Chelsea are in real danger of being dumped out of the Champions League after an awful 3-1 defeat away from home to Napoli. As predicted here yesterday Chelsea were in trouble against an Italian side who are poor enough in defence but brilliant up front. Chelsea took the lead against the run of play but two goals from Napoli before the break sealed their fate before they were hit with a second half hammer blow and a third goal.

At the start now of Lent many people are asked what they are going off. To a man everyone at Chelsea is saying they are going off the manager , big time. Villas Boas as expected came out last night and defended his team selection leaving the likes of Frank Lampard and Ashley Cole on the bench. It seems Cole was carrying an injury and yet he came on after only twelve minutes.

Now the manager is more isolated than ever. The club are 17 points off the Premiership leaders, they are away to Birmingham in a cup replay and they are going to have to produce something very special to overturn a 3-1 deficit. Already this week Villas Boas declared that not every player was behind him one hundred per cent. They are less likely to follow now.

Chelsea and Villas Boas are in big trouble and whilst he insists the owner is behind him we can only speculate as to what that relationship is like now.

With Chelsea in trouble and Arsenal virtually out after that first leg 4-0 nil drubbing it could be the first time since 1995/96 that an English side hasn’t been in the last eight of the Champions League.