Cracks showing at the Bridge

JOSE MOURINHO has done a manful job in papering over the alarming cracks at Chelsea.

But now, inexorably and inevitably, the splits are beginning to show. The champions began yesterday with a distinctly patched-up appearance and they paid a harsh penalty, stumbling four points behind Manchester United in the Premiership title race after this most costly of draws.

There is something incongruous in seeing the resources of the self-proclaimed richest club on the planet stretched to breaking point, but there are certain key performers that Mourinho simply cannot do without. A defence which was once considered bullet-proof now seems to have been constructed from papier-mache. It has leaked six goals in the last three matches and, while Mourinho was bailed out by his attackers at Everton and Wigan, this time there were no late heroics.

The Portuguese was careful not to apportion blame to any of his make-shift back-four, especially Michael Essien, the midfielder awkwardly deployed as a centre-half yesterday, but he did not extend such generosity to his club’s medical department. Mourinho is annoyed that his doctors have yet to decide whether Terry’s back injury requires surgery and he barely concealed his scorn at their prevarication.

Mourinho said: “I am always ready to praise my medical team and they have done very well in treating Ricardo Carvalho and Petr Cech, but they have to make a decision on John Terry soon. They have said surgery is a possibility but I don’t yet know how long he will be out — three days, three weeks or three months, I have no idea.”

Terry would not have allowed Chelsea to concede the goals they leaked so readily yesterday. First, Glenn Little was allowed to jink in from the right touchline and deliver a juicy cross which was converted by the sprawling Leroy Lita; then, having restored their lead, another ball into the middle caused abject panic, with Ashley Cole slicing his attempted clearance onto Essien and past the stranded Hilario.

“This is a very difficult situation to cope with, as we do not have enough cover in defence,” Mourinho said. “Normally, we keep three consecutive clean sheets; at the moment, we are conceding six goals. We are surviving and four points is not a drama, but this is a difficult position.”

Chelsea were saved, not for the first time this season, by Didier Drogba.

Eight minutes before half-time, he thumped in Lampard’s inswinging corner with a typically muscular header, despite the best efforts of Nicky Shorey on the goal-line.

Drogba was also one of the few Chelsea players to emerge with credit from a dismal second half display. The Ivorian nodded his stuttering side back in front five minutes after Lita restored parity but at present he is expected to shoulder all his team’s goalscoring burdens.

Salomon Kalou runs gamely but is clearly a work in progress, while Andriy Shevchenko’s slump in form is in danger of developing into a terminal decline. The Ukrainian cut a miserable figure here, failing to muster a shot in anger.

It says much that the neutering of Shevchenko was one of Steve Coppell’s easier tasks on a trying, if ultimately satisfying, day.

Two months ago, the meeting between these clubs ended with Mourinho launching a scathing attack on Stephen Hunt, who had inadvertently fractured Cech’s skull with his knee, and the Laois-born winger was subsequently sent a stream of death threats, apparently from Chelsea supporters.

Coppell duly spared him a potentially explosive appearance at Stamford Bridge, relegating him to the bench. “This game has been weighing down on him recently and his form has suffered,” he admitted.

If Coppell had been able to perform an equally adroit disappearing trick on Drogba, a bad day for Chelsea might easily have become a disastrous one.

CHELSEA: Hilario, Geremi (Mikel 70), Ferreira, Carvalho, Bridge (Ashley Cole 70), Kalou, Essien, Ballack, Lampard, Shevchenko (Wright-Phillips 58), Drogba.

READING: Hahnemann, Murty, Ingimarsson, Sonko, Shorey, Little, Sidwell, Harper, Gunnarsson, Doyle, Lita.

Referee: A Wiley (Staffordshire).