Chelsea spring trap after Konchesky dismissal

Charlton Athletic 2 Chelsea 3

In trying to explain Chelsea's poor record against Charlton Athletic – four successive defeats before yesterday – their manager Claudio Ranieri had said in his improving English: "They set traps for us." The home side did just that again at the Valley in running up a two-goal lead on the counter-attack, but fell into one themselves by having to play for more than an hour with 10 men after Paul Konchesky was sent off.

Their hard-pressed defence was breached at a critical juncture just before the interval, then held out until two cruel blows in the final six minutes. If Chelsea's recovery merited a draw, too many of their expensive recruits under-achieved to deserve the victory fully.

There has, of course, been little investment, expensive or otherwise, at Stamford Bridge this summer. Enrique de Lucas, a free transfer from Espanyol, is the only new arrival; he looked promising while playing out wide in the first half, less so after moving inside.

The Spaniard was also the innocent, injured party in the defining moment of an eventful London derby after 25 minutes. Konchesky recklessly caught him on the cheekbone with a forearm, though Charlton's manager, Alan Curbishley, felt referee Graham Barber had been both hasty and harsh in bringing out his red card. "I was astonished," Curbishley said. "I know the kid and I think he just put his arm up to protect himself. Everyone could see the other boy wasn't badly hurt. I'm not one to rant and rave about referees but on the whole he was poor."

Charlton are on the trail of the Japan World Cup player Alex, and the arrival of a left-sided attacking player is all the more urgent now Konchesky will serve a three-match suspension. The England Under-21 international was the central figure of the first half, in which he had opened the scoring early on. Celestine Babayaro was at fault in not clearing a high ball that fell for Claus Jensen to play into the penalty area, where Konchesky, unattended, carefully drove into the far corner of the net.

Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, one of Chelsea's underachievers yesterday, missed two opportunities to equalise before the referee awarded Charlton's 10 men a generous free-kick that Jensen clipped beyond the far post for Richard Rufus to head in. The marking was again somewhere between negligent and non-existent.

The home side, playing on the break, needed to hold the two-goal lead until half-time. But Boudewijn Zenden, after striking their bar by shooting almost too hard, soon swept easily past Luke Young and cut the ball back for Gianfranco Zola to give Chelsea hope.

With Eidur Gudjohnsen less than fully fit, Zola was initially Hasselbaink's partner against a Charlton defence in which Gary Rowett, a £3.5m acquisition from Leicester City, had a sound first game. That prompted the question of when Charlton last spent more money in the close-season than Chelsea; or, indeed, sold more season-tickets, having comfortably passed 20,000 last month.

Those home supporters must have feared the worst in the second half as Charlton attacks became understandably more of a rarity and their excellent goalkeeper, Dean Kiely, was called on to demonstrate the ability that took him to the World Cup with Ireland in saving low drives from Zenden and the otherwise anonymous Emmanuel Petit. Ranieri was presumably unimpressed with his French midfielder, calling him off after 62 minutes in order to send on Gudjohnsen as Chelsea went for broke.

The introduction of Carlton Cole, a lanky teenager with much talent, in place of Hasselbaink, proved more significant, as he weaved through a static defence to equalise six minutes from the end. In the remaining period, Charlton's luck ran out altogether: a header by one of their substitutes, Mathias Svensson, was saved by Carlo Cudicini, before, even later in the day, Frank Lampard received a lucky bounce to poke in the winning goal.

Charlton Athletic 2
Konchesky 7, Rufus 33

Chelsea 3
Zola 43, Cole 84, Lampard 89

Half-time: 2-1 Attendance: 25,640