Far from Good My Son

Will the defeat on Merseyside mark a pivotal point in Chelsea’s chase for the title? Bad enough to surrender an early lead, but the loss of Ashley Cole, possibly for the remainder of the season, made a bad night worse. All of this while Man Utd were down to 10 men and level with Aston Villa. Chelsea stay top, but their form away from Stamford Bridge, their propensity to concede from set pieces and the fact they still have to travel to both Old Trafford and Anfield doesn't fill me with confidence for their prospects for the months ahead.

Chelsea have Michael Essien to come back of course, but Man Utd have managed ok without Ferdinand and Vidic. And, I think it would be fair to say that Chelsea will miss Ashley Cole more (and for a longer period of time) than Man Utd will miss Ryan Giggs. At least expensive Russian recruit Yuri Zhirkov can step in-a proper left sided player, but he lacks Premiership experience, and I would question his defensive qualities at this point.

Let’s face facts-Ricardo Carvalho ain’t getting any younger, John Terry ain’t getting any better and Petr Cech hasn’t looked or played like Petr Cech since he met Stephen Hunt. Chelsea’s Achilles heel may very well be the centre of their defence and their goalkeeper. Someone like (confessed Chelsea fan) Roger Johnson would fit in very well at Stamford Bridge next season, but for the remainder of this season, Chelsea must make a better fist of the basics of defending than they have done to date.

Around the league, Liverpool did their best of making a mockery of my prediction that they would finish ahead of Arsenal in 3^rd place by losing 1-0 at the Emirates. Spurs stay 6^th and within a point of 4^th, despite losing 1-0 to Hull City, underling what a truly mediocre Premier League this has been to date. Man City have still not established any kind of consistency, but get the chance to make a statement when they visit Chelsea on February 27.

The January transfer window closed without much to get writing about-all I’ll say about Robbie Keane’s move to Celtic is that his career appears to have come full circle.