Chelsea fail to find satisfactory riposte for all their doubters

Blackburn 1 Chelsea 1  DO CHELSEA have the best players in the country, or merely the best paid? The question with which Roman Abramovich is said to have confronted his team after their elimination from the Champions League is manna from heaven for media studies classes and pub know-alls everywhere and their verdicts will be even more damning after this latest disappointment.

Arsenal won on Saturday to take over pole position in the title race and Manchester United displaced them at lunchtime yesterday, and it was up to Chelsea to respond. But for the second time in six days they were found wanting.

They threw away a winning position at a rain-swept Ewood Park and are left third, four points adrift of United and two behind Arsene Wenger’s resurgent Gunners. They should get back on track at Portsmouth on Wednesday, but their destiny is no longer in their own hands.

Before this, they took comfort in the fact that if they won all their remaining games they would be champions, regardless of what the others could accomplish. That no longer applies, and Carlo Ancelotti’s expression was more hangdog than ever last night when, pointedly, the Italian did not gainsay the suggestion that United were now favourites to retain their Premier League crown.

The statistics are beginning to look ominous. Of their last 11 matches in all competitions, starting with an unimpressive 1-1 draw at Hull City, Chelsea have won five and lost four, and of their last eight away games in the Premier League they have won just two. By Ancelotti’s own admission, they have lost their confidence. “It’s not an easy moment for us and we have to maintain our confidence and our composure,” he said.

The Italian eschewed wholesale changes after Internazionale, dropping only left back Yury Zhirkov, in favour of Paolo Ferreira. If the Russian suspected he had been made a scapegoat, he did not have long to let the feeling fester. Branislav Ivanovic, injured in a collision with El-Hadji Diouf, had to go off just before half-time and Zhirkov came on, with Ferreira switching to the right.

The other absentee from last Tuesday, Michael Ballack, was said to be “not 100 per cent fit” and gave way to Salomon Kalou. Neither Petr Cech nor Hilario were deemed ready to return, so Ross Turnbull, the third-choice keeper, was in goal for his third game in succession.

Blackburn were well below optimum strength, injuries depriving them of goalkeeper Paul Robinson, the captain, Ryan Nelsen, and another centre back, Gael Givet, among others. There was a Premier League debut in central defence for the 18-year-old Phil Jones, who could be well satisfied with a steady, no-frills introduction to the big time which brought him the man of the match award.

Robinson’s understudy, Jason Brown, was picking the ball out of the back of his net after only six minutes. Nicolas Anelka motored down the right before delivering a left-footed cutback which Didier Drogba coolly passed low inside the near post, also with his left foot, from 13 yards for his 28th goal of the season.

Slicing through Rovers almost at will, Chelsea should have had the issue settled by half-time, but Kalou met Frank Lampard’s right-wing cross with a feeble header and Florent Malouda shot straight at Brown when a yard to either side must have produced a goal.

The possibility that Chelsea might rue such opportunities spurned was underlined after 72 minutes when Diouf climbed above Ferreira at the far post to nod home Michel Salgado’s inviting cross from the right for only his third goal of the season.

So comfortable and assured before the interval, Chelsea had lost their shape and composure. Drogba, attacking a Deco corner, brought a noteworthy save from Brown near the end, but Rovers deserved a result which keeps them ahead of the relegation pack.

Guardian service

Terry hits out at referees

CHELSEA CAPTAIN John Terry has hit out at the standard of refereeing in the Champions League in the wake of his side’s elimination from the competition at the hands of Inter Milan.

Terry runs the risk of a Uefa punishment after claiming “bad refereeing” cost his side dear in the defeat against the Italian champions.

Chelsea had two strong penalty appeals turned down by referee Wolfgang Stark during Tuesday’s loss at Stamford Bridge, while ill-feeling remains over the four penalty appeals famously turned down by Tom Henning Ovrebo in the Blues’ semi-final exit against Barcelona last season.

Terry has called on his club to take up the matter with European football’s governing body.

“It was a bad performance by us but a really bad performance from the referee,” Terry said of last Tuesday’s 1-0 loss, which sealed a 3-1 aggregate defeat.

“It is not good enough at this stage of the competition. We were at home and we didn’t get one decision. We do our best to get ourselves in this position and for two years running we get let down by bad refereeing.”