Chelsea in need of route and branch reform

TOWARDS the end of this stalest of stalemates, an announcement boomed out over the PA system. “The London Underground is experiencing major disruption,” came the weary voice. “Passengers are advised to seek alternative routes.”

Luiz Felipe Scolari’s €6.5m-a-year salary presumably allows him to forego the dubious pleasures of the tube, but the gist of the message would still have struck home. Scolari might have added a dash of Latin swagger to a previously staid side, but his own lack of alternatives is in danger of making Chelsea predictable.

Teams are arriving at Chelsea believing they can snaffle a point, and with just cause. If Chelsea’s full-backs can be penned into their own half, and if space can be squeezed in midfield so the artful crafts of Deco and Frank Lampard are annulled, then Chelsea look bereft of ideas. There is, to put it more simply, no Plan B.