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{ Chelsea 1 Everton 1 (Everton win 4-3 on penalties): Chelsea's problems stretch back to November and show no sign of abating after a sorry FA Cup defeat

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The likes of Lampard (above), Terry and Drogba ploughed on, unchallenged in their grip on the first-team. But Drogba is almost 33 and Lampard is 32.

Six-nil, six-nil, two-nil. That reads like the start of a demolition job in tennis, of someone on their way to a three-set victory. For Carlo Ancelotti those numbers represent Chelsea's first three results in the Premier League this season. Right now, with his club's title challenge in tatters and their exit at the weekend from the FA Cup, he can probably scarcely believe it is the same campaign.

Yet by the end of August people were already talking – and getting carried away, it must be said – about the west London side romping away to a fourth Premier League title. Big wins also followed against West Ham and Blackpool. However, five months later that three-set victory, that league triumph, which seemed so inevitable, is looking more like defeat in the fifth for the Italian. And without even forcing a tie-break.

Ancelotti admitted on Saturday, in the wake of the FA Cup holders' defeat on penalties to Everton, that he knows there have been problems since November, specifically the Birmingham game, when they lost 1-0 at St Andrew's.

Maybe it was his memory playing tricks, but that Birmingham defeat was Chelsea's third loss in the space of four games. There was already evidence that all was not well. At the start of November they lost 2-0 at Liverpool – Roy Hodgson's Liverpool, remember – and then came the insipid 3-0 home defeat to Sunderland, easily the Blues' worst performance since Ancelotti arrived at Stamford Bridge in July 2009.

Losing to Lee Bowyer's goal six days later merely confirmed the impression of the previous fortnight. It was a slump that turned into a title collapse as it was five more league games before they would win again. They are now two points outside fourth place and Champions League qualification.

Progress in the Champions League in the autumn was serene but they were having to get by without Frank Lampard, absent for four months, while John Terry was out for the Sunderland and Birmingham games.

Those two are back and what is more they have Fernando Torres to call on. But while Chelsea appear, for the moment, to have created their own problem in trying to marry the ?50m signing with Didier Drogba, their current concerns pre-date the Spaniard's arrival.

Roman Abramovich decided to dig deep for Torres but for the best part of three years that has not been his way. Having invested so heavily between 2003 and 2006, which resulted in two league titles, the Russian put the brakes on. Stung by his lack of return on his ?30m investment in Andriy Shevchenko, it was almost as if he finally realised the league could not always be won by cheque book alone.

The theory was that, at the same time as the spending freeze, Frank Arnesen, as sporting director, would oversee a youth team whose graduates would work their way into the first-team. But four years later, that has not happened – if you discount the rarely tested Josh McEachran. There has certainly been no equivalent of Jack Wilshere to carry Ancelotti's confidence.

All the while, the likes of Lampard, Terry and Drogba ploughed on, unchallenged in their grip on the first-team. But Drogba is almost 33 and Lampard is 32. Terry is the youngest of the trio but his back has been creaking for two years and he is 30.

Critically, last summer, Ancelotti, and by direct implication, Abramovich, allowed an ageing squad to become a thin one. Michael Ballack, considered important enough to start last season's FA Cup final, was let go, as were Joe Cole, Deco and Juliano Belletti. On their own, they were considered fringe players. Yet, taken as a whole, they could come in at any given moment and lend their considerable experience.

Having pollarded the squad, like some ageing oak, Ancelotti perhaps realised last season's Double was achieved despite, not because of, what was at his disposal. They only won the league by one point. In came Ramires, who was mainly a substitute in Brazil's poor World Cup campaign, who has looked neither like the next Michael Essien nor the next Lampard, while Yossi Benayoun was struck with a bad injury almost immediately.

Yet then came that bulldozing start to this season although Ancelotti, while he never said so, is too shrewd not to have feared there were problems waiting to happen. By November Chelsea had become more 2CV than JCB.

For David Moyes and Everton the manager is hoping the victory can lift their stuttering season. "To be through in the Cup gives you a great boost," he said. "If you put out the team who are the holders and the champions, you've got to think that you've got a good chance to win it. Obviously, it's been a tough place to come over the years. But Chelsea haven't enjoyed games against us lately because they have been tight."

Scorers: Chelsea Lampard 104. Everton Baines 119. Subs: Chelsea Essien 5 (Mikel, h/t), Anelka 6 (Malouda, 91), Zhirkov 5 (Kalou, 111). Everton Bilyaletdinov 6 (Cahill, 70), Anichebe 5 (Beckford, 80), Heitinga 6 (Osman, 95). Booked: Chelsea Ramires, Malouda, Terry. Everton Baines, Distin, Coleman, Arteta. Man of the match Baines. Match rating 7/10.

Attempts on target Chelsea 6 Everton 5. Referee P Dowd (Staffs). Att 41,113.

Agences de presses

Labels: ageing, Ancelotti, catches, Independent, squad

{ ANALYSIS
By Wayne Veysey | Chief Correspondent

As the weeks roll by, expectations at Chelsea recede. From nailed-on Premier League champions in the autumn to title hopefuls in the winter to mere fourth place aspirants before we have even turned off our central heating.

The descent of Carlo Ancelotti’s team in the last three months has been remarkable, and prolonged enough to put the future of the manager and the club’s most celebrated players in doubt.

The mainstays of the team for the past seven seasons have been given notice they are no longer ‘untouchable’, to borrow one of Jose Mourinho’s best soundbites.

Didier Drogba was the fall guy against Fulham on Monday night to accommodate new £50 million man Fernando Torres up front; John Terry has been told that he might have to prepare for a future of rotation to ease the pain on his creaking body; Michael Essien and Frank Lampard have suffered severe dips in form and fitness this season.

Only Ashley Cole and Petr Cech of Mourinho’s original nine ‘untouchables’ (the other three – Ricardo Carvalho, Michael Ballack and Claude Makelele – are no longer at the club) are operating at anything like full throttle as the Champions League knockout stages begin and the domestic competitions enter the home straight.

The question for Chelsea’s owner Roman Abramovich is whether Ancelotti is the man to break up the cartel of elite players who have dominated the club for so long. Can he establish a dynasty rather than simply maintain one?

Ancelotti can always point to the magnificent league and FA Cup double in his first season in England as proof of his ability to get the best out of a group of players at his disposal.

But as one Chelsea source pointed out to Goal.com UK, he was completing a task initiated by interim boss Guus Hiddink following the dismissal of Luiz Felipe Scolari the previous season.

“When Scolari was sacked, Guus quickly rebuilt the whole thing over there,” the source said. “Ancelotti has taken advantage of that but it was always short term. Ancelotti is a really nice man but Guus works harder than he does.

Feeling blue | Drogba's future is in doubt after he was dropped for Fulham game

“Guus rebuilt the team and Ancelotti didn’t change it last year, so they went on being successful. But the natural life of that team has ended and if you don’t put anything else in, the team stops improving and everything falls down.”

There were strong rumours in late December that Abramovich’s finger was hovering over the trigger and that Ancelotti would have been sacked had Chelsea lost to Bolton Wanderers after failing to win their previous six league games.

But the former AC Milan manager, a popular figure in the dressing room, with the club's backroom staff and among the media, dodged the bullet and insiders say his position will now be reviewed at the end of the season.

Securing the fourth Champions League spot – worth £40m to the club in terms of broadcasting, sponsorship and match-day revenue – might not be enough.

“There were strong rumours that Abramovich's finger was hovering over the trigger in December, but insiders now say that Ancelotti's future will be reviewed at the end of the season”

It is believed that Abramovich and his coterie of advisers need to be convinced that Ancelotti is the man to rebuild Roman’s empire.

The squad has already been radically shaken up by the £71m combined outlay on Torres and David Luiz last month and more changes are anticipated in the summer.

Europe’s elite clubs have been put on alert about the potential availability of Drogba, who turns 33 next month, in the summer.

The Ivorian continued playing despite contracting malaria earlier in the season - an illness that prompted a drop in Kolo Toure’s standards two years ago and his subsequent departure from Arsenal - but there is still likely to be a stampede, led by his former club Marseille, to Chelsea’s door to secure his services for one final swansong.

The long-term futures of Nicolas Anelka and Florent Malouda, both now in their 30s, are also in doubt, which explains why Chelsea have been monitoring Anderlecht’s 17-year-old Drogba-esque striker Romelu Lukaku so closely in recent months. Even Essien, a titan of the Abramovich era, suddenly looks vulnerable.

There are question marks within the club about Ancelotti’s willingness and ability to overhaul the team.

Although he quickly abandoned the 4-3-1-2 formation that had failed against Liverpool and reverted back to the Mourinho 4-3-3 prototype last night against Fulham by dropping Drobga, there is a feeling that he is afraid of upsetting the strong personalities that have dominated the dressing room for so long.

A priority will be establishing a system that brings the best out of Torres. One theory is that Chelsea need a deep-lying playmaker in the Xabi Alonso mould to get the best out of the Spaniard’s ability to cause havoc in the space behind and between the centre-backs.

Essien, Ramires and Jon Obi Mikel are not that player, nor even is Lampard, so sorely missed during his absence but whose potency comes from his ability at making late, surging runs from midfield to get on the end of passes and loose balls on the edge of the penalty area.

Luiz looks like a Rolls-Royce of a centre-back and, although he foolishly conceded the penalty in added time that was subsequently saved by Cech on Monday, the defence could conceivably be built around the gifted Brazilian over the next five years.

The next three months will give Ancelotti the opportunity to prove that he can make the tough decisions necessary to usher in the new era of dominance that Abramovich demands.

Agences de presses

Labels: Ancelotti, Carlo, Chelsea, Getty, Goalcom, images

{ I can?t look: John Terry fails to prevent Raul Meireles from scoring the winner at the Bridge yesterday
The arrival of a big-money striker is usually the catalyst for a revival of fortunes or the final weapon to help shoot for the stars but Fernando Torres presents Carlo Ancelotti with a conundrum that may cost him his job.

Of course, integrating a ?50million signing into a squad defending the Double is a problem most managers would relish tackling and Torres's proven pedigree enhances the likelihood of a successful career at Chelsea.

But the Spaniard will need time and that is the one commodity Ancelotti does not have, with the Blues harbouring only the faintest Premier League title hopes after this tame surrender to Kenny Dalglish's resurgent Liverpool.

Ancelotti is under exorbitant pressure to deliver the Champions League for an owner who believes he has bought the perfect tool to achieve that goal; ultimately, Torres is more important to Roman Abramovich than Ancelotti is and if the Italian cannot get his new No9 firing soon, his tenure is unlikely to last beyond the summer.

In reverting to the 4-4-2 diamond formation he favoured upon taking charge at Chelsea - but subsequently abandoned for the players' preferred 4-3-3 system - the Blues suffered from a disastrous lack of width which channelled their attacks into Liverpool's strongest areas.

Dalglish's deployment of three centre-backs perfectly nullified Nicolas Anelka, playing at the top of the diamond, while rendering Frank Lampard and Michael Essien ineffective as a lack of wide options forced the midfield pair to attempt to navigate paths through the most congested area of the pitch.

Full-backs Ashley Cole and Jose Bosingwa were under heavy pressure to provide width but were incapable of balancing such demands with their defensive duties - Torres' debut was disastrous but the blame cannot solely lie with the 26-year-old.

Spending ?50m has bought Chelsea a striker but not a supply line and Ancelotti's task is to best facilitate one of the finest finishers in the game with the ammunition to succeed.

One game is not enough to judge their long-term compatibility but Torres, Didier Drogba and Anelka in the same side appears a difficult blend to manage.

Torres and Drogba are used to both leading the line and, as such, are the focal point of the attack, while Anelka has previously adapted well to a position on the right of a front three, yet that compromise has come at the price of a diminished goal return.

Anelka does not appear suited to a position in 'the hole' behind the main strikers - nor does is make use of his considerable pace - while Lampard is at once relegated to a more defensive role; his goalscoring impact was reduced significantly when Ancelotti first adopted the diamond formation.

With Champions League success the priority, Chelsea have a degree of breathing space to attempt the alchemy given the limited threat FC Copenhagen pose in their last-16 clash but the evidence presented in their defeat by Liverpool suggests much work is needed.

Victory was achieved at Sunderland with the same system but the introduction of Torres combined with a resolute and well-organised opposition proved too much, whatever Ancelotti argues to the contrary.

"The problem wasn't that Torres played - he did a good job on the pitch," said the Chelsea manager. "We had difficulty finding enough space in front because Liverpool defended very well and they put three defenders in the middle and we didn't find the right way to attack them.

"We have to work in training to combine with the other strikers but that's normal. The problem was not putting these players together. These players have a lot of quality - I have to try to use them together and I'll try everything to put them together."

Perhaps the irony of this result is that Dalglish is now arguably more likely to be in his current job next season than Ancelotti; King Kenny punctuated his team's admirable display with no less than 11 separate waves to the visiting supporters, who barely knew where to direct their joy first.

Torres scored on his Liverpool debut against Chelsea but only twice threatened a reverse - Maxi Rodriquez gifted possession after just two minutes but he fired wastefully over before a superb block from Jamie Carragher denied Torres after his only meaningful link-up with Drogba all afternoon.

Maxi missed the best chance of the first half, hitting the crossbar from three yards out, before Petr Cech and Branislav Ivanovic argued furiously after a miscommunication in dealing with Martin Kelly's cross.

Whatever they said, the lesson went unheeded as Liverpool's winning goal owed a lot to another misunderstanding between the pair.

Cole had been caught upfield and Steven Gerrard exploited the space to deliver an innocuous-looking cross. Cech and Ivanovic left it to each other, enabling Raul Meireles to execute a smart volleyed finish.

Torres had departed three minutes earlier and could only watch on as Chelsea alarmingly failed to rally in his absence. Given the sense of occasion and the boost ?71m of new faces must have provided to the squad, there was a startling lack of riposte to adversity.

Glen Johnson was fortunate not to concede a stoppage-time penalty for barging Ivanovic but the repetitive spot-kick appeals smacked of a side that had run out of ideas. Almost unnoticed amid the frustration was David Luiz's promising 17-minute debut in which he made a couple of decent interceptions but overall Ancelotti was left perplexed by a performance that failed to capitalise on Manchester United's first League defeat of the season.

"We're disappointed for this reason because we had an opportunity to close the gap but now we're still the same distance," he said.

"We have to keep going. We have to try to fight again for the title."

That fight will continue at Fulham a week tonight, when Ancelotti insists he will use the same system again and better will be expected from their new star man. But time is of the essence for Ancelotti, not Torres.

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Agences de presses

Labels: Ancelotti, being, Fernando, fired, firing, himself, London, Torres

{ Torres will improve for Chelsea - Ancelotti

Chelsea manager Carlo Ancelotti defended £50m striker Fernando Torres after his side lost 1-0 to Liverpool.

Torres was mostly anonymous before being substituted on his Chelsea debut against the team he left on the final day of the January transfer window.

"I took him off as, after 60 minutes and a very busy week, it was good for him to come off," said Ancelotti.

"Fernando has experience, he has confidence and didn't show problems before the game."

He added: "He was enthusiastic to play, excited, and it didn't show a problem.

"We have to give Fernando time to adjust to the shape, but I think that he will do it quickly."

He [Torres] had one shot on target and Jamie Carragher made one great block tackle on him

Ancelotti played Torres, who was constantly barracked by the Liverpool fans, in attack alongside Didier Drogba, with fellow forward Nicolas Anelka deployed in a creative role in the hole behind them.

However, Chelsea rarely threatened a disciplined and organised Liverpool, who won the game courtesy of a fourth goal in five matches from Raul Meireles.

"The problem wasn't that Torres played - he did a good job on the pitch," said Ancelotti.

"We had difficulty finding enough space in front, because Liverpool defended very well and they put three defenders in the middle, and we didn't find the right way to attack them.

"We were too slow playing from the back. We didn't find the space."

He added: "We played a fantastic game with this shape [in a 4-2 win] at Sunderland and wanted to reproduce that but Liverpool were strong defensively, put strong pressure on in their half, and we were not able to find the solution.

"The right result would have been a draw, but this is football."

The defeat leaves reigning Premier League champions Chelsea in fourth place, 10 points behind leaders Manchester United, who lost at Wolves on Saturday.

Dalglish hails 'magnificent' Liverpool

"We are disappointed because we had an opportunity to close the gap, but now we are still the same distance," said the Blues boss.

"Maybe now we have less possibility to close the gap, but we have to try again. We have to try to fight again for the title.

"The Premier League is very difficult in every game, so it could happen that United can lose again."

Liverpool moved up to sixth - their highest position so far this season - and six points behind Chelsea and fifth-placed Tottenham, who both have a game in hand on the Reds, as they raised hopes about challenging for a Champions League place.

"Liverpool played very well, with fantastic power, play and attitude. Obviously they can come back to fight for fourth place," said Ancelotti.

Liverpool boss Kenny Dalglish insisted the presence of Torres in the Chelsea side did not act as an extra incentive for his side as they registered a fourth consecutive league victory.

"The players approached it professionally," said Dalglish. "I don't think [Torres' presence] was any incentive.

"The incentive for us was to get three points and we did. Whatever someone else wants to do with their life is up to them.

"I came here to win three points and it would have made no difference if Carlo Ancelotti was playing up front, I'd still want the three points. The personnel of the opposition is not important to me."

He added: "He [Torres] had one shot on target and Jamie Carragher made one great block tackle on him, but I'm not here to talk about other people's players, I'm here to talk about my own players."

Agences de presses

Labels: Ancelotti, Carlo, defends, Fernando, showing, Sport, Torres