Chastened Chelsea all out of ideas

JOHN TERRY could hardly have been more emphatic. “We need a result, we need a performance, we need a clean sheet,” the Chelsea captain wrote in his programme notes ahead of this visit from the top flight’s least in-form side.

In the end, Chelsea achieved one out of three and they were lucky to get that. If there was a side that left here nagged by regrets, it was Hull, who missed three gilt-edged chances to notch a victory to match their jaw-dropping triumph at Arsenal in September.

Chelsea’s megastars, meanwhile, bore the look of haunted men. Regaining the title already appears beyond them and Luiz Felipe Scolari is facing a monumental task to simply retain the club’s top four status. Chelsea, out of form, low in confidence and short of ideas, are badly wounded and their rivals have the scent of blood in their nostrils.