As one era came to a miserable end in my ill-fated attempt at Dry January, another began in the form of Liam Rosenior’s at Chelsea.
It’s been another strange week at the club. A smash-and-grab point against Manchester City on Sunday was followed by a less than good enough defeat away to Fulham where a moment of poor discipline from Marc Cucurella once again cost us any chance at three points. Nevertheless, given the context of our management situation, the club likely viewed both of these games as free hits. It’s the next 17 in the league that will ultimately define our season.
The FA Cup 3rd round weekend is without a doubt one of the best in the game of football and this weekend has shown us exactly why. Starting with Wrexham’s triumph over Nottingham Forest, this was eclipsed shortly after by Macclesfield’s giant-killing of last season’s winners, Crystal Palace.
I was fortunate enough to be sorted with a very last-minute ticket for this one (thank you, Tom) and whilst I have been to Charlton’s Valley before, this would be my first game in the Jimmy Seed away end, I was pretty excited.
In terms of away days, Charlton is undoubtedly one of the best in London. Situated just a 15 minute train journey from London Bridge, it provided a plentiful selection of pre-match venues to meet at. In the end we went with ‘The Horniman at Hays’ as the venue of choice, and it was there where I met with a combination of Charlton and Chelsea supporting friends.
Conversation flowed between shock at Crystal Palace’s earlier undoing, a collection of poor bets placed on the 3pms, and speculation around line-ups and scorelines. Although my predicted XI wasn’t quite spot on, I did boldly go with a 5–1 scoreline.
The Valley is everything a football ground should be and it makes a refreshing change from the majority of stadiums you see in the Premier League. On a cold winter’s night, it’s glow rises out of the surrounding rows of housing. Although Charlton do not sell out every week in the Championship, a 3rd round tie against Premier League opposition which is also a London Derby is always going to draw a strong gate.
A pre-game light and firework display created a dramatic cauldron of atmosphere, as well as some welcome warmth on a cold January night. The first half, however, got off to a fairly slow start, which wasn’t entirely surprising given the near second-string line-up put out by Chelsea.
Sentiment in the away end was clear, with chants consistently aimed at both Clearlake Capital and Behdad Eghbali for a third game in a row. I know very little about Eghbali as a person, but judging by his actions around the club and comments in interviews, it’s hard not to feel that this level of unrest must be denting his ego.
I decided to grab a couple of half-time beers around the 40th minute, assuming a breakthrough before the interval was unlikely. Several hundred others had the same idea, packing out the two bars alongside the stand. Naturally, this meant I missed the opening goal, which, judging by the highlights, was an absolute screamer from Jorrel Hato.
With Chelsea now attacking the end of the pitch housing our own fans, I did expect an increase in the level of performance. That was exactly what we got as a brilliant Tosin header doubled the lead. I was happy for Charlton fans that they did get a goal back in the game through Miles Leaburn but a Marc Guiu follow up snuffed out any hope quickly.
Chelsea’s quality continued to prevail. Pedro Neto made it four before Enzo Fernández perfectly dispatched a penalty which was well won by Estêvão.
Yes, you can say it was only Charlton, but we’ve seen this Chelsea team struggle past Lincoln City and Cardiff already this season so it felt good to finally put one of these teams to the sword. It seems hard to believe, but Liam Rosenior is the first Chelsea manager since Antonio Conte in 2016 to win his first game in the dugout. As fog set in dramatically over the ground, a few chants for Liam could be heard in a nice moment at the end of the night.
What had been a wonderful evening was somewhat overshadowed by what I felt was some slightly questionable policing after the game. The away end is positioned at the dead end of a residential road, a setup that allowed police to hold supporters inside after full time.
Quite why this was necessary remains unclear. We were told there had been some trouble before the game, but everything I’ve seen since suggests a couple of minor scuffles, hardly surprising for an 8pm kick-off. It’s not as though Chelsea and Charlton share a long-standing rivalry.
As more fans built up at the blockade, temperatures dropped and communication from the police was poor throughout. Over the next 20 minutes, tempers began to flare until eventually the blockade was reduced, allowing us to escape to the warmth of a train and the safe haven of a pub near London Bridge.
It’s been a strange 10 days, but last night’s game reminded me why following this club is so much fun. Whilst I have no belief in the club’s leadership structure, that’s not the fault of the XI you see on the pitch. Bring on Arsenal.
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