A disappointing showing by Chelsea at The Valley saw their Champions League hopes all but disappear. The Blues started poorly and their passes were often misplaced but Charlton struggled to take advantage of this early on. They were extremely unlucky not to be given an early penalty after Gallas clearly brought down Euell in the area but referee Graham Poll waved play on. But Charlton refused to get dishearted by the decision and came at Chelsea for the rest of the half with a bombardment of aerial balls causing Chelsea no end of trouble. The Blues were relieved to hear the half time whistle and must have fancied their chances in the second half because they were so lucky to be level.
Charlton were not going to be easily pushed over and carried on how they left off in the first half. And they finally got their reward in the 73rd minute with a well worked goal. Paul Konchesky's excellent cross was nodded down by Matthias Svensson to Jason Euell who took the ball excellently before firing past Carlo Cudicini. Chelsea then brought on Gianfranco Zola and Jesper Gronkjaer, making his first appearance since September, to try and salvage something out of the game. The response by the Blues was brilliant and could only be linked to the introduction of Zola. The diminutive Italian slipped the ball through to Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink who was clearly brought down by Charlton keeper Dean Kiely. Again, referee Poll shook his head in a week when he had controversially denied Teddy Sheringham a blatant penalty in the dying minutes of the Worthington Cup final. Chelsea came back strong from that disappointment and looked to have grabbed a point when Hasselbaink set up Lampard for an excellent goal. But instead of being happy with a point, claudio Ranieri brought on Forssell in place of the lacklustre Mario Stanic. The return from injury by Jesper Gronkjaer could spell the end of Stanic's run in the side on this showing. The substitution backfired on Chelsea as their defence was caught trying to play offside to allow Euell to clip the ball over Cudicini to give Charlton all three points.
Claudio Ranieri is running out of excuses for his Chelsea side. He complained a few weeks ago about having to play two matches a week, claiming his players were suffering from exhaustion. So what will his excuse for this defeat be, keeping in mind that the Blues have had a fortnight without any competitive matches? Hopefully things will improve against Fulham on Wednesday because, on this showing Chelsea will struggle to qualify for any European competition, let alone the Champions League.