After spending more than £1BN, Chelsea still have gaping holes across the pitch.

Mismatched profiles all over the park is a pointer to the incompetence of Paul Winstanley and Laurence Stewart who have made hard work of assembling a team good enough to sustain a top-3 charge.

This season, when faced against the big teams, the lack of world class, proven players who can make a difference and drag the team forward in difficult times has been a sore loss.

And as it is often the case against the big boys, Chelsea barely threatened today.

Admittedly missing key players through injury (Palmer, Jackson and Madueke), but Chelsea struggles in big games this season are not a one-off but simply a reoccurring theme as seen from games against the big-6, excluding Tottenham.

For those who want to just end the conversation with “Well Cole is injured”, he hasn’t exactly pulled up tree’s in big games either this season.

Comparative to last season, Palmer is held back more by Maresca in his rigid system.

Plus, a result of the money spent, injuries should not be used as an excuse for a team that costs over a billion pounds.

No worthy competition or replacement for an unripe Jackson means the coach always has to improvise whenever Jackson misses a game, a situation far from ideal. 

The manager isn’t alienated from blame as well but if the materials he has to work with aren’t optimal, then expectations have to be minimal. 

The majority of the blame falls to the sporting directors and it’s their mess to clean up.

They have the chance to right their wrongs in the summer but if the team misses out on top five again, then their wrongs might just be too late to repair.

Failure to qualify for the Champions League should rightly cost them their jobs if the owners are any serious about running a successful football club.