Humiliated Chelsea singing the blues

Viking FK ... 4 Chelsea ... 2 Chelsea, the team who have conquered some of the kings of Europe but seem incapable of putting the hoi polloi in their place, succumbed to yet another banana skin last night to slide humiliatingly out of the UEFA Cup.

After this defeat, by a side who would struggle in the lower reaches of the English Leagues, Chelsea will need to scour the outposts of Europe to find a more embarrassing losing venue.

Yet, they should have been comfortably through to the second round long before Erik Nevland scored the 87th-minute winner for a Viking team who certainly fought like warriors.

Until that went in and Nevland disappeared under jubilant team-mates, Chelsea had been on the verge of going through on the away goals rule after John Terry scored with a header.

Chelsea have now lost to minnows in the first round in their last three UEFA Cup forays.

And this ranked as a double-barrelled shooting in both feet after they had surrendered a goal in injury-time at Stamford Bridge and then let in two more in the opening 35 minutes here.

As well as Terry, Chelsea welcomed back Emmanuel Petit and Graeme Le Saux, who took back the captain's armband.

Yet Chelsea's defence still had an odd-shaped look to it, with the central defender William Gallas, who learned of his call-up by France before kick-off, being switched to right-back.

Viking employed a cheerleader to whip their supporters into a frenzy and the 100 policemen in front of the only stand joined in the chanting and the human wave.

Chelsea needed only the fear of another humiliating night to motivate them.

Amazingly, it wasn't enough.

VIKING FK: Olsen, Dahl, Kuivasto, Pereira, Fuglestad, Hangeland, Sanne, Nygaard, Kopteff (Wright 82), Berre, Nevland. Subs Not Used: Nordtun, Espevoll, Berland, Ahmed, Sorli, Sigurdsson. Goals: Berre 9, Kopteff 34, Nevland 60, 87.

CHELSEA: Cudicini, Huth, Gallas, Terry, Le Saux, Stanic (Zenden 89), Lampard, Petit (Morris 61), Gronkjaer, Zola, Hasselbaink (Gudjohnsen 80). Subs Not Used: Bogarde, Ambrosetti, Kitamirike, de Goey. Goals: Lampard 45, Terry 62.

Referee: J Van Hulten (Holland).