Chelsea?s poor away form continued this afternoon when the Blues could only draw 0-0 with lowly Birmingham City. Indeed, the loss of two points enabled closest rivals, Manchester United, to close the gap at the top to seven points.
With United yet to visit Stamford Bridge and having now won eight Premiership games on the bounce, the title race could well be described as being wide open.
For the trip to St Andrews to face a Birmingham side that have never beaten Chelsea in the Premiership, or indeed for twenty-six years, Mourinho chose to recall Arjen Robben. The Dutchman, who had just completed a four game ban, was preferred to Joe Cole.
Birmingham City, on the other hand, were without several first team players, most notably the ex-Chelsea trio of Mario Melchiot, Chris Sutton and Mikael Forssell.
However, Forssell was awarded the luxury of a place on the bench. A fourth player linked to Chelsea, Jiri Jarosik, wasn?t eligible to play due to Premiership regulations about loan players.
The home side got the action underway and in a poor opening period looked to be the better side. Chelsea looked a little lacklustre and Emile Heskey should have opened the scoring with as little as three minutes gone. Paulo Ferreira was guilty of a poor clearance but Heskey?s finishing was woeful and the chance sailed over the bar.
Chelsea should have learned their lesson but three minutes later Heskey was presented with another good chance. This time it came from a free kick on the edge of the area. Heskey found space and should have scored but placed his header wide of the post.
With Chelsea struggling to get going the home side almost scored form an unlikely source. Tebily, playing at right back, sliced through the midfield and his twenty yard shot had to be turned over the bar by an alert Petr Cech.
Indeed, Chelsea?s first chance didn?t come until the fifteenth minute when Robben was fouled on the edge of the area by Pennant. Some quick thinking saw Drogba play the ball to Robben but Maik Taylor remained alert to smother his left footed shot.
Still Birmingham?s play belied their lowly position and when Carter found Heskey, the big striker wasted a third chance to open the scoring firing well over when well placed. On the half hour mark Duff saw an appeal for a penalty turned down with Dermot Gallagher deciding that Sadler had not intentionally handled the ball.
With half time rapidly approaching Robben tried his luck but could only succeed in driving the ball well over. With a minute of stoppage time played it had been a poor half for Chelsea.
The second half saw neither team make any changes and it was Chelsea that, this time, started the better. Del Horno found Drogba and the powerful striker saw his volley saved by the keeper. In the fiftieth minute Chelsea thought that they had opened the scoring.
Robben won a free kick out wide and the delivery of the ball saw Del Horno ghost in at the far post to turn the ball home. Unfortunately, the referee?s assistant had his flag raised for offside against Carvalho. Chelsea were now starting to exert some pressure and a good run and cross from Robben saw Drogba hit his shot wide.
Nice approach work saw Gudjohnsen racing through but Maik Taylor raced out to smother the ball at his feet and another half chance was gone. Cunningham conceded a corner and when the ball broke to Lampard he uncharacteristically fired well over the bar.
Seven minutes after having one goal disallowed for offside Chelsea had a second wiped out. This time it was Duff that raced onto a through ball from Gudjohnsen only to beat Taylor with a low shot to see the flag raised.
Steve Bruce tried to alter things by bringing on Mikael Forssell in place of DJ Campbell but it was still Chelsea forcing the issue. Duff shot wide after Birmingham had needlessly conceded possession before Mourinho decided to make three changes in three minutes searching for that elusive opening goal.
Off came Duff, Del Horno and Gudjohnsen to be replaced by Cole, Crespo and Essien. The changes saw Chelsea adopt a 3-3-4 formation as they went for victory.
Cole started to have an immediate impact. A neat cross saw Drogba fire over before one mazy run opened up the home defence without creating that elusive clear cut chance. Time was fast running out and Birmingham were forced to replace the injured Butt with Kilkenny.
However, with three minutes on the clock, plus a further three minutes of stoppage time, Chelsea still carved out three great chances to snatch all three points.
The first came when Crespo, from eight yards out, fired straight at Maik Taylor, the second came when Taylor was forced to turn around the post a neat Crespo shot and the third when Lampard almost broke the deadlock but once again saw his shot result in nothing better than a corner.
Six game sot go and three home wins will see the title won again but it ain?t half getting jittery.
Cech 6, Ferreira 6, Carvalho 6, Terry 6, Del Horno 6 (Crespo 6), Makelele 6, Lampard 5, Gudjohnsen 5 (Essien 6), Robben 6, Drogba 7, Duff 6 (Cole 7)
Manager Rating
Mourinho will be disappointed at how Chelsea started the match and will be desperate to find out why the team appear to be so lack-lustre on the road.
Opponent Rating
Bruce ? Will be delighted at the spirit shown by his side but will be keen to see it repeated in the fixtures they have left otherwise his side will be relegated.