Chelsea -1 Charlton - 0 The breathtaking summer has been followed by a season of huff and puff. The exotic wealth of Roman Abramovich flows into headlines and gurgles into the accounts of clubs from whom players are bought, but it does not refresh Chelsea's performances often enough. The matches are generally arid.
Claudio Ranieri's team will be relieved by this result since a dozen members of the squad were injured, suspended or embroiled with the African Cup of Nations, but this was far from the only occasion when the team have given a halting display.
Although the outcome was merited, victory was delivered solely from a contentious penalty.
When have Chelsea really impressed? The pinnacle, to date, must have been the 1-0 win over Manchester United, yet it is the unblinking professionalism and control that had to be celebrated that day. Chelsea will need far more verve if the grand aims are to be achieved.
The well-funded Ranieri is the Premiership's luckiest manager and also its most vulnerable. This unflaggingly courteous man betrayed a certain fatalism with the recent comment that, if he should be sacked, his successor will taste success with Chelsea. Ranieri is convinced the club is bound for glory but uncertain he will complete the journey with them.
He has perfected a whimsical stoicism. When the visiting supporters chanted, "You're getting sacked in the summer," he turned to them and cried, "No, no, in May, not in the summer." Ranieri would later cite the despairing resignation of Internazionale's president Massimo Moratti, after getting through 103 players and a lot of managers, as proof that even the most opulent of enterprises can falter.
The Italian would prefer to confine his attention to the immediate practicalities, insisting that winning matters even more to him than it does to Abramovich or the chief executive Peter Kenyon, whose endorsement of the manager last week was far from impassioned.
Ranieri is doubly endangered because it is not just honours that Chelsea seek. Kenyon is charged with crafting a global marketing strategy at Stamford Bridge to equal or surpass the strategy that transformed Manchester United. Whether Sven-Goran Eriksson ever takes over from Ranieri, it is essential that someone rekindles the excitement.
There is a laboured quality about the team, with too few sparks of invention and intuition.
The pauses for thought are all too noticeable and there is, therefore, no zip to Chelsea's attacks. There were mitigating factors aplenty yesterday, when he was so short of numbers that the 20-year-old Alexis Nicolas had to be given his first start in the Premiership, but even so the club's advantages were still apparent.
Chelsea could bring on the highly impressive Eidur Gudjohnsen while Charlton failed precisely because they lack a forward of that calibre. Despite the firepower, there was no barrage and when the breakthrough did come it relied upon the referee Steven Bennett's interpretation.
A shot from Adrian Mutu was deflected to Jimmy-Floyd Hasselbaink, who backed forcefully into Mark Fish. The South African then wrapped his arms around the centre-forward and would surely argue that he did so because he had been knocked off balance. Hasselbaink, undistracted by remorse, rolled in the spot-kick.
After the Chelsea centre-back Robert Huth had bumped the ball narrowly wide of his own post in the 76th minute, Matt Holland squandered Claus Jensen's corner kick by heading off-target. Neil Sullivan, deputising for the injured Carlo Cudicini, had little else to make his pulse race.
Chelsea ought to have relieved any slight pressure. Jesper Gronkjaer had struck the bar after four minutes and crosses from the Dane narrowly eluded their targets on other occasions. In the latter stages, Ranieri's side might even have gone on a long-delayed spree.
The opportunities fell, inconveniently, to Mutu who has not scored at home in the Premiership since September. Gudjohnsen sent him beyond Chris Perry in the 81st minute and the Romanian rounded Dean Kiely only to hit the side netting. He was set up again after Fish lost possession to Frank Lampard, but belted his finish off a post.
With two minutes remaining, Gudjohnsen's low ball presented Mutu with an elementary chance but, from close range, Kiely somehow pulled off an extraordinary save to concede a corner.
"I wanted to kill Mutu," Ranieri said of the misses. "Everyone wants to kill me."
