Chelsea failure leaves little room to maneuver

Its Champions League defense over before it even began, Chelsea must now try to salvage a season that threatens to unravel before its eyes.

Wednesday's 6-1 win at home to FC Nordsjaelland was not enough to carry the Blues into the last 16 and the consolation of a Europa League berth is likely to be viewed as a booby prize at Stamford Bridge.

Owner Roman Abramovich has not invested his millions to see Chelsea compete in a second-tier tournament and interim manager Rafael Benitez will find it difficult to juggle his resources between competitions.

Benitez's popularity will not have been helped by Chelsea's ignominious exit from the competition it won less than seven months ago, but the Club World Cup provides an immediate opportunity to move forward.

After visiting Sunderland on Saturday - a game Benitez described as "my only target" - Chelsea flies to Japan, where it will start as favorite to win a tournament in which it has never competed.

Benitez prevailed in the inter-continental contest in 2010 with his previous club, Inter Milan, and success could buy him time with Chelsea supporters who vowed never to accept him.

However, the timing of the Club World Cup, which concludes just before English soccer's hectic Christmas schedule, means Chelsea faces a gruelling end to the year.

Starting with either the final or the third-place playoff in the Club World Cup on Dec 16, it will have to play seven times in the space of 22 days.

With a small core of 13 players who have started more than five league games this season, it threatens to leave Benitez's squad gasping for breath.

Chelsea hopes to welcome stalwarts John Terry and Frank Lampard back from injury soon, but although the return of two such strong personalities will inevitably galvanize the squad, it also raises thorny questions.

With Terry, 31, and Lampard, 34, neither player can be said to represent Chelsea's future, but Benitez's interim status makes it difficult for him to adopt a long-term strategy concerning the team's evolution.

His two immediate predecessors - Andre Villas-Boas and Roberto Di Matteo - both failed to handle the transition from old to new, and with Benitez keen to land the role on a permanent basis, he may not be inclined to take risks by marginalizing influential players.

Fernando Torres scored twice in the Nordsjaelland rout, but his dismal form has become synonymous with the club's recent struggles, and with Daniel Sturridge reportedly angling for a move away, Chelsea appears set to move for a striker in the January transfer window.

Atletico Madrid's all-action Colombian center-forward Falcao has been touted as a likely target, but he will not be cheap and Abramovich already invested heavily in the preseason.

The 3-1 loss at West Ham United on Saturday marked Chelsea's seventh league game without a win - its worst sequence in 17 years - and the two Manchester clubs are already galloping into the distance.

Benitez says his absolute priority, first and foremost, is to improve performances on the pitch.

"At the moment, we just have to look at the game in front of us and what we need to do to win it, then we look at the next game, and then the next," he wrote in his program notes on Wednesday. "That is how you have to focus - if we begin to improve the things we are trying to do on the pitch, then the results will improve and things will start to look more positive."

(China Daily 12/07/2012 page24)