Ruthless Chelsea expose predictable Bolton

Bolton's renaissance under manager Owen Coyle has come at a time when his Chelsea counterpart Carlo Ancelotti seems to have been losing his grip on his side's title ambitions.

But the pair would have walked away from a chilly night at the Reebok on Monday thinking their teams are heading in different directions.

The 4-0 victory was perhaps a generous scoreline for the Londoners, but after a fine goal from Didier Drogba to set them on their way, they rarely looked troubled as they maintained a remarkable record at Bolton which has resulted in them winning eight games on the bounce without conceding a goal.

"I think we've turned the corner," said Ancelotti afterwards. "We are playing good football with a good attitude and a good mentality. I think we are coming back to fight for everything."

It was the first time Chelsea have won three consecutive games since a run which began in October but Coyle accepted his team, who had only lost once at the Reebok this season, were punished for its mistakes.

"Gretar Steinsson had a poor touch and was punished severely for the first goal," Coyle stated. "The second goal came from a corner which was not cleared and we paid a heavy price for bad decision making - the third goal our skipper [Kevin Davies] passed the ball to them.

"They got the bounce of the ball, it didn't go for us tonight, but to give up our terrific home record tonight is something we're disappointed with."

It is just over a year since the Scot joined Bolton from Burnley and while he has been credited with bringing more entertaining football to the Reebok after the years under Gary Megson and Sam Allardyce, the result would have been disappointing given that he has also made them harder to beat.

Statistics show that Bolton have only reduced the percentage of their long passing (35 yards and over) by a small amount from 22% under Megson last season to about 18% with Coyle. They are the fourth in Premier League for long passes attempted, behind Birmingham, Blackpool and West Brom.

But more revealing is that in the first half of last season - when Megson was still in charge - Bolton were conceding an average of two league goals a game. Following Coyle's appointment that figure dropped to 1.55 goals a game.

That also coincided with a drop in goals scored for Bolton (0.8 goals per game), which suggests that the Scot's priority was defensive solidity, but this season they have restored this to an average of 1.4 league goals a game with strikers Johan Elmander and Kevin Davies grabbing 16 between them. 

The quality of some of those strikes, including Elmander's effort against Wolves, Stuart Holden's sucker punch against Blackburn and Mark Davies's superb team goal against Blackpool show that it is not only statistically where Bolton have improved.

Mark Davies's ball-carrying from central midfield has been an apt portrayal of Coyle's shift in style. But against Chelsea he started on the bench with the more combative Fabrice Muamba alongside Holden.

That enabled Bolton to press Chelsea high up the pitch and they carved out several first-half openings when they got the ball wide to Martin Petrov who created headed chances for Kevin Davies and Matt Taylor.

But Chelsea weathered that storm and with Drogba's 33-yard strike on 11 minutes piercing Bolton's early optimism, Ancelotti's side became more comfortable soaking up the pressure and hitting Bolton on the break. 

One of the key reasons they were able to do this was because they had John Mikel Obi back in the side after an injury-hit period.

With full-backs Ashley Cole and Jose Bosingwa encouraged to get forward, the Nigerian often acts as Chelsea's third defender in addition to their centre-backs, and as a result they are less likely to concede goals.

So perhaps it has come as no surprise that his absence in recent weeks has coincided with the team's dip in form. 

Michael Essien, who has been out of sorts, and fellow midfielder Ramires, who is still getting to grips with the English game, have attempted to perform Mikel's role but they have not quite matched the 23-year-old in providing defensive protection. The other thing that Mikel provides is an easy pass out of defence.

Chelsea's defeat by Arsenal at the Emirates over the Christmas period provided a stark example of Mikel's worth when Ancelotti took him off at half-time, only to see the Gunners pinch the ball in exactly the kind of space he usually occupies and score twice in the 3-1 victory.

Chelsea do not mind if Cole and Bosingwa get forward. They know that if opponents attack their defence down the flanks, the aerial presence of centre-backs John Terry and Branislav Ivanovic are more than capable of dealing with any crosses.

So if teams are to make an inroad into Chelsea's rearguard, they need to be able to mix their play, combining attacks from the wings and through the middle.

Average positions for Bolton's players in the game against Chelsea on Monday show they generally played far wider than Wolves, who beat Ancelotti's side 1-0 on 5 January.

Mark Davies's introduction in the second half provided Bolton with a chance to vary their raids and he introduced fluidity to their midfield play almost instantly, combining with Elmander for a one-two that the midfielder just failed to get on the end of.

The only problem was that by then Bolton were 3-0 down but it would have been interesting to see if the former Wolves player could have made an impact had he been brought on earlier.

Bolton's evolution from a supposed long-ball team to a slicker outfit might have been dispelled by statistics but their success this season has come from an ability to blend the short and long, making them less predictable.

Unfortunately, a ruthless Chelsea display did not give them the chance.

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