TERRACE TALK: CHELSEA - Pretty viewing it wasn’t but brilliant finale made up for it

It was not pretty. It was painful to watch. In fact I think we are getting progressively worse week on week — 87 minutes without one shot on target tells its own story. 

But somehow we managed to snatch those three points and break QPR fans’ hearts — and Arsenal hearts. That alone makes up for the 90 minutes of diabolical football.

Abramovich was at the game, so hopefully he could see himself how badly we need another striker.

Drogba did his best and the mind is definitely willing but the flesh has had it, quite frankly.

That said, he did a job defensively on a couple of occasions andI can’t say he was the worst player on the pitch.

But before Roman gets out that well-thumbed wad, perhaps Jose should consider giving Patrick Bamford a try.

He’s been out on a number of loans including his current successful season at high-flying Middlesbrough.

We need to start giving these players a real go, not just the odd couple of games in the early stages of the League Cup.

But I digress. At the final whistle, the players were celebrating as wildly as the fans. They knew how important that game was, not just for West London bragging rights, but with Arsenal getting into their stride while we seem to be stuttering towards that finishing line, it was a huge physcological boost.

Especially given the fact that we have to face Arsenal and the resurgent United too.

Hopefully now that Matic and Fabregas will not be playing under the cloud of a possible two-match suspension, we will see their form of the early campaign return. Matic especially has not been at his best since his last suspension.

Of course this is only so noticeable as he was such a powerhouse for so much of the season, but his position is pivotal to how the rest of the team play in terms of how much time and space they get on the ball. With him below par, we are suffocated so quickly and easily.

I’m not a big one for stats normally, but I was interested to see that this was our worst game of the season in terms of pass completion. Our passing seems to have deteriorated badly in the last few weeks.

I’m hoping the morale boosting win, the removal of the suspension threat and the huge step towards that title will reinvigorate the team before United and Arsenal.

We also usually fare better against teams that come to play us rather than teams that come to stop us so we may possibly get a break from the turgid displays we’ve seen of late.

Speaking of turgid, I can’t emphasise enough how satisfying beating QPR was, especially as we did it so late in the game.

We had hardly heard a peep out of them all game (except the tasteless songs about John Terry’s family obviously), but as that clock ticked ever closer to 90 minutes they finally found their voices sure that they had partly derailed our title aspirations.

The silence and mass exodus was delicious. The only way it could have been any better was if JT had scored it.

I still wouldn’t describe myself as overly confident but with every game it obviously reduces the possibility of us being caught.

Jose too seems calmer although still careful in terms of what he says publicly. I do wonder what he has learnt at the helm of this particular team.

Whether we’ll see him back in the transfer market for the more traditional type of player he likes — more the physical kind of player — the type whose main contribution is brute strength.

Or will he address our lack of width which has often been exploited this season?

Somehow I doubt it. Wingers are often mercurial, delicate things and I think, as far as Jose is concerned, we have enough of that in the form of Hazard and Oscar.

That said, it was pointed out to me the other week that buying players (with a few notable exceptions) is not really a strength of his (he has to have ONE weakness) so maybe the club, rather than he, will make the decisions anyway.

For now we have what we have and we need to drag ourselves over that line one way or the other — and the more foes in red we can slay on the way, the better!