HT Blackburn 0-1 Chelsea: Drogba gives the Blues the edge

Didier Drogba scored his 22nd league goal of the season to give Chelsea the lead over Blackburn at Ewood Park.

Chelsea, needing victory to keep pace in the title race with Arsenal and Manchester United, dominated the first half and could have scored more.

Michael Ballack was not included in the Chelsea squad as Carlo Ancelotti's side went in search of three points to keep pace with Arsenal and Manchester United in the title race.

The German midfielder's absence was due to an unspecified injury and he was replaced by Salomon Kalou while the other change from the side that lost to Inter Milan saw Paulo Ferreira come in for Yury Zhirkov.

Blackburn boss Sam Allardyce gave a league debut to 18-year-old centre-back Phil Jones after Ryan Nelsen and Gael Givet were both ruled out.

Didier Drogba carved out an early chance for himself, dinking a neat curling shot just wide of the post despite being surrounded by Blackburn defenders.

That was just a foretaste of what was to come however as the Ivory Coast striker opened the scoring in the sixth minute with an almost effortless simplicity.

Nicolas Anelka burst down the right, cut inside Jones and laid the ball back for Drogba to wrong-foot the entire Rovers defence and keeper Jason Brown with a neat left-footed finish back into the opposite corner.

Kalou threatened to further emphasise Chelsea's early dominance with a header from a corner that flew over the crossbar.

David Dunn won a free-kick in Morten Gamst Pedersen ranged after being halted by an agricultural challenge by Alex, but although the Norwegian was on target Chelsea keeper Ross Turnbull turned his effort behind.

That was just a blip in the opening quarter of the game as Chelsea soon resumed their dominance, first Anelka flicking a first-time shot badly off-target after being set up by Kalou before Alex saw a thumping drive blocked by the diving Martin Olsson.

Pedersen had another sight of goal but was wildly off-target with his volley, while Jones drew the loudest cheers from the Rovers fans so far with a series of crunching - but legal - challenges as Blackburn did their best to out-power the visitors.

Florent Malouda let fly from 20 yards out with a stinging drive but Brown managed to parry the shot, if somewhat unconvincingly.

Ancelotti was then forced to make a change just before the break with Branislav Ivanovic, who appeared to have been stood on unintentionally by El Hadji Diouf, limped off to be replaced by Zhirkov.