Thursday, February 11, 2010

Two goals from Louis Saha, Landon Donovan plays an important

Everton 2
- Saha 33,
- Saha 75

Chelsea 1
- Malouda 17

**Two goals from Louis Saha helped Everton to come from behind and seal a famous win that puts a dent in Chelsea's title aspirations.

Chelsea took the lead through Florent Malouda but Saha's 100th goal in English league football levelled proceedings midway through the first half.

Everton were stunned by that early strike but slowly battled their way into the game and fashioned an equaliser just after the half hour. Landon Donovan's out-swinging corner was met by the Louis Saha, who evaded John Terry at the near post and swept the ball past Petr Cech for his 14th goal of the season
The Frenchman then missed a late first-half penalty but he made amends 15 minutes from time, capitalising on a John Terry mistake to volley home.

Everton dominated the remainder of the half and should have been in front at the interval but Saha saw his penalty brilliantly saved by Cech low to his left after Carvalho had tripped Donovan. Donovan cut inside Ricardo Carvalho and the defender swiped the American's ankles, handing Saha the chance to send his side in at half time ahead, but Cech pulled off another decent save to keep the scores level

The second half was all action but there were few chances until Saha's 75th-minute strike. Former England captain Terry misjudged a long ball and, as the ball dropped, Saha brought the ball down on his chest before crashing a left-footed volley beyond Cech.

The game swung this way and that but Chelsea were ironically on top when they fell behind with 15 minutes left. A long cross-field ball was missed by John Terry and Louis Saha was able to chest down and crash a 20-yard volley past Cech for his second of the game.

Chelsea penned Everton in their own half as they pushed for an equaliser - the closest they came was when a Didier Drogba header thumped off the crossbar.

Chelsea continued to pile on the pressure in the search for an equaliser but the home defence stood tall and withstood a number of crosses and corners.

And it wasn't enough for Chelsea as the home side held firm to record a famous victory, handing Manchester United and Arsenal a huge reprieve in the race for the Premier League title.



Teams :

Everton:
Howard, Neville, Heitinga, Distin, Baines, Donovan, Arteta (Rodwell 74), Osman, Bilyaletdinov, Cahill, Saha

Chelsea:
Cech, Ivanovic, Carvalho, Terry, Ashley Cole (Ballack '57), Lampard, Mikel (Sturridge '77), Zhirkov, Anelka (Kalou '67), Drogba, Malouda

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