Defeat in a somehwat inconsequential match. Nothing helps you like a defeat is such matches. You’ll get a rude wake up call at not real cost to you. I’m assuming here that we’ll win the needed point to get through to the next round. The second Chelsea defeat of the season has an unfortunate similarity to the first one. We were beaten rather convincingly.

Roma joined the special list of teams that have scored 3 goals against Chelsea in the post-Roman era. They join Middlesbrough, Aston Villa, Monaco and did I miss anyone else? I couldn’t see the match but I saw the goals. It was shocking. I guess we were asleep. The first Roma goal should rank as one of the worst goals this Chelsea defence has conceded. Absolutely no movement, no anticipation, no attempt to stop Panucci. Horrible way to concede. I saw Maxi Rodrigues’ goal against Liverpool last night. If we had conceded a goal like that, I would have had no complaints. There is no shame in letting in class acts like that. This Panucci goal was scored like how the top Italian teams score against the drop zone battlers in Italy. At least the second goal was a quality strike. The position of our defenders was questionable but that was a quality strike.

The third goal was in fact, insulting. Not just because it was the third goal, also because Vucinic was scored it like he was playing the training ground. None of the Chelsea bunch barring a couple were willing to make his job tougher by backing up. We were just watching Vucinic make his run and beat Mikel and slot home the goal like there was no goalkeeper. We got our consolation goal from an offside position, but these things count.

Once again, we dominated possession, had the ball in important areas but the final ball wasn’t there. Roma, on the other hand, had few chances and took them. We had 63% possession, had 21 shots (7 on target) while Roma made 14 shots (6 on target). They got three good goals while we got one scrappy, offside goal. That’s pretty much the story.

It’s fair to say Mikel had his worst match of the season. That shows that he’s human too. He’s had a fantastic season so far and has been the key for all our cleansheets and defensive solidity. He had to go wrong sometime and I’m glad that it had to happen in this match. When you give top class performances for a dozen of matches, one bad match is something I’d take with no complaints. You know what, he still had a 89% pass accuracy in 71 passes he made last night.

Scolari should have his job cut out. This season we have been playing some expansive football but I was glad that it has not happened at the cost of our defence. It’s not that we’re moving from 1-0 and 2-0 to 3-2 and 4-3, we are in fact into 3-0, 4-0 and 5-0, which is good because we still give the same importance to defence that we used to. While the Liverpool game exposed our attacking weaknesses, this game brought out the other side. I’d say this is an one-of result. If Roma were to play Chelsea in a series of 10 matches, I’m sure they won’t achieve this result once more. They surprised themselves. They scored against the run of play.

What’s a bit worrying is, very soon, teams will study and understand how Chelsea plays and try to counter them. There is a certain style that Chelsea plays nowadays which has a bit of monotony towards it. The current playing style requires Chelsea players to have time on the ball, which may not always work everytime. The problem with this type of game is, when it works it’s the best thing ever, when it doesn’t it looks so unintelliegent and dumb. We don’t want Scolari to admit there is no plan B.  We want him to devise one. I don’t believe that he can’t have a plan B because Drogba is not available. I know the players’ attributes play a mjor role in the alternative plans but it won’t be fair to say until Drogba returns we don’t have alternative ways to play and score.

I’m happy for Roma. They are a quality team. They need to turn around and find form. Sad it had to happen against us. But I want Roma to come up in Serie A and also make it to the next round in champions league. It’s good for the both these competitions. Meanwhile, Chelsea can remember that they are beatable, beatable with a big margin, when they don’t get their act together. When we are among goals, interestingly, the defence gets better because you put the opposition out of the game and the mentality of our players are much better than that of opponents. When it comes to getting among goals, we seem to be a hit or miss. Either we score big or we struggle big time. I want Chelsea to beat a top champions league team very convincingly so that I don’t build up on my worries. Keep analysing. Gotta go.