With the internet awash with rumours that our manager was toast if he lost the next two games, he needed a result against Chelsea. He stuck with his new formation and was rewarded with our best performance of the season, and that vital win.

After the greatly improved second half performance at the Emptyhad it seemed very harsh to read that the 49ers were contemplating sacking Farke in the midst of such a tough run of fixtures, but there was no official word from the club to deny the rumours on various sites. I wondered if they are talking to a possible successor, and the two games was just to give them time to finish negotiations.

But if Farke really was in trouble, he found his opposite number in quite a generous mood. Enzo Maresca made five changes as he rotated his squad in the midst of a hectic fixture schedule, with only one of them enforced (due to the suspension of Caicedo). As a result he named a side that was too inexperienced and lightweight to be facing Leeds at Elland Road.

Meanwhile our manager also had four changes to his starting eleven, one of which saw Stach coming back after his concussion-enforced absence from the City game. But more importantly, he stuck with the 3-5-2 formation that worked so well last Saturday, and once again it served us well, as we looked far more solid at the back and dangerous up front with two strikers.

Right from the start we were playing at a high tempo and snapping into tackles, and it soon became clear that the Chelsea eleven on the midfield didn’t like it up em. Chopper Harris would have put up stiffer resistance, and he’s 81 now. As we dominated the early possession Stach had a couple of shots blocked, the second of which spun away for a corner before Sánchez could keep it in.

Delap was supposed to be marking Bijol, but gave that up very early, to leave the Slovenian with an unchallenged run into the six yard box, where he flicked a header goalwards, with so much power that Sánchez couldn’t keep it out. And it could have been two from another header soon afterwards.

This time the whole of the Chelsea defence had their eyes on Bijol, which left Struijk with the luxury of a free header, but he failed to get enough on it and it went past the post. I wondered then if we would regret that we didn’t increase the lead when we had the chance, but I needn’t have worried, as the Chelsea defence slumbered on.

Tanaka scuffed a couple of opportunities from outside the box with his weaker left foot, but on 43 minutes he got the chance to show what he could do with his right, after Bogle’s through ball had played him in. This time he caught it sweetly and found the corner of the net, no doubt to the delight of his former primary school teacher in the crowd!

Our only really anxious moment of the first half had come when Perri had come out of his goal but failed to gather, but thankfully Estêvão couldn’t get a good connection on the lose ball. All the same, I couldn’t help but think of the Villa game and wonder if we would run out of steam in the second half, especially when Chelsea made a couple of changes at half time.

And it wasn’t long before one of their subs got them back into the game. On 50 minutes Gittens’ cross found it’s way through to Neto just beyond the far post, and Perri might have made a better job of getting something in the way of his shot, even if it was from close range. ‘Here we go again’ I thought, thinking we might drop points from another game when we had played very well.

We thought we had restored our two goal advantage soon after when Nmecha rifled the ball into the net, but the flag went up as Calvert-Lewin was offside earlier in the move, and the decision was confirmed by VAR. And just after the hour Chelsea brought on some of their big guns, as Palmer and Garnacho were introduced, the latter getting all the customary abuse as a former Man United player.

Garnacho got the better of Bogle a couple of times on their left, and Palmer was a close as anyone to scoring a Chelsea equaliser, putting a shot just wide as I was waiting for the net to bulge. Farke responded by freshening things up, with Okafor and Gruev coming on for Nmecha and Tanaka, both of whom had run themselves into the ground.

Okafor was again playing as a central striker and I thought that Piroe might be a better choice for that role, but events were to prove me wrong. Just as it looked that we were hanging on a bit, Okafor’s persistence forced the Chelsea defence into a catastrophic mix-up, which led to our third goal in the 71st minute.

The chance seemed to have gone, with Gudmundsson on the floor unsuccessfully appealing for a foul, but a poor pass to Adarabioyo allowed Okafor to nip in and take the ball of his toe, then get in front of the diving Sánchez. The ball ran loose and probably wouldn’t have crossed the line, but thankfully Calvert-Lewin was in the right place to run in and tap the ball into an empty net.

Sánchez claimed he’d been fouled, but he clearly wasn’t, as Okafor was entitled to challenge for the ball in front of him and got to it first before he had touched the keeper. After that Chelsea still had plenty of possession, but never looking like closing the two-goal margin. Which we could have extended, but Gudmundsson blazed over instead of crossing, when Gruev of all people had made a run into the box.

As we went into injury time there was a cameo appearance from the lesser spotted Bornauw, whose only previous appearance was in the League Cup debacle at Hillsborough. And he even touched the ball, before the final whistle confirmed a thoroughly deserved and very valuable three points, which lifted us out of the bottom three at least until West Ham play our friends at Old Trafford tonight.

And as the players celebrated on the field, it was clear that the whole squad still believes in the manager, as even the unused substitutes were delighted by the result, with no thought that the performance would make it harder for them to get back into the side.

And long may our new 3-5-2 continue to bring us the results that our performances deserve, even if Farke’s comment to the BBC didn’t quite confirm that he was going to continue to use it. "If you are promoted you have to be flexible and adapt to the opponent. I'm not married to a formation, but married to principles."

Next up is a game against Liverpool when anything could happen after the Anfield mob’s difficult season. And we then go to Brentford, the stadium where Farke was sacked in the dressing room after a match, despite having just guided his Norwich side to their first away win of 2021/2, as their board had already lined up his replacement.

Surely this time Farke has now done enough to avoid suffering the same fate at the same venue, and will get the chance to guide his newly improved side away from the bottom three.

Reuters

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