The gap is widening or shortening, depending on who you think we’re competing with. Liverpool are three points clear. They deserve that lead. Man Utd are only 7 points below us with three games in hand. If they win their games in hand, we’ll be probably third. We can stop them though because one of their three matches in hand is against Chelsea. If Villa beat Hull on Tuesday night, they’ll be four points short of Chelsea. Now that we’ve put the result in perspective, I can go ahead and talk about the match.

Scolari started with Drogba as his lone striker. 4-3-3 instead of his regular 4-1-4-1. Anelka was in the bench. I still don’t know why Anelka and Drogba cannot start together in a 4-4-2. I don’t think that was meant to be a rest because the next top flight match is only on Jan 11th. This must have been a tactical move. Soon, this had to change as Anelka and Carvalho came in for injured Malouda and Alex respectively.

Fulham were very good today. I won’t say they deserved a point but they took their chances while we messed ours. So, Fulham scored two goals against Chelsea in a match, both from set pieces, both from the same American. To concede from set pieces is bad and when it happens so late in a match for an equaliser, it’s worse. Plus, that was their only corner of the match. Certainly we could have defended better for both the goals. For the equaliser, Drogba was at fault. I’m not sure if he was supposed to mark Dempsey but they rose together while the American showed more determination to head the ball. We had four defenders plus Mikel but it had to be Drogba who was marking Dempsey. I’m sure that was not the plan.

Scolari was pretty scathing about our set piece defending and man-marking:

We have been very good defending the balls from free kicks and corner kicks this season but today no. Any player at the start of the game knows who they need to mark. It is my job now to look and ask what happened in these situation, but I do not say now which player marks these men. It is my job and my dressing room but we made mistakes and we will look. Petr is the captain for this area and I give to Petr the power to say this or that and I ask him what has happened, because one player in the middle of the area free in the last minute, it is incredible.

All that I saw was Drogba lost the battle to win the ball. And there was no one guarding the post. Normally, that would be Mikel. He was in a useless position instead of guarding the post. Like Scolari says, it is also Cech’s responsibility to tell Mikel to guard the left post which was unmanned. And where was Bosingwa? where was Anelka? My God, that was a great specimen for a very poorly defended corner.

Having said all this, I might sound strange when I say I feel much better about this performance than some of our games before, especially Everton and West Ham matches. In today’s match, I saw a glimpse of vintage Chelsea. Once we let the goal in, there was lot more purpose in our attacks. We created a lot of chances. But for the wastefulness of Drogba and Joe Cole, we should have won this game quite comfortably. I was pleased to see some long shots from Lampard, and in from Anelka too (though a better option for him then was to pass to an oncoming Drogba). Joe Cole was one-on-one from an acute angle but he chose to shoot at the keeper rather than looking for better choices in the box. In this match, we definitely troubled the opposition defence and their keeper. May be we even took the phrase ‘trouble the keeper’ too literally that we had shots off target, shots on goal and a third category, shots on goalkeeper.

Lampard’s brace also confirmed the comparisons to the vintage Chelsea. When was the last time a brace from Lampard could not win the match for Chelsea? His form normally reflects the team’s form too. Chelsea plays well when Frank plays well. Today, he bailed us out but still it wasn’t sufficient to take all three points.

Overall, in comparison to the last few matches, I was happy with the way we attacked. We bombarded them with attacks but I thought we were still trying to be a bit too flashy. Too often when you see players could have created a direct attack, they still chose to pass it sideways or to the flanks, allowing Fulham to get their numbers behind. I can’t complain because with the number of chances created with whatever type of football we were playing, we should have won this game by a margin.

Seconds before the freekick that gave us the lead, Kalou was brought on for Joe Cole. That was a strange decision. Joe Cole was playing well today and he should have been allowed to play till the end. Deco had a very poor first half and his second half was better only in comparison to his first half. He was certainly the weakest link in our attacks. Scolari is always known for his man-for-man substitutions because if Kalou comes on for Deco, he needs to change the system mid-way in the match. Scolari is certainly not comfortable doing that. So it was more of a question of Kalou having to come in than Joe Cole having to go out. That was bad.

What I was not okay was the way we played after we took a lead. Chelsea were holding the ball and keeping the possession after the 72nd minute goal. That wisdom did not last long. Bosingwa was straying too often in the attacking third much to my disliking. I’m not making this up after we ended up 2-2. When it was happening right then, I was telling my mate that we are making a mistake by allowing Bosingwa to get too offensive when it was not required. Scolari even had a quick chat with Bosingwa. But then he was active in the right flank before and after the chat as well. Either Scolari did not have a problem with that tactic or he was the one who ordered it.

By making such offensive moves so late with our right back in an away match, we drawing more problems than solutions. It sends out a message to the home team that they can still have a go at us. They would start smelling an opportunity. It helps their mentality. If you control the match and try to grind our the result, Fulham shoulders would have dropped. On the other hand, we keep attacking and also suggest Fulham that they also have a chance to nick a goal. At 2-1 after 75 mins, I don’t think we need a third goal to confirm the result. In this situation, if you still keep attacking, that shows that you’re unsure of your defence. That’s where the ‘vintageness’ wore off.

That’s what Roy Hogson kinda confirms here:

As a result of good pressure they were able to put on us, good quality possession in our half, they were able to score two goals. But after 2-1 we did find our feet a little bit. We did play more football and as result we put their goalkeeper under more pressure than we did in the first 25 minutes of the second half.

We need to get back our art of controlling the match. Controlling is neither just attacking nor just defending. It means taking complete charge of the proceedings of the match, maintain sensible possession, stop dribbling around, change sides, bring down the width, tighten the screws and most importantly play in such a way that you wipe off any hopes that the opposition might have. On the contrary, we let Fulham know that we were looking for the third goal. Fulham, playing so well this season, playing in front of their home fans in a derby, did not need more invitation. They retained their belief that they can get an equaliser and they just did it.

If you compare the Everton match and this one, the tactics are quite strange. Of course, we were 10 men against Everton. At the 85th minute, it matter less. Against Everton, we should have gone gung-ho for three points but we settled for one by bringing on a defender which made it five defenders and a defensive midfielder on the pitch. Today, we should have hung on and grinded out a win but we refused to reduce the gear. Strange indeed!

Anyway, overall, I think our positives in this match outweigh the negatives. In terms of negatives, we failed to capitalise on our chances, our set piece defending was poor, we failed to ‘control’ the match after the second goal, Deco still gets away with poor performances and we dropped 2 points. In terms of positives, we played with more passion and aggression, we created a lot of chances and Lampard has got back his scoring boots.

We’re just 3 points behind Liverpool and this is a long season. I’m feeling confident because of the way we played. For me, it mattered more than the way we defended the set pieces and the way we let a lead slip. If Chelsea continues to play like the way they did today, with that passion and vigour, we’ll do very well. We just need a bit of tinkering in our tactics and we should be fine.

Premier league will resume in the second weekend of January. Chelsea would travel to Old trafford on the Sunday and most probably would know that Liverpool had beaten Stoke on Saturday. That match against Man Utd has the downside potential of sending us 6 points below Man Utd and also dropping to the lowly third of the premier league table, while Liverpool and Man Utd go neck and neck for the title. We now have got a couple of weeks for Scolari where he can try out any new system or tactic. We should beat Man Utd at Old Trafford to send out the message loud and clear that we are favourites for the title. I think Scolari hasn’t won a big match or a derby yet. He has a point to prove. Chelsea has a point to prove.