Essien earns Chelsea win

Updated 18.59 Sun Aug 12 2007
Keywords: jose mourinho, michael essien, florent malouda, claudio pizarro, olivier kapo, mikael forssell, birmingham city, chelsea, premier league, football, sport, steve bruce

Chelsea survived a scare to beat Birmingham City 3-2 in the Premier League at Stamford Bridge.

Birmingham gave debuts to summer signings Johan Djourou, Liam Ridgewell, Franck Queudrue and Olivier Kapo and they took the lead in the first half when former Chelsea striker Mikael Forssell scored with a glancing header.

"Chelsea played great attacking football but Birmingham also were great" - Jose Mourinho

Chelsea equalised within seconds through new boy Claudio Pizarro and Florent Malouda put Chelsea ahead.

Kapo levelled the scores at 2-2 before half-time but Chelsea responded early in the second half when Michael Essien drove the winner from long range.

Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho said: "It would be better to score five or six goals and win in a different way but the game was great, not just because Chelsea played great attacking football but because Birmingham also were great."

He added: "Teams from the Championship, especially in the first period after promotion, come with a winning spirit because that is what got them promoted.

"They could have scored three and we could have scored six or seven."

Didier Drogba almost added a fourth with a driven effort from the halfway line.

Birmingham manager Steve Bruce said: "We gave it a real go but unfortunately we gave away soft goals.

"When you come to Chelsea you need your goalkeeper to be your best player but he's had one of those days. But he was instrumental in us being here so he deserved to be in the team."

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