Why THIS should be Chelsea’s starting defensive line-up:

Andre Villas-Boas heaped ever more pressure on himself last night as he decided to leave out Frank Lampard and Ashley Cole as they succumb to a 3-1 defeat in Naples.

According to reports Villas-Boas invited the players to a meeting where he asked the players to speak their minds. “I came here to win trophies and medals, but I’m never going to do that with your tactics” Ashley Cole was alleged to have said this in the meeting along with other players who questioned the manager. Villas-Boas decided to drop Cole but ironically he was called into action after just 12 minutes on the clock. Villas- Boas was outraged by Cole’s comments which he said were too personal. Cole made a vital clearance off the line stopping the game going to 4-1 and putting Chelsea completely out of the tie.

Both defences were carved open last night but Napoli were the side who managed to capitalise on the errors putting themselves in a commanding position when they meet at Stamford Bridge. The highly rated trio of Ezequiel Lavezzi, Marek Hamšík and Edinson Cavani put Chelsea under constant pressure throughout the game and played a massive part in securing a two goal cushion for the return fixture in London.

Selection Headache

If Villas-Boas continues to play David Luiz they will continue to concede goals as he looks as like he’s playing out of position at centre half. He runs with the ball can pass but when it comes to defending he is very limited and seeing as he has scored more goals than Torres for Chelsea he would fit perfectly into a holding midfield role. Branislav Ivanovic and Gary Cahill need to be the partnership now that Terry is side-lined for six weeks.

Personally, I feel this is the best centre half pairing and need to be given playing time together.  José Bosingwa is also struggling to hold down the right back position as he continues to get exposed which is also hurting Chelsea at the back. Another thing that would baffle me if I was a Chelsea fan would be letting Alex go to Paris Saint-German, he stated that he did not get enough game time and with Terry out injured would provide Chelsea with top quality cover.

It’s looking like Villas-Boas is slowly losing the players belief and he has already lost a large proportion of the Chelsea faithful but with three winnable games coming up shortly, he may be able to regain some faith or a little more time. Chelsea face Bolton, West Brom and the replay against Birmingham which should really be three wins for the struggling manager over the next couple of weeks.

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