Promising yet eventually fruitless!

So, my predictions last weekend were pretty close weren't they? I got the winner of the Aussie Open final right (though I had the number of sets wrong...I said 4 when indeed it went the length), and I had the Super Bowl winner and the winning margin right! Not bad eh? By my estimation, I had less than a 25% chance of this so I was quite happy at the way things turned out. If only I had gambled...

Anyway, yet another week has passed and Chelsea have stumbled yet again! After the Liverpool debacle last weekend, upon which I refused comment out of sheer frustration, followed a hapless 0-0 draw at home against Hull City. In between, there was a glimmer of hope that coach Scolari had somewhat realized the folly of his ways when Portuguese winger Ricardo Quaresma was signed on loan from Inter Milan. However, against Hull, he again showed a poor handling of the game. Surely, time is now running out on the old Brazilian.

The omens were not good when John Terry missed an absolute sitter, which is surely a candidate for miss of the season, from 2 yards out with a gaping goal in front of him. To be fair, Chelsea did dominate the first half quite comprehensively and had a couple of very poor offside decisions go against them and one clear penalty inexplicably denied by the referee (and linesman). However, they lost their composure in the second half and started simply punting long balls into the Hull City half which were easily repelled and the visitors grew in confidence, creating a few clear chances for themselves at the other end. Here's where Scolari should have taken charge.

His first change was a decent one, Belletti on for Mikel. A slightly positive substitution, and Mikel was not having a good game so the change was warranted. His second one was more questionable, taking off Quaresma for Drogba and shoving Anelka off to the left wing, where he is clearly ineffective and unhappy. Clearly, there was a need for Drogba but the smarter option would have been to take off the plodding Ballack (which he did eventually) for Drogba and switch to a more attacking 4-4-2 with Quaresma and Belletti on the flanks, Lampard and Ballack in the middle, and Drogba and Anelka playing up top. Tell me how this formation isn't worth a shot when your 4-3-3 or rather 4-5-1 is clearly being ineffective! And then he compounds his mistake by taking off Ballack and replacing him with the lightweight Deco, who is certainly not suited for an old-fashioned scrap like it was.

The 4-4-2 is a slightly risky formation since there is no holding midfielder, but against struggling Hull City and when he finally have the balance to play two wingers (Kalou and Quaresma could have started as wingers in a 4-4-2 with Lampard and Mikel in the centre of the park), Scolari chose not to be adventurous and paid the price for it. All this would have been moot had Terry stabbed home from point-blank range, but then as they say, fortune favours the brave, and Scolari has certainly not shown that in a season that is quickly slipping away from him.

Felipe, it's getting desperate now (Chelsea are 4th and in the final Champions League spot), so please throw caution to the wind. Perhaps some pride can be salvaged. Otherwise, a season that started quite promisingly is poised to become eventually fruitless.