Chelsea victory eases pressure on Grant

Chelsea's under-fire manager Avram Grant hit back at critics who have questioned his ability to succeed Jose Mourinho by beating Valencia 2-1 in Spain this morning. His team produced their best football since Grant took over from the charismatic but controversial Portuguese coach two weeks ago, and probably their best this season, to throw the Champions League Group B wide open.

Valencia's David Villa opened the scoring after just nine minutes but an own goal midway through the first half by Emiliamo Moretti and a second half strike by the prolific Didier Drogba gave Chelsea a memorable win. The result, and also the scoring sequence, was the same as the last time the two teams met in Valencia's Mestalla stadium back in March, when the occasion was a Champions League quarter-final second leg tie.

On the night, Grant played the cards in his hand almost perfectly. The Israeli coach caught Valencia by surprise even before the start, leaving Andrei Shevchenko on the bench and instead opting Nigerian striker John Obi Mikel. In the end, Mikel made little impression but the energy of Drogba allied to the creativity of Malouda more than made up for the deficit.

Chelsea and England captain John Terry, wearing a protective mask, made a remarkable return to action just three days after being operated on for a broken cheekbone. Terry played the full 90 minutes and although he was, not unsurprisingly, quite subdued by his normal standards.

However, it was a mark of Valencia's lack of firepower upfront that he was rarely put under pressure apart from brief periods in the opening and closing stages of the game.

Liverpool shock
Meanwhile Chelsea's English Premier League rivals Liverpool suffered a shock 1-0 loss to French heavyweights Marseille at Anfield.

Liverpool, last campaign's grand finalists and the 2005 Champions League victors, now face an uphill battle for survival after midfielder Mathieu Valbeuna settled the contest with a superb late strike. Valbeuna broke the deadlock with curling a 25-yard shot into the top corner of the net as the Liverpool back four stood off him with quarter of an hour left.

But the troubled French club might easily have wrapped up their win much sooner on a night that leaves Liverpool with just one point from their opening two games in group A and will only fuel the controversy over Rafael Benitez's love of endlessly rotating his line-ups.

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AFP