Second-half strikes from Frank Lampard and Arjen Robben sealed a 2-0 English Premiership victory for Chelsea over Portsmouth on Saturday, as pressure from the Blues brigade put pay to the Pompey rear guard.
Dean Kiely was kept busy in the Portsmouth goal and, on 17 minutes, he bravely blocked a low drive from Shaun Wright-Phillips before producing further heroics to stop John Terry’s close-range header in the 33rd minute.
Kiely was again at full stretch as he prevented Didier Drogba’s free kick from creeping in at the right-hand post after 38 minutes had been played.
Kiely again got the measure of Wright-Phillips, on 52 minutes, as he stooped acrobatically to his left to continue the Portsmouth rescue act before being eventually outdone in the 65th minute as a neat touch by Drogba broke open the Portsmouth defence. With clinical finishing, Lampard fired a low shot past Kiely into the bottom corner.
Chelsea struck again on 78 minutes when Shaun Davis lost the ball to Eidur Gudjohnsen, who put Robben in the clear, and he stroked his effort past Kiely’s advancing body to seal victory.
As Chelsea get closer to defending their title, Portsmouth were left to ponder on the prospect of relegation that left their manager Harry Redknapp counting the cost of defeat.
He commented: ”I felt up until the goal, really, I never ever felt we were under real pressure, at any stage, but that’s Frank; you give him the one opportunity, and he broke into the box, and that’s what his fantastic at doing.”
There was no love lost, despite Redknapp being Lampard’s uncle, and the Portsmouth boss had much to contemplate.
”It’s going to be tough for sure, but we always knew that, so we just need to put a run together, but we’ve got to keep going. There’s still 11 games, and points to play for.”