Chelsea 2 Aston Villa 0

Well thank the lord the District Line was working so badly so that I missed the opening few minutes of this match. The three points were welcome but boy - were we lucky. As against West Brom, we were blessed more by the visitors' ineptitude than our prowess. Up until we scored we looked vulnerable in defence even without Ivanovic spoiling things. At one stage during the first half with Villa on the attack, we had no midfield between the back four of our defence on the edge of our area and the half way line (having decided to play with no defensive midfielders).

Then came the half-time announcements. Our peers who bought during the summer (and I was one who derided them for overspending) were thrashing opponents that they should be thrashing. Even Sterling had scored a hat-trick. In contrast, our new signing, Baba Rahman looked like he had never played left-back before in his life. Yes, yes... let's give players a chance *yawn*, but there have been plenty of his predecessors who have impressed off the bat. This £15-£20 mio bracket of signings is nothing more than squad players. This lack of competition and ambition is taking its toll. Yes Jose, the reason you won't get fired is because the cost of sacking you is more than we can afford to spend on transfers.

An article in the newspaper that day noted Joe Cole was on a 35-day loan deal at Coventry City. Is Hazard going down the same route? Dropped to the bench and with his first touch when coming on as sub mis-cued the ball. The last twenty minutes were a pain to witness with the only entertainment being the banter between the home and away fans.

Kiev next. Tickets under £4. We have a string of games coming up which we need to win by hook or by crook to get the confidence back which we lack so much at the moment. Thanks for the three points, but how drab this was.