delirious Chelsea fans launched into a chant of 'What a waste of money', which was premature in two senses given City are one game into a new era, albeit now aware of the mountain of work that lies ahead and Terry was sent off 13 minutes from time.
Terry's professional foul was clear enough after Deco sold the England skipper short with a lay-off but Halsey presumably failed to notice Carvalho stood at least two yards back as Jo was wrestled to the ground but what do you expect when you've got a proven moron in charge of a top flight game.

The club will surely appeal against the ridiculous decision.
It was a mistake Terry could well do without, although that was the only blot on Chelsea's day. The same could not be said for its host.