Portsmouth may have been relegated already but they showed today that they are not just cannon-fodder to be massacred until the end of the season.
Ivan Klasnic and Kevin Davies had put Bolton 2-0 up before the half-hour mark, and it looked like the Wanderers had done enough to secure their Premiership place for yet another season.
The Chelsea captain John Terry has dismissed the protests from Bolton that he handballed the ball in the area, which could have given Bolton an equalizer last night.
“I don’t know what it looked like on TV, but it definitely felt like it hit the top of my chest.” Terry said.
“You go through a season and you’re going to get penalties and not going to get them. They could have had one. We could have had one.”
Martin O’Neill was not a happy man after the FA Cup semi-final defeat against Chelsea, and severely lambasted the referee for not giving a blatant penalty in the first half, which could have changed the course of the game.
Even John Terry agreed after the game that it should have been given in Aston Villa’s favour.
Chelsea moved a step nearer to the Premiership title with a typically hard-fought game against the tough-tackling northeners Bolton.
Chelsea were guilty of missing many chances before a brilliant cross from Drogba found Anelka in the box to give them a well-deserved lead.
Carlo Ancelotti has refused to get involved in any “mind games” with Sir Alex Ferguson, who was quoted as saying that Chelsea have an easy game at home to Bolton this evening. He maintains that Chelsea just have to retain the concentration that has seen them win their last four games easily.
“At this moment of our season, nobody can lose his concentration or determination to win the title – only us – but I think that’s impossible that can happen,” Ancelotti said.
The Chelsea midfielder Frank Lampard is happy that the team is playing well, but still thinks they can get better, after Bolton made them work very hard up until half-time.
He wants the form to continue and open up a gap at the top, and says that every game is a big game at the moment.
Megson - Bolton were terrific!
Chelsea went on to win 4-0 but Megson said that his team were “terrific” in the face of Chelsea’s quality.
A good day at the office!
“We are doing very well at the moment, we did a good performance today. It was difficult in the first half because Bolton played a strong match and put pressure on our midfielders, but at the end of the first half we had a good chance to score on the penalty, and in the second half we maintained good concentration and intensity and we won a very important match for us.
Ballack - Chelsea need to win.
Ballack was asked his opinion of todays match in light of the midweek win.
The Chelsea winger Florent Malouda thinks that Chelsea have learnt from the 2-1 defeat to Aston Villa a fortnight ago, and won’t suffer from the same mistakes again.
“We have to show we can travel and get the right score. We have a good opportunity to be in front, two points clear at the top of the league, and we want to keep on top so we have to keep on winning, even if it’s away, even if it’s difficult.
