Soccer: Chelsea exposed again as Birmingham take a point

Chelsea 0 Birmingham City 0

In short, you can spend £110 million on a new squad, but you evidently cannot completely solve overnight Chelsea’s inability to finish off dogged opponents, even at home.

Birmingham were incredibly tenacious at Stamford Bridge yesterday, with Robbie Savage and Stephen Clemence excelling in central midfield as they outplayed, let alone outfought, their far more illustrious opponents.

Scott Parker simply cannot arrive quickly enough, if Charlton can be persuaded to sell, as too much is being asked of Frank Lampard and, especially, Claude Makekele.

While Joe Cole hit the post, keeper Maik Taylor was otherwise equal to everything else that Chelsea threw at him as they missed the chance to narrow the gap on Manchester United and Arsenal.

Claudio Ranieri admitted his frustration afterwards as striker Adrian Mutu was allegedly involved in a tunnel bust-up with Birmingham’s Darren Purse. Ranieri knew nothing of the alleged row in which Mutu and Purse were said by eye-witnesses to have argued in the tunnel.

Mutu had apparently been angered by an earlier clash on the pitch with Purse, in which the Birmingham centre-back accidentally caught him in the face. Purse is said to have visited the Chelsea dressing room after the final whistle to explain himself, but Mutu supposedly barred his path and an angry exchange of words ensued.

While official action is unlikely, the net effect of the result on Chelsea’s title chances will be more serious. After all, rather than reducing the gap on either Arsenal or Manchester United, Chelsea are six points off the pace.

Ranieri admitted: “It was frustrating. We tried to do everything. Their goalkeeper was man of the match and made some great saves. We had some great chances to score but the luck was not with us.”

The Chelsea boss, nevertheless, insisted he is still under no pressure from Roman Abramovich to win any silverware this season, as his priority remains building up his squad.

“Nothing has changed from the beginning of the season. I said we were building the foundations, even though everyone else said we must win, but I said ‘don’t worry’.”

“Next season? Maybe it will be the next manager then! But I am the current Chelsea manager and don’t worry. We are building well and, if it’s possible in April to be a little closer to Arsenal and United, we will try.

“This was a good chance to achieve three points, but it proved impossible. The players tried to do everything and I’m very pleased with our performance but, if you don’t score, then it’s difficult to win.”

Chelsea did strike the post through Joe Cole, while Olivier Tebily acrobatically cleared William Gallas’ lob off the line and Gallas also had a penalty appeal turned down.

Steve Bruce said: “As we saw with Wolves beating Manchester United, this Premiership is tough so I don’t think Chelsea underestimated us, but we thoroughly deserved our point. We had a couple of chances, but we defended manfully as well.”

Savage said: “We wanted three points but probably one point was the best we could have hoped for. We always fight hard and this result should be more about Birmingham than Chelsea.”

CHELSEA: Cudicini, Johnson (Melchiot 81), Desailly, Gallas, Bridge, Cole (Mutu 60), Lampard, Makelele, Gronkjaer (Duff 45), Gudjohnsen, Hasselbaink.

BIRMINGHAM: Taylor, Kenna, Purse, Cunningham, Clemence, Savage, Johnson, Hughes (Kirovski 81), Tebily, John (Carter 89), Morrison (Lazaridis 66).

Referee: J Winter (Cleveland).