West Brom vs Chelsea: The Little Horse Has a Little Wobble

Torres: In defence of Gary

Dropped points away to West Brom, and the Chelsea manager hasn't been sacked. Roman Abramovich has gone soft. Or he hasn't found out yet. Either way without a confusing analogy about horses or eggs to divert attention from the performance on the pitch, it's difficult to not feel a little cheated.

So the black kit returns to Chelsea, and Chelsea return to London with a single point. Is it possible that a black kit is just too sleek for Chelsea and they can't handle the swagger of it? Admittedly I'm a fan of turning up to a ground looking like a complete bad-ass.* And while the team were certainly dressed the part, they didn't do much worthy of the kit furthering the jinx that Chelsea seem to have in black.

The party line this morning, of course, is that for the first sixty minutes, Chelsea were in complete control of the match. In reality though, it looked like a few of the players celebrated a victory over the Geordies like a proper Geordie would and are still hungover. It could also be the price to pay for keeping a small squad on hand while Chelsea keep 438 players out on loan. Those little legs are getting tired.

Chelsea can be bolstered by the return of their top man up front -- Branislav Ivanovic. Ivanovic once again showed off his former-forward tekkers and his ability to throw down (his handbags) with the best of them. The feisty Serbian has a keen sense of what's his, and he wanted everyone from the Hawthorns back to London that the ball was his!

Last night also saw the return of one Fernando Torres, who after witnessing Ivanovic's prowess in front of goal thought best to emulate him. Not to go on an score, but to square up to Ben Foster. Apparently Foster had taken Torres' hair gel and hadn't given it back. Got ugly from there -- and not just the hair. At least Chelsea fans can take solace in Torres squaring up like a man to Foster and not having cat scratch fever like he did with Jan Vertonghen earlier this season.

The goal from West Brom was always coming. Jon Champion couldn't have pointed out that Victor Anichebe hadn't scored against Chelsea faster than it actually happened. With Cahill limping injured, Luiz booked, and Ivanovic deciding to watch Berahino's cross technique rather than stop it at its source, anyone could see it in the back of the net before Petr Cech froze in his own tracks. Although a few errors combined to see that goal, if it hadn't happened then it was going to happen at some other point. West Brom came out strong in the second half. Apparently Billy McCulloch headed to the wrong change room at half time.

After the 'questionable' ending to the reverse fixture and still topping the table at the end of the night, some Chelsea fans will be able to take solace in a solid away point on the way to a potential table-topping season. Others will see it as a valuable 2 points dropped in an exceedingly tight race to the finish.

Either way, focus has to turn to Manchester City and whether John Terry will be fit enough to cover for the newly injured Cahill.

jb x

*I mean the team, not me you cheeky sods. I know what you were thinking … and you can deny it all you want, but pink mittens are proper hard.