Chelsea suffer festive hangover

Soccer: Charlton - 4 Chelsea - 2 Charlton dazed even themselves with this free-scoring win but Chelsea's thoughts will remain scrambled for far longer. As Alan Curbishley's avid and confident side took cut-throat advantage of their opportunities, the visitors' heads will swim at the recollection of their own sketchy defending.

Although tomorrow's home match with Portsmouth is an invitation to start strutting once again, the soul-searching provoked by this performance could continue for a long time. It was part of Charlton's excellence that they should be so searching and harsh in their examination of Chelsea.

Claudio Ranieri's team endured their second loss in three Premiership matches and their third of the league campaign as a whole. They are now four points behind the leaders Manchester United. The kittenish weakness in their own penalty area yesterday was a dumbfounding joy to the home supporters.

With 42 seconds gone, Hermann Hreidarsson overwhelmed the tentative challenge by John Terry and headed in Paolo Di Canio's corner. Even an equaliser by Terry, when he darted in front of Chris Perry to meet a bending Adrian Mutu free-kick after nine minutes, could not restore conviction to Chelsea.

A Di Canio dummy, after 35 minutes, was enough to set Jonatan Johansson running beyond Glen Johnson on the left and a recovery by the full back was only sufficient to give the cross a helpful deflection that left the 35-year-old Marcel Desailly flat-footed while Matt Holland headed in strongly.

There will still be a sort of solidarity in the Chelsea back four. Each of them was so poor that he dare not reproach any of the others.

The captivating Di Canio twisted on the left after 48 minutes and Terry paused on the assumption that the Italian would just hit a speculative shot from the angle. Others had relaxed, too, because when the winger cunningly squared to the far post the scorer Johansson was one of three unmarked Charlton players.

Wayne Bridge's hope of going unnoticed in a collapsing Chelsea rearguard did not survive for long. With a badly miscued interception, he accidentally set up Jason Euell to take the score to 4-1 with a self-possessed piece of control and finishing. Ranieri was asked if he had ever seen his back four perform so badly before. "Fortunately, no," he said.

Chelsea were majestically impregnable when defeating United 1-0 last month, but Mario Melchiot and William Gallas have both been relegated to the bench since then. Ranieri will have to consider the removal of Desailly, who appeared old rather than experienced here.

There has been conjecture that Chelsea will sign Roberto Ayala when the transfer window reopens. "If he is staying with Valencia, what can I do?" Ranieri pleaded, implying that the Argentina defender is rebuffing overtures. It is, however, disingenuous for a manager with such a budget to pretend that he is without the means of persuasion.

Even if the make-up of the squad is unaltered, Gallas surely deserves reinstatement. Should Chelsea re-establish solidity, they ought to prosper, judging by the fertility of their attacking here when they got over their shock and tried to retrieve a desperate position.

The substitute Eidur Gudjohnsen scored with a beautiful drive after Geremi had laid a partly cleared cross to him, but the Icelander had earlier been wasteful with a header and there was a clutch of other openings for Chelsea.

Charlton were tougher of mind, more ruthless and surprisingly adept for a team that had previously won just two Premiership games at home this season. Scott Parker, who turned down a summer move to Chelsea before the influx of Roman Abramovich's wealth, knows Charlton are starting to pass the ball well. He attributes that development to the values that Di Canio has brought to the club.

The forward is the same age as Desailly, but unlike the centre back he works in a position where, to some extent, he can determine the pace. The arrival of opponents as renowned as Ranieri's team galvanised Di Canio and he reminded Chelsea of the part he had played in West Ham's two victories over them last season.

Di Canio has a spartan dedication to training that Curbishley credits as an inspiring example to others at The Valley. Whatever the causes, Charlton were aggressive in search of the ball and fluent once they had found it.

The manager still observes guardedly that a bad January could take his team from fourth top to fourth bottom. He knows that his net spending of £18m in all his years at The Valley is merely the equivalent of the fee that Chelsea paid for the currently injured Damien Duff.

All the same, he was too wise to agree that there is a special satisfaction in frugality. "No," Curbishley said, "I'd like to spend £100m."

For him, strengthening the squad has meant nothing more than ending Paul Konchesky's loan spell at Spurs. When he came on as a substitute here, he was booed by a few supporters who consider him a traitor.

There was a parochialism about such anger, but cosmopolitan ways were of no benefit to Chelsea yesterday. This phase of the programme was also distressing for them a year ago and, unlike Scrooge, they may never be converted to the charms of the festive season.

CHARLTON: Kiely; Kishishev, Perry, Fortune, Hreidarsson, Holland, Parker, Euell, Stuart (Konchesky 77), Di Canio (Powell 87), Johansson. Subs Not Used: Royce, Fish, Campbell-Ryce. Booked: Parker. Goals: Hreidarsson 1, Holland 35, Johansson 48, Euell 53.

CHELSEA: Cudicini; Johnson, Terry, Desailly, Bridge, Gronkjaer (Gudjohnsen 45), Lampard (Geremi 65), Makelele, Cole (Gallas 82), Hasselbaink, Mutu. Subs Not Used: Sullivan, Melchiot. Booked: Gronkjaer. Goals: Terry 10, Gudjohnsen 73.

Referee: G Poll (Hertfordshire).