A combination of fluid attacking and feeble defending enabled Bjarne Goldbaek to double the advantage

A combination of fluid attacking and feeble defending enabled Bjarne Goldbaek to double the advantage.Chelsea, having survived two scares at 1-0, became so superior that they eased up. To see a performer of Gianfranco Zola’s skills doing a similar job is impressive proof of Vialli’s powers of persuasion.The Sardinian still found the energy for his creative duties, supplying the cross which led to Phil Babb handling under pressure from Tore Andre Flo and Leboeuf scoring from the spot. We try to be tight and aggressive.”The textbook example of forwards working to prevent opponents building from the back is that of Alan Shearer and Chris Sutton during Blackburn’s championship season. “I’d say we’re playing better when the other team have the ball.

Such a record is due in large measure to what Vialli called the “winning mentality” of Desailly, yet the player- manager argued that it was simplistic to explain it solely in terms of an individual or even a unit.”When we talk about defending I don’t just talk about the back four, because it all starts with the two strikers,” he said. They have conceded just 22 goals – second only to Arsenal, 12 less than Liverpool and eight fewer than at the same stage last February.Tellingly, Chelsea’s 27 League fixtures have produced a mere 63 goals for themselves and their opponents, compared with 84 – some 33 per cent more – in Liverpool’s games. As an attacker of considerable flair, Gianluca Vialli may seem an unlikely adherent. As an Italian, he is also steeped in a football culture which has elevated defensive efficiency to an art form.It should not, therefore, come as a great surprise that, in his first full season since replacing Ruud Gullit, Vialli has placed a high priority on making Chelsea harder to score against. On the day when Aston Villa’s collapse confirmed the Premiership stakes as a three-horse race, John Gregory’s belief that “strikers win matches but defenders win championships” found a new standard-bearer in Desailly.The Villa manager’s words, uttered when his own back line was looking impregnable, neatly articulated a philosophy to which George Graham, like Brian Clough before him, has long been a subscriber. Now working as coach under Gerard Houllier, Thompson cut an animated figure on the touchline. Once he had stopped making phantom headers, the former Liverpool captain must have wondered how the club of Hansen, Lawrenson and Nicol could have ended up without a single defender remotely in Desailly’s class.
Franck Leboeuf may have been wearing the armband for Chelsea, but his exit with an ankle injury merely highlighted the leadership provided by his fellow Frenchman.

Phil Thompson, symbolising Liverpool’s role in the title race, was outside looking in. Marcel Desailly influenced a vital Chelsea victory from the heart of the action. Blackburn: Peacock, McAteer.Man of the match: Berkovic.Attendance: 25,529.. TWO VASTLY experienced centre-backs, veterans of combat at a rarified level, spent the entire 90 minutes at Stamford Bridge organising, coaxing and clearing virtually every threat to the respective rearguards. Substitutes not used: Taylor, Flowers (gk).Referee: S Dunn (Bristol).Bookings: West Ham: Foe. Substitutes not used: Minto, Cole, Moncur, Kitson, Forrest (gk).Blackburn Rovers (4-4-2): Filan; McAteer, Peacock, Broomes, Davidson; Gillespie, Dunn (Croft, 64), Jansen (Davies, 51), Wilcox (Duff, 55); Blake, Ward. Davies’s introduction coincided with a revival that brought Shaka Hislop into the picture with alert saves from Damien Duff and Gillespie.Top six again for West Ham; grim weeks ahead for Blackburn following three successive defeats.Goals: Pearce (28) 1-0; Di Canio (31) 2-0.West Ham United (4-4-2): Hislop; Lomas, Pearce, Ferdinand, Potts; Foe, Berkovic, Lampard, Keller; Di Canio, Sinclair.

They’ve got so many good players, strikers who cost millions. But how can you work things out in this game?”One of those strikers, Kevin Davies, who cost pounds 7m, was one of three substitutes Kidd called on in the second half. “Let’s face it, I’m always wrong,” Redknapp would say sarcastically. “Wrong to sell John Hartson, wrong to buy Di Canio.”Not wrong to expect more from West Ham after the interval. “I told them to go out and enjoy themselves but Blackburn showed more of their true selves I can’t understand why they are in trouble. Lomas will play for a month and get fewer untroubled touches.If it was Blackburn’s intention to stifle moves aimed at the centre of their defence, to leave so much space out wide was asking for trouble.Coming out of what Redknapp described as “our first bad month for two years”, to draw at Liverpool last week, West Ham picked up the impetus to go in front after 28 minutes when a move carried out by Lomas, Berkovic and Di Canio was finished off by Ian Pearce’s far-post header.Still Blackburn held wingers Ian Gillespie and Jason Wilcox tight in the narrowest of midfields, still they allowed Lomas to advance unhindered.Three minutes after Pearce’s strike Blackburn went further behind Another right-wing move was easily converted by Di Canio. “Not really,” he said, “but they did give us a lot of room.”Used, interestingly, at right- back, Steve Lomas revelled in the luxury of room, repeatedly coming forward to link with Eyal Berkovic and Paolo Di Canio.