Nicolas Anelka was on-target again but a debut goal by Jermain Defoe leaves Chelsea short of setting a new club record.
After nine straight wins, a draw has ended the sequence and points shared was a fair reflection of a game that sprung to life in the second-half after a stale opening period.
Carvalho's suspension meant a start for Ben-Haim and Grant decided to make two more changes in defence, Cole and Belletti returning as full-backs. The rest of the team remained the one that had beaten Reading.
For Portsmouth, both Glen Johnson and Lassana Diarra lined-up against the club for whom they had started this season.
After six minutes of sparring, one Baros shot wildly off-target the exception, Ballack had Chelsea's first open play chance. Taking Malouda's pass, the German also sent the ball high and wide from 20 yards.
Joe Cole tried his luck with a snap effort a minute later, clearing the top left-hand corner by a couple of yards.
Kranjcar, playing at the front of a diamond midfield for Portsmouth, struck a low shot past Cech's left-hand post on 10 minutes and then Diarra was on-target a minute further into the game but didn't trouble Cech.
Sean Davis was booked on 21 minutes for hacking into the back of Ashley Cole's legs near the touchline.
The game was failing to ignite, possibly a reflection of two teams that have been living on the limit of their squads.
The visitors were finding it hard to get in behind the Portsmouth defence while Diarra was proving the game's outstanding midfielder, bith winning and distributing the ball time and time again.
Chelsea did put together a move of some quality on the half-hour, switching play from one side to other via Wright-Phillips, Ballack and Malouda but the final ball in could not find an attacking player.
Campbell was booked for pulling the arm of Belletti on the edge of the box 32 minutes in but although the free-kick was deflected off-target, it went for a corner which Belletti took.
That spells danger for any defending side and his near-post ball was knocked on by Anelka for Ballack to head on target, Kranjcar heading off the line from under his crossbar.
Suddenly it was all-incident. At the other end, Belletti appeared to handball inside the box but it was missed by referee Howard Webb and then Pamarot climbed high and headed a corner onto the Chelsea crossbar.
Three minute before the break, it needed some excellent salvage play by Ballack to dispossess Baros in front of goal after Makelele had gifted the Czech striker the ball in a potentially catastrophic area of the pitch.
In stoppage time, one of the best Chelsea openings of the half came when Anelka was slipped through by Malouda. James saved but only as far as Ashley Cole. From an angle, he lofted well over with his right foot.
Chelsea survived a big scare two minutes after the re-start, Defoe breaking through but delaying his shot too long, allowing Ben-Haim to block. The ball fell invitingly for Baros who opted for placement rather than power. Unfortunately for the home side, he placed it straight at Cech.
Chelsea then caused similar chaos in the other box when an interchange of passes sent Ashley Cole in on goal. He forced the ball past James but Hreidarsson cleared his lines.
On 54 minutes, the breakthrough came with the Portsmouth fans still screaming about a turned-down penalty at the other end. Makelele had been clearing when the ball flew off his boot, hitting him, it appeared, in the face rather than on the arm.
Chelsea raced up the other end in numbers and when Malouda's high cross was touched back inside by Joe Cole, Anelka expertly guided it past James for his second goal for his new club.
Unfortunately, the lead was far too short lived - nine minutes to be precise. The equaliser was pure route one with Chelsea major contributors.
James's long ball was headed on by Baros with Alex and Makelele impeding each other. Defoe was clear, played onside by a deep-lying Belletti and the new Pompey signing continued his record of scoring on every club debut. Cech had been beaten for the first time in seven meetings with Pompey.
Wright-Phillips tried to strike back quickly but James saved before Kranjcar planted a header from a free-kick not too far wide of the Chelsea goal.
Another Chelsea break needed some desperate blocks from Portsmouth to keep out Belletti and Anelka.
Pizarro came on for Malouda with just over 15 minutes remaining as the switch to 4-2-3-1 was made once more.
Joe Cole shot over before Cech needed to be sharp to deal with Defoe after Belletti had again played the former Spurs man onside. It was a quality piece of keeping, followed by a quality ball by Ballack from which Wright-Phillips should have scored but stretching, he knocked the ball wide of both James and the goal.
Portsmouth could have won it on 89 minutes, Diarra creating the opening for Defoe but a well-struck drive flew over.
Then it was Chelsea's turn - Alex thumping a header at goal but James grabbed it by his side. Defoe had the last chance, drilling wide and an end-to-end second-half reached its conclusion with honours shared.
Portsmouth had taken their first Premier League point from Chelsea at the tenth attempt.
Chelsea (4-3-3): Cech; Ferreira, Alex, Ben-Haim, A Cole; Wright-Phillips, Makelele (c), Ballack; J Cole, Anelka, Malouda (Pizarro 73).
Scorer Anelka 54.
Scorer Defoe 63,
Booked Davis 21, Campbell 32.
.jpg)
0 Comments:
Post a Comment