ENGLISH PREMIER LEAGUE: Birmingham City 0 Chelsea 0:CARLO ANCELOTTI is still getting to grips with the English language and occasionally needs a little assistance but no one suspected the Italian had selected the wrong words when he talked about Chelsea suffering from a "lack of confidence".
The mauling of Arsenal a month ago is beginning to feel like a trick of the mind following a run of one victory from seven matches which has added a cautionary note to Ancelotti’s otherwise excellent mid-term report.
Talk of a crisis would be ridiculous given their place at the Premier League summit but Ancelotti must be more than a little concerned that, at a time when Chelsea face the prospect of being without several key players, including their leading goalscorer, Didier Drogba, belief is also deserting them.
Birmingham are awkward opponents but they are not Barcelona, who were the last team to prevent Chelsea from scoring, in the Camp Nou eight months and 35 matches ago.
“I think we lost a little bit of confidence in our play. This is normal when you don’t get results,” said Ancelotti, who will have Drogba available for Fulham’s visit today before the Ivorian leaves for the African Cup of Nations alongside Salomon Kalou, Michael Essien and Mikel John Obi.
“Sometimes you can lose [confidence]. But we have to stay concentrated, because in a season it can happen that you have to overcome a difficult moment. And I think [on Saturday] we did a good job.”
Chelsea certainly created more than enough chances to win at St Andrew’s – Joe Hart produced excellent saves to deny Daniel Sturridge, Frank Lampard and Kalou while Alex rattled the crossbar with a 35-yard thunderbolt – but the relentless late pressure never quite materialised.
Alex McLeish’s side may not have been comfortable in the final 15 minutes but nor were they hanging on for dear life.
The visitors seemed to run out of ideas, their midfield diamond failing to sparkle and most of their best attacking moves coming from the threat posed by their rampaging full-backs, Ashley Cole and Branislav Ivanovic.
Florent Malouda was particularly disappointing in his role behind Drogba and Sturridge and his place in the starting XI against Fulham must have been in doubt long before he collected a second booking and a red card in the 89th minute to rule him out through suspension.
Cole looks set to replace the Frenchman in what promises to be a tricky fixture for Chelsea, with Fulham making the short trip across west London on the back of a similar run to the one that has propelled Birmingham into the top eight. Birmingham, who will equal their top-flight record of 11 matches unbeaten – set in the 1907-08 season – if they can avoid defeat at Stoke today, also had their moments going forward. Christian Benitez was wrongly flagged offside when he turned in Liam Ridgewell’s cutback in the first half as Drogba lay prone in the six-yard box, and later in the match Petr Cech collided with an upright to keep out Sebastian Larsson’s whipped free-kick.
In that sense things could have been worse for Ancelotti, whose assessment at the halfway point in the Premier League season inevitably focused on the fallout since their win at the Emirates Stadium. “We did very well until the match against Arsenal,” he said. “Now we are a little bit down. That’s normal because there are a lot of matches and it is impossible to stay all the time in top condition. But I think we gave signs against Birmingham that are good for the future.”
- Guardian Service
