Oh No vember

It is when Chelsea go through a bad patch like this that the paranoia sets in. Were we right to complain about referee Mike Clattenburg? Should we be dragging our feet over offering players like Ashley Cole and Frank Lampard fresh contracts when our squad looks weak? Should we be allowing players like Luiz and Torres to play regularly just because the former is popular with fans with his "crazy" antics and the latter too expensive to drop?

We seem to be a club with a strange focus at times. The Manchester United game in the League Cup was a moral victory following the unjust decisions that led to our league defeat... but in the medium term was it worth it? The team that played against Swansea had a few players rested and even more were left on the bench against a good West Brom side.

Even more worrying is that decisions since then are still not going for us. Suarez's push on Ramires before his equaliser was an utter disgrace. Having said that, we are not having the rub of the green when it comes to clearcut goalscoring situations either with many opportunities squandered in front of goal against our bitter rivals. Against West Bromwich Albion we also missed many chances to score and had one (if not two) certain penalties not awarded.

Overall, we seem to be the opposite of Manchester City with our eyes on the Champions' League again rather than the Premier League. With so many teams performing so well domestically this season a top three place that I was taking for granted does not appear to be such an easy finish now.

Off to Juventus now and another European away ground to knock off the list. If we can come away with a draw I will be happy - but more worryingly we have Manchester City to contend with who have enormous strength in depth. Even though some of their players' behaviour on and off the pitch leaves much to be desired (ok... pot/kettle) they are extraordinarily good with the ball and we will have to produce an astonishing display to beat them.

Am in a foul mood and our club does not do itself many favours on top of the fact that neutrals would always prefer for a team in red to do well rather than one in blue. At least we have that in common with Manchester City!