Brentford win should not cover up Chelsea's problems

The replay should not have been needed to decide the tie in the first place, but we have the right foot of our maligned no.9 to thank for that saving grace. The win at home against League One's Brentford should

have been a formality. But for 55 minutes it was not. It required a precisely placed shot into the bottom corner from our bearded genius, to make Brentford come out and leave the gaps open to exploit. The gloss

was there, courtesy some late goals, but the problems we've been having are far from being solved. It was so obvious in the 1st half, that we'd be foolish to ignore it. Even Brentford, made us nervous.

Adam Forshaw's speculative efforts from 25 yards were the closest the Bees came to Petr Cech's goal. But for some reason the Chelsea goalkeeper insisted to playing the ball out to his central defenders. Chelsea

have never done that in recent years, and both John Terry and Gary Cahill looked far from comfortable playing the ball out of defence. Brentford's forward line did not press them and chose to mark everyone else, hence leaving them no options but to pass it around the back till either one of Lampard or Luiz came back to pick up the ball.

And as soon as Luiz tried an effective long pass into Demba Ba, the Senegalese was hunted down, and Oscar, Victor Moses and Juan Mata were'nt able to get to the lose ball fast enough. But when Petr Cech decided to change it and punted a goal kick right into the heart of the Brentford defence, the result was markedly different. Demba Ba finally won something in the air, and as the lose ball bobbled to Mata, the Spaniard picked his spot to drill Chelsea into the lead. It was direct, but it was different from what Chelsea were trying all game and it worked.

The return of Victor Moses was refreshing. He hugged the touchline on the right side early on, often dragged two defenders towards him, and when he managed to evade both of them and supply a ball for the on-rushing Lampard to smash home, the 34-year old unbelievably scuffed his shot. But Moses' effectiveness waned as the match progressed. He afforded a neat touch for Juan Mata to setup Oscar, who hit the post. But the Nigerian did nothing more of note and was substituted for Eden Hazard with 25 minutes remaining.

Early in the second half Ashley Cole had possession on the edge of the Brentford box, but with two Brentford players around him, no one made an overlapping run behind. It took a good 5-7 seconds or so for Frank Lampard to see the pass and make the run, when ideally it should've been Oscar or Juan Mata popping up in those positions.

The lack of off the ball runs and movement when teams sit back and defend has been a problem for Chelsea. Whoever the personnel upfront, almost all of Chelsea's attackers prefer the ball at their feet rather than

making runs or dragging defenders out of position. When the other team is chasing the game, and there is space in behind and Chelsea have found it easy to move the ball around. But if we have to make a 4-2-3-1

work well, we will need someone to gamble on making those forward runs, across the defence or in the channels. Chelsea do look clueless in possession, a lot more than they should be.

Uwe Rosler was always going to stuff Brentford's midfield and stifle Chelsea's play. Chelsea lined up with David Luiz and Frank Lampard in the pivot, and due to the lack of a pure no.10 to mark, both Luiz and

Lampard had a rather free afternoon. Whenever the opposition have had a good playmaker or a midfield runner, Chelsea's pivot has came up short. Be it Willian or Arturo Vidal a few months back, or more recently Moussa Sissoko, or even Adel Taarabt, all had a field day against Chelsea's defensive midfield pairing. While David Luiz continues to slip in a moment of stupidity once in a while, this time young Jake Reeves was the victim.

Rafa Benitez will have seen the problems that even Brentford exposed, 

he will have to find a way to stop Manchester City  at the weekend

All said and done, it was a second clean sheet in a row, even though Cech was beaten once by Marcello Trotta. Its 3 wins in a row, a marked improvement since the defeat to Newcastle, against understandably weaker opposition. But a few things have been going Chelsea's way. Wigan were denied a penalty when the ball hit Ashley Cole's hand last weekend when the score was still 2-1, while Oscar scored seconds after coming on, in a game that made for an appalling advert of the Europa League on Thursday night. And Brentford were pulled back for a foul, when advantage should have been played and the goal they went on to score should have stood.

Next up is the return leg against Sparta Prague, who should be professionally dealt with, before Sunday's showdown agianst the Premier League champions at the Etihad. If we are to hold onto 3rd place, nothing less than a win will do.