1-1. I could just end this post here. We begin the new year the same way we ended the last year, poorly. The scoreline says a lot. It in fact, sums up our current situation. This is not really the kind of result I expected prior to the match at Old Trafford. Is the stoppage time slowly becoming our new jinx like the penalty shootouts? We’re certainly much more than the results show. Scolari needs to fix things, somehow. It was not a stroke of misfortune. There’s a pattern to these things. It’s has become a trend now.

Nowadays we seem to draw more than we win. The post match interview could all be about on lack of sharpness in front of the goal. That was Southend United we were playing against. They’re not from the championship. They’re from league one. Good luck to Southend. They’ve got a replay at home. That means more cash to them. Good for them. We havent learnt much from our preious match – against Fulham at Craven Cottage. Absolute waste of chances created and a goal conceded at the stoppage time. What do we take from this match?

This match we should have certainly rested Joe Cole and Lampard. Even Kalou could have come in some time in the second half. Drogba and Carvalho should have played because it seems that they need some more match time. This is a match where players like Sinclair and Di Santo should have played. Mineiro should have played. Mancienne could have played for some time. All that Scolari needs to believe is that his team would be able to ’snatch’ a draw from this league one team. Because, as long as we get a draw, we’re still in the cup. Few things irked me today. One is, Scolari played a near full strength team instead of trying out some reserve/youth players. Another is, he waited until the 85th minute to bring on Di Santo and Sinclair. He could have certainly done better than that.

Our forwards had a bad day. 12 shots on target but could score only one goal. Drogba and Joe Cole were particularly guilty of not scoring. Southend’s goalie had a fantastic match. We should have certainly finished Southend off by the half time itself. The longer we were at 1-0 the riskier the situation would get. That’s what happened yesterday. Kalou scored in the 30th minute and Southend scored in 90th minute. For about 60 minutes, reportedly, we played with the same tactics and same set of players.

I don’t understand the significance of the late double substitutions. I thought they were bad, for two reasons. The time was not enough for the youngsters to prove anything. Secondly and more importantly, when you’re leading 1-0 with just 5 mins to go, common sense says all that you need to do is to protect the lead. Scolari could have made defensive subs and shut the match. Or if he was genuinely interested in giving some playing time for Sinclair and Di Santo, they should have been brought on by half time or by the hour mark.

While we I can join Scolari is asking questions to my forwards about finishing, I would also ask Scolari a question. We got 15 corners in this match. Yes, 15. And our goal came from a corner. Why is that we get 15 corners and we score just one goal? Why is the conversion ratio so poor? Why is that we are so weak in attacking corners and so generous in defensive corners? We seem to have no plan when it comes to set pieces.

Just happened to see the video of Southend’s equaliser. That should go down as one of the worst goals I have seen Chelsea concede from a set piece. It was a throw-in. Carvalho heads it in the wrong direction, towards the goal. Watch Clarke connect the header. There were Chelsea 5 players around Clarke but nobody, I mean NOBODY, even attempted to win the header. Just for that piece of effort alone we deserved only a draw. No matter how many chances we created. For that piece of defending we deserve to wait for the replay at Southend. Disgusting and pathetic.

There are no wicked tactics practised in the training ground to be used with telling effect on the pitch. We seem approach our set pieces with ‘hope’ more than any ‘tactics’. Scolari must be awfully upset because he knows that the buck stops with him – for our unbelievably poor home form, for the way we concede goals, for the way we don’t seem to care much anymore on the pitch, for our inability to get the results that we should get. I thought our playing style is too predictable but now, even our results get very predictable. A draw at home against Southend in a FA Cup is not really disastrous. We can go to Southend and smash them to progress ahead. It’s not about ‘this’ result. It’s about the pattern of the results. Surely, we have become weaker under Scolari. He cannot pass this on to anyone else. He inherited a great team, a team with amazing winning mentality and he and his staff have reduced this team to a very ordinary set of players.

The one notable change that has happened since Scolari’s arrival is the change in the mentality of the players. We are losing our winning mentality. Draws are seen one point gained than two points lost. Every single win deserve celebration. This season, not even once, we could win three successive matches. You can check the facts. Not even once we could complete a hattrick of wins. For every one or two good results, we have got a draw or a defeat. There is no consistency at all. This is why questions are being asked to Scolari and to Drogba or Joe Cole or Kalou.

The next match is against Man Utd at Old Trafford. My expectations on this Chelsea team is considerably lowered now. I don’t expect us to beat Man Utd with a clean sheet. If we get a draw, I would be content with that. We have one week to make amends. I’m not saying the Old Trafford match would be the most important match of the season. But this match will truly show what this team and Scolari are made of. I’m still waiting for a reaction from Chelsea and Scolari.