Inter Milan 3 - 1 Chelsea FC

Last night Inter Milan knocked Chelsea out of the Champion's League. I'm not angry though because this was not an injustice, like it has been in the past. In fact, I can not be angry because Inter played the way I want Chelsea to play. To be honest, Inter played exactly the game plan I said Chelsea should play for the game. They played 3 central strikers, overlapping wingbacks, an attacking midfielder, a holding midfielder and a central midfielder; a 4-2-1-3. They strangled Cheslea by breaking up midfield play and pushing Anelka and Malouda back, and double teaming Drogba. It was the perfect game which they won by my favorite score line: 3-1.

So, what went wrong? Man for man Chelsea are a better team but last night they were made to look like a bunch of has-been 30 year olds lacking the energy to find the shadows of Inter Milan. Well, they didn't lose tactically. The Anchovy had a decent game plan: play the fullbacks further back, to create stability for midfield, and allow Malouda and Anelka to push forward, Mikel moves 10 yards forward to restrict Sneijder's involvement with the attacking players, Ballack and Lampard mark Cambiasso and Motta and Drogba leads the line.

There was a plan, the team just didn't follow it. In fact, I don't think they wanted to. They were so affected by the fact that they were playing their mentor that they never got out of the "Welcome home" phase. As a result I don't think I saw a single Chelsea player win any individual battles. Every time they went in for a challenge, they lost. Every time Chelsea had possession it was messy and uncontrolled, as if they lacked their confidence in their own ability to beat the opposition.

The truth is, Chelsea haven't yet recovered from losing Mourinho and last night was perfect evidence of that.

The second major problem that was highlighted by last night was Chelsea's lack of options. True, they have a lot of injuries and this limits their options, but there were no real substitutions to make and the options that were available were fairly meaningless. Chelsea took Zhirkov, their least impressive defender, off in order to move Terry out to mark Pandev, Alex to stay with Milito and Ivanovic to stay with Eto'o and then put Kalou up front next to Malouda. They also took Ballack off in order to play a faster, more attacking player there and their only option was Joe Cole. These substitutions were a failure. Joe Cole is not in form and as an attacking player he simply didn't defend enough, and Kalou was left as helpless as the rest of Chelsea's attack simply because the problem was in midfield.

Chelsea were one dimensional, and there was no way to rectify the situation.

The biggest problem which was highlighted was that the Chelsea which played last night was not Carlo Ancelotti's Chelsea. They did not play with his DNA, he did not have the options he would have wanted, but most importantly they were not entirely committed to him. They were torn between the reminder of their victory days with Mourinho, and the attacking, decisive minded play The Anchovy demands. They are not his team and there is a lot of work yet to happen before this will be the case. Chelsea need to buy, and sell, quite a few players. They need another goalkeeper and at least one more center half, another holding midfielder, another central midfielder or two and possibly two or three strikers. They need to be about 24 years old, so that they can bridge the gap between the older, current players and the very promising up and coming players in the Chelsea Academy. They need to play the 4-3-3 system the club is built on, but with the balanced attack that Milan had, based on technical brilliance and commitment. They need his DNA, in the same way Inter have the Special One's DNA.