Marseille 1-0 Chelsea. Disappointing as Chelsea stutter again.

I had said in my match preview that I felt personally that we needed to win this one to give our players some of their confidence back. Yes it was a nothing game as the group was already won, but we had a chance last night to begin to put the wrongs of the last month right. I had also asked for the real Didier Drogba to stand up and said for Drogba the time is now. Neither happened tonight, instead Chelsea lose 1-0 and you can imagine the headlines in the press already!.

JT spoke after the game and said:

"There is no point us panicking, We realise we are not playing as well as we can. The players realise there is a lot more to give and to come."

He summed it up perfect for me. I don't know about the rest of you but I didn't think much of our performance at all tonight despite Carlo picking a strong side. For me Van Aanholt not starting was a surprise but I guess you can understand Carlo's thinking. Ferreira was skinned all game down the left hand side and only became a threat going forward when he switched to the right. Bosingwa was disappointing tonight and remains so since his return. (We await news on his injury).

I have to say we are yet to see the match fit Essien as again tonight he never imposed himself on the game the way we all know he can. Ramires had an iffy game also. At times he did well but then he gave the ball away far too often. Young Josh was one of our best players overall. Looked composed and played his passes under pressure.

Drogba for me never really turned up and I think the "occasion" played on his mind too much. Malouda was a threat first half and then disappeared in the second half. Yes I know we should of had the penalty that was given and then changed to a corner but we need more from him for 90 minutes. I can't remember the last good game Malouda had.

As for Kalou!. Let's start with the positive, he should of had a penalty towards the end of the first half but apart from that he either ran the ball out of play or lost it time and time again and it's not good enough.

It's so so frustrating right now as I am calling for us all to get behind the side but it's true, our confidence is shot to pieces right now. At times tonight we attacked Marseille and had options to play a killer pass in between two defenders but we hesitated. We had the option the lay the ball off to someone in a better position and we didn't, we held onto the ball far too long.

Our passing at times was too laboured and not clinical enough. Young Josh showed the rest of the side how to do it tonight let's be honest here. We looked a shambles at the back and in midfield to begin with as Marseille peppered our goal with attempts at goal. Ok, none of them really tested Cech but that's not the point.

I am writing this now and can imagine the press headlines. The problem I have at the moment is that I am seeing little to tell me otherwise from our players.

Our teamwork, team play, movement, passing and fluidity of our football has gone and it's no wonder Carlo has repeated the fact that we need to find our football once more.

As for their goal, a deflected cross which you can't really point the finger at anyone about and as our luck would have it right now, it rolled straight into the path of their centre forward who has only scored one goal all season for a simple tap in. Typical at the moment isn't it.

All in all, we had our penalty shouts but that was about it. Oh, apart from when Kalou does what he does best, danced into the box and fluffed his shot well wide from just 4 yards as he was tackled!. That was as good as it got for Chelsea.

It's going to be a long couple of days!

KTBFFH