Morning:
8°c
Carlo Ancelotti has made it clear that he won't be changing Chelsea's formation to get their title hopes back on track, yet maybe it's time he made a key switch in the Blues' central defence.
Brazilian international Alex is set to play for the reserves against West Ham tonight in what will be his first game since aggravating a groin injury during pre-season, and if he comes through unscathed there is a strong argument for him to replace Ricardo Carvalho in Chelsea's next League game against Blackburn on Saturday.
Carvalho has been a fine servant for Chelsea since he joined from Porto for £19.85million in 2004, but the past 12 months have suggested his best days may now be behind him.
Last season a series of hamstring injuries restricted him to just 11 starts in the League. He has been back to full fitness and a regular in the first team this term, despite strongly expressing a desire to leave for Inter Milan in the summer, however the 31-year-old has looked a shadow of his former self.
Chelsea's 2-1 reverse at Aston Villa on Saturday was their second away defeat in a row, it followed a loss to Wigan last month, and in both games the Portuguese has been below par.
While it would be wrong to suggest just one individual was to blame for the defeats, he has been responsible for a lot of the uncertainty at the back.
It was his weak defending at a set piece on Saturday which allowed Richard Dunne to cancel out Didier Drogba's early goal and head Villa level against the run of play. Carvalho made the same mistake again in the second half - only for the Irishman to this time head James Milner's corner wide.
Keeper Petr Cech acknowledged that Chelsea must improve this area of their game and admitted that it is a cause for concern.
He said: "In our last two away games we have conceded three goals from set plays. We need to get back to our discipline in our marking and avoid these goals because it can be costly."
What will also be a worry is that both losses have come before Champions League games. The setback at Wigan was on the eve of a trip to play Apoel Nicosia and Chelsea's next match after the misery of Villa Park is against Atletico Madrid on Wednesday.
There is certainly a suspicion Ancelotti's main focus is to win the Champions League. He made it his priority during his eight years at AC Milan, triumphing in Europe twice will winning Serie A just once, and many of Chelsea's players are also desperate to finally get their hands on the European Cup.
But Carvalho insists the loss against Villa had nothing to do with having one eye on beating Atletico. He said "I don't think it has anything to with the Champions League. It was a difficult game, Villa have a good team, but overall we played much better than them.
"We conceded two goals from corner kicks, which made it difficult for us. I think we created more chances to score more goals."
Reader views (2)
Another out of character defeat and Cech is the problem with Carvalho's lack of form at the moment providing, in my view, a bit of a distraction from this issue.
- Neil, Bedford, England, 20/10/2009 12:04
Report abuse
You may well have hit the nail on the head in Carvalho. His injuries last year were unfortunate and his return has certainly coincided with a worrying amount of indecision at the back. Cech is not blameless in all this either as his own indecisiveness in dealing with aerial balls has been a cause for discomfort as well ever since he returned from his awful head injury a couple of seasons back. prior to that injury he inspired a huge amount of confidence throughout the defence, now I fear there is a certain amount of doubt in the defenders minds when high balls come into the box, particularly from set pieces, and this perhaps also leads to mistakes.
- Graham M, Pattaya, Thailand, 20/10/2009 11:34
Report abuse
