Belief drains away at Bridge

Chelsea 0 Norwich City 0

This result leaves Chelsea a point behind both Liverpool and Manchester City, who both have a game in hand in the race for the title, and with only a trip to Cardiff next Sunday remaining it is, almost certainly, all over.

For Norwich, too, the adrenalin generated by winning what would normally be a precious point at a very difficult venue is fatally tempered by the knowledge that Sunderland need only one point from their final two games, both at home, to send the Canaries down to the Championship.

The bottom line is that a draw was no good for either team, and both are now suffering, although Norwich stand-in manager Neil Adams was the more positive.

“I’m immensely proud, I thought it was a phenomenal performance,” he said.

“We had a game plan and the players executed it almost to perfection. We had a stonewall penalty denied us too and had we got that maybe we could have got three points.”

For Chelsea, however, if ever there was a game that encapsulated why Jose Mourinho’s side will not be champions, despite some excellent displays against key rivals, this was it. Another day with more 70% possession, another day with no goals — and in fact only four efforts on target throughout the 90 minutes — and another day when their lack of a real top quality striker hurt them badly.

Mourinho described his team’s first-half display as “lazy” but admitted a lack of potency up front had been the most significant factor in what has been an “almost” season for Chelsea; meaning there is a long summer ahead in the transfer market.

“Our strikers are good strikers, but our players lack some specific qualities,” he said. “They are not the kind of players who with five square metres with three or four people around, can dribble the ball and make the space and dribble and shoot. But they are good players. They did everything they could in the season to help.

“At the end of the day, in such a difficult reality the boys did a good job. A job that doesn’t make us completely happy, we want more, but it’s a base.”

Whether that base will include veterans John Terry, Frank Lampard and Ashley Cole next season, remains to be seen, although they have all opened contract talks with the club.

Perhaps Mourinho will be looking for more energy; because for the majority of the first half it was almost impossible to spot this was a team with a chance of winning the title playing against a side desperately needing a victory to avoid relegation; it had, instead, the feeling of an end-of-season walkabout.

No wonder the Special One returned early to his dugout after the half-time break, cutting a frustrated figure as he sat there alone, glaring sullenly, having made two ruthless substitutions — David Luiz and Eden Hazard replacing Lampard and Mohamed Salah — in a bid to inject some urgency.

Andre Schurrle hit the post in the first half but Chelsea were also fortunate to avoid giving away a penalty when Terry clearly brought down winger Martin Olsson, but escaped unpunished.

Norwich, too, enjoyed a slice of luck when defender Michael Turner elbowed Demba Ba in the stomach, but the collision was missed by both referee Neil Swarbrick and his assistants.

The second period at least provided more action as Hazard began to weave his magic and Luiz hit the bar; and two quick penalty appeals, both turned down by Swarbrick, rose the interest of the crowd.

Under normal circumstances you would have expected Chelsea to move on from there and produce a rousing finish; but sadly this Blues team lacks the kind of cutting edge that turns top-three teams into champions.

In fact it was Norwich, who introduced the pace of Nathan Redmond at just the right time, who almost won it when Robert Snodgrass burst through late on — only to be denied by a wonderful late block from Gary Cahill.

Ultimately, then, Norwich’s best hope of survival probably lies with a legal challenge to a Premier League decision not to dock Sunderland points for fielding an ineligible player earlier in the season; and that is a very long shot indeed.

For Chelsea there remains an inner confidence that next season they will be closer to a title challenge, but equally an acceptance that this year they were never quite good enough — although Mourinho, as usual, ended his press conference with a cryptic comment.

“I think they tried everything,” he said. “With a couple of festivals we had during the season, well, without festivals it would have been a better season too. But we could have been better in some matches.”

Who knows what that means; but one thing is for certain, it didn’t feel like a festival at Stamford Bridge yesterday.

CHELSEA: Schwarzer 6, Ivanovic 6, Cahill 8, Terry 6, Cole 6, Lampard 5 (David Luiz 46; 6), Matic 5 (Torres 73; 5), Salah 6 (Hazard 46; 7), Willian 6, Schurrle 7, Ba 6.

NORWICH: Ruddy 7, Martin 7, Ryan Bennett 6, Turner 7, Whittaker 6, Johnson 7, Snodgrass 7, Howson 6, Tettey 6, Olsson 7, Elmander 6 (Redmond 69; 7).

Referee: Neil Swarbrick.