Chelsea slip a bit more but slide stops

SOCCER:CHELSEA ARE rarely content to count small mercies but Carlo Ancelotti's side reached the final whistle looking almost as relieved as a car driver who had just negotiated Tyneside's wintry streets without crashing on the ice.

With heavy snow blanketing the north-east, Newcastle United made a concerted effort to persuade the local police and city council to give yesterday’s game the green light. If the fee from Sky television was one incentive, Chris Hughton’s demeanour suggested the Geordie camp felt this might be a very good time to catch Chelsea cold.

Yet while Andy Carroll, Cheik Tiote, Steven Taylor and team-mates reminded Ancelotti how much he is missing Frank Lampard, Michael Essien and John Terry, the London side averted an embarrassment comparable to that recently experienced by a charter pilot whose plane skidded off the runway at Newcastle airport.

By the time Chelsea arrived back at the terminal building for the flight home it had been closed in the wake of a blizzard. Not that their aircraft even made it to the tarmac – it was already stranded at Aberdeen.

Ancelotti may feel this campaign has hit a similar impasse but at least he avoided a defeat which would have had the headline writers deeming his club in crisis and his future uncertain.

Stamford Bridge officials were quick to pour scorn on reports Pep Guardiola was being lined up to replace the Italian – it is surely no coincidence the Barcelona manager is negotiating a new contract at Camp Nou – but Ancelotti appreciates, at Roman Abramovich’s Chelsea, no one is indispensable.

“The coach is always the last to know these things,” he said, with a rather world-weary shrug.

Considering his team stand second in the Premier League talk of regime change sounds ridiculous but Russian oligarchs grow impatient when their playthings collect a mere four points from five games and come within a whisker of slipping to a third successive league defeat.

Salomon Kalou’s equaliser not only prevented such ignominy but ensured the long, slow, coach journey down the A1 endured by Chelsea last night was less grim than it might have been.

If Premier League footballers rarely travel any sort of distance by coach these days – flying is de rigueur – leading sides hardly ever configure themselves in 4-4-2 formations. So it was slightly startling to see Ancelotti arrange his players in such a system. The idea was to nullify the service to Andy Carroll – and despite Carroll scoring a comedic opener courtesy of Alex’s backpass, it largely worked. “I changed today because we wanted to close crosses for Carroll,” said Ancelotti. “And it put Ramires in a better position.”

Defensively, the game plan was sound enough, with Branislav Ivanovic enjoying a decent afternoon at centre half, but it fell down in central midfield where Ramires and Mikel John Obi frequently found themselves checked by the quietly excellent Tiote.

The Ivorian’s reassuring holding presence was also a comfort to the returning, ring-rusty, home centre halves Steven Taylor and Sol Campbell. “Defensively, we were outstanding,” said Hughton.

Chelsea will be boosted by the news John Terry is approaching full fitness and will be back training with the first team this week, when Alex is expected to undergo knee surgery in Brazil. “We are happy for the performance but we are not happy,” Ancelotti said. “We play good football yet, at this moment, we are not able to convert our chances. But we didn’t lose; this is the important thing.”

Right now, Chelsea really are grateful for small mercies.