Birminham City 0 - 0 Chelsea

After disappointing performances against Portsmouth, where we only just managed a win, and West Ham where we were lucky to get a draw, it was off to St Andrews for a tricky Boxing Day away tie against an in form Birmingham City. Sturridge starts for the injured Anelka, the Drog is making his last appearance before African Nations duty and Belletti comes in for Ballack.

Updates from my Twitter feed

• The frame of the Brum goal is still shaking from a thunderous Alex free kick but an open, even end2end 1st half ends 0-0 at St Andrews

• An hour gone and Cech saves a superb curling free kick from Larson to keep this open and enthralling encounter at 0-0

• Lamps is off and Joe Cole is on for final 10mins - big call from Carlo. Even tho Brum have been disciplined & dangerous, 3 points was a must

• Chelsea are down to 10men as Malouda is sent off for a stupid 2nd yellow card - there's 6mins of added time after an injury to Joe Hart

• So it's 2pts dropped in a game where 3 were required. This is not premiership winning form and we'll be luck to be 3rd by end Jan at this rate.

The Blues had the best of the 1st half chances, though Brum had a goal disallowed for offside in the 1st half, and Joe Hart was forced into two stunning saved from Sturridge and Lamps. Alex also crashed a 35yrd rocket of a free kick off the bar inst the bar, while Sturridge poked a good cross by the Drog just wide. The second half was more of the same with the Blues creating but failing to convert the better of the chances. It was definately 2 points dropped

Read the Sky match report is here

Now we face another difficult tie at home to Fulham on Monday - come on you Blues !!!

Chelsea 3 - 3 Everton

The Blues play hosts to Everton with Ballack coming in for the injured Essien as Jedi keeps the holding role and Joe Cole is in at the head of the diamond.

A bright start from the Blues and within 3mins a good trough ball from Ballack finds the Drog but his shot squirms wide. Everton are getting back into this and on 11mins a floated free kick from the right comes off JT's head, hits the post and then go in as it bounces off the back of Cech. Its 0-1 to Everton but their lead lasts just 5mins as Ricky dispossess Saha in the centre and feeds Lamps whose layoff releases the Drog and his superb strike levels the game. The pressure is building on Everton now and on 22mins we're ahead as a corner from Lamps is not cleared and after a few bobbles the ball breaks to Anelka who pokes home. Its 2-1 and a great response from the blues. Another Baines free kick is not dealt with on 30mins but this time Cech easily collects. The humour is coming from Jo who goes down under almost every tackle like a sack of spuds and clearly wants to be taken off. He finally gets his way in injury time but his replacement - Yakubu - the gets on the end of another goalmouth scramble, this time from an Everton long throw, and pokes an equalizer past Cech. Carlo will be fuming.

The Blues have got a lot to do in this second half and get off to a good start with the Drog and Joe Cole working early openings. The pressure pays off just before the hour mark as Drogba guides home a cushioned volley to make it 3-2 from an Ivanovich cross. Within 2mins though it's another disaster in the Blues 6 yards box as Chelsea defend a fee kick way too deep and Drogbas headed clearance bounces back in past Cech off Sahar - its 3-3. Ballack nearly restores the lead from a free kick on 75mins which draws a good save from Howard and 2 more chances that fall to Ivanovich and Cole go begging. Cole is replaced by Malouda and Chelsea continue to press but time is running out as Carlo prepares to introduce Borini for the final 3mins but it makes little difference as Ballack drags the final chance wide and the Blues drop points again.

This is a major setback (even accepting the comedy of errors) and we're left hoping that Villa can do us a favour as they take on Man U

More from Davy Knowles

I blogged earlier about Davy Knowles - a young bluesman from the Isle of Man who just seems to be rippin up the blues scene at the moment. The more I hear him the more I'm reminded of a young Rory Gallagher

Here's another clip, this time its the title cut from his latest album "Coming up for Air"

Its been a tough few weeks ...

.... for the Blues since the 0-3 thumping of Arsenal.

A game that was essentially men against boys and underlined the Blues title credentials has been followed by two draws and a defeat - albeit two of these games were a Carling Cup tie against Blackburn that ened 3-3 (but resulted in a 4-3 defeat on penalties) and a meaning less last CL game against Apoel Nicosia that ended 2-2. However, sandwiched in between was a 2-1 defeat to the premierships new moneybags - Man City - which was a far more worrying slip up as it allowed Man U to close the gap to just two points. Whilst some people will bemoan Cechs positioning for the Tevez free kick or insist that Lamps should have buried the penalty awarded in the last 10mins, the reality was that we were second best all over the part in that game and now minds have top be refocused on Saturdays home game against Everton.

The Muppets do BoRhap

Nnow this is back in full HD, it needed a posting
Enjoy

Chelsea 4 - 0 Wolves

The blues systematically dismantled a Wolves side who looked to have set their stall out to contain potential damage rather than achieve any great upset. I was tweeting from the game so rtahert than a full match report which you can get here from Sky, here are my tweets.

1. The blues are 1 up inside 5mins as Malouda cracks one home from 30yrds on the end of a quick counter attack 3:08 AM Nov 21st
2. Essien gets a 2nd as he drifts in unmarked to head home from a Malouda corner. 2-0 with 11mins on the clock 3:14 AM Nov 21st
3. Ess gets his 2nd & Chelsea's 3rd with a daisy cutter down the middle that goes right thru Hennessey in the Wolves goal. Showboat time. 3:25 AM Nov 21st
4. Cech gets down to his left to make a superb save on 39mins. The Wolves fans spend the next 6mins ole-ing every pass. Its 3-0 at half time 3:48 AM Nov 21st
5. Inevitably its 4-0 after some gr8 hold up play from Anelka the ball is laid back to Joe Cole whose shot slips in the far post 4:17 AM Nov 21st
6. The kids are on - Borini, Kakuta and Matic have replaced Kalu, Anelka and Malouda as the Blues are turning this into an exhibition 4:40 AM Nov 21st

It reallky was that easy but great to finnaly see Kakuta who looked pretty good (understatement)
Now off to Porto and the sall task of finishing top of our CL group
Come on you Blues

The blues is in good hands..

Just as Joe Bonamassa hits the mainstream so The Times ran an article this weekend on another little know blues guitar virtuoso - though this time from the Isle of Man rather than upstate New York.

Davy Knowles has been kicking around for a while now with his band Back Door Slam but he has a new line up and a new album, called Coming up for Air, produced by Peter Frampton so he may just be about to break through big style. Take a look at the performances below and tell me what you think

Davy was just 20 when 'Come Home' below was promo'd back in 2007 but even then he was displaying the vocal and guitar licks of a well seasoned blues man



Saving Myself is going to be on the new album



Finally, a cool version of Messing with the Kid which brings back memories of the late great Rory Gallagher