Wigan 3-1 Chelsea

This wasn't supposed to happen! In fact before the match you might have said that this couldn't happen. But it did, and what's more the best team on the day, won.

It's results like this that make football such a fascinating game, unless of course you happened to be a Chelsea fan watching them loose their otherwise unblemished seasonal record. The first shock was when a Titus Bramble header put his side ahead after 16 minutes but that was just a preview of what was to come. There were not many pundits forecasting a home win, and it would have been easy to pass off that first goal as a flash in the pan.

Wigan's opening goal was cleverly developed from a short corner. N'Zogbia beat the Chelsea defence, when an accurate cross allowed Bramble to open the scoring, with a simple but well executed header. The 'Blues' fans expected the home side to be severely punished for their audacity, but it was not to be as the Northerners continued to dominate. In fact Chelsea were lucky to reach the interval with only a one goal deficit, as John Terry was fully engaged to prevent Jason Scotland breaking through. Then Petr Cech had to make a good save from Emmerson Boyce, to prevent a copycat goal from a short corner.

Within a couple of minutes of the restart Drogba had levelled the scores, as he nutmegged the Wigan keeper and the visiting Chelsea fans were back in full voice. However, the situation was short lived when, in the 53rd minute the mighty Cech was deemed to have conceded a penalty. As Rodallega menaced his goal he seemed to trip the Columbian who was almost sure to score. The referee judged the goalkeeper to be the last defender and he was shown the red card. He didn't agree with the decision but his protests were in vain and he had to leave the field. Substitute keeper Hilario replaced Malouda in a damage limitation exercise, but it was not to be, and Rodallega blasted the ball home from the spot to regain the lead.

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Even with ten men remaining, it was not beyond the realm of possibilities for Chelsea to grab the initiative, but they never really looked like doing so. In fact they were reduced to nine men when Ashley Cole went off injured in stoppage time, and Scharner put the icing on a Wigan cake with a third goal. His side left the field, to thunderous and well deserved applause, for their first Premiership win against a 'big four' side.

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Wigan 3-1 Chelsea
soccer and football
Wigan 3-1 Chelsea