Chelsea 1 Basiiil 2

The honeymoon period lasted for less time than even the most pessimistic Chelsea fan predicted. The booing has already started with the season barely a month old. The media has already begun its mocking of our beloved Jose as his wonderful analogy of comparing our players to young eggs comes back to haunt him. Something has changed and you hope that last night’s match does not symbolise the wilting away of our club from being one of the world’s top sides.

It was worrying to see Jose already taking risks at such an early stage. FCB (as their fans like to call themselves) equalised but there was no need to panic – a home draw is not the end of the world with five more games in the group. But to put on another striker in Ba while adding Mikel in defensive midfield was like ordering a full fat flapjack but adding a skinny decaff latte to balance things up. The team looked out of sorts even before the substitutions in pursuit of a victory were made.

Mourinho was correct in his assessment when he spoke of the immaturity of the side. Players such as Luiz and Hazard flattered to deceive - trying the odd trick here and there but adding nothing concrete to the team. We looked vulnerable in defence and we seem to have a new rotation policy where it feels we almost have to give players a chance to play for the sake of it. That is what happens when you have 23 midfielders too many.

Initial thoughts are that you do wonder how exactly this side has improved in comparison to last season. Fulham at home now looks a test and it will be interesting if our manager plays a full strength side. There were positives to the game – Oscar impressed and Willian showed the sharp touches and moves that first attracted him to our club.

The biggest worry again was up front. Eto’o did get into some promising positions on the field but seemed to only own one strong foot. Again, this team has promise for the future but you wonder if the lack of patience from our owner has fed down to poor decision making on the pitch. When looking at the fixture list today every game we have coming up looks like hard work following this tepid start.