It's difficult to find many positives at this current time as a Chelsea fan.

This is undoubtedly our lowest period for a fair few years, something that was bound to happen, but something maybe we shouldn't be so surprised at?

For Ancelotti to be taking the full flak of this is heresy in my opinion, 11 dropped points in our last 5 games is not far from disastrous but the players must stand up and take the blame.

Players surely to blame for dark moment. ©Getty Images

As the title of this blog says, there must be a sense that our overachievement of the last year has finally come to an end.

I say overachievement because if you were to step back and look at the lack of investment and the ageing of already not too young players, winning the double was nothing short of spectacular.

I'm not saying that we didn't deserve our victories last year, we were superb. But what I am saying is that we achieved those feats with a team of players who performed outstandingly.

Now they are having a bad spell it reflects within the team. Drogba is certainly not the deadly Ivorian of the last few seasons, and Malouda can't carry the team all the time.

In fact I think it would be fair to say that asides from Malouda, Cole, Cech and Anelka we really haven't had any great performers in the last month.

Kalou once again frustrates. Thankfully with his glaring misses he brings the odd important goal - as he did yesterday.

But this is a player who has been trying to force a place off the bench for four seasons, he just doesn't do enough to warrant a starting place for me.

The unfortunate situation with Sala is, for all of his goals there are far more important misses. His goal yesterday was taken well, his miss was glaring. And this is not exactly the first example.

It isn't all negative. As mentioned Cole, Cech, Anelka and Malouda have been great, not great enough to carry a team of XI all by themselves though.

Mikel has been great this season, there were flashes of his old self yesterday when he gifted possession away for the move that led to the goal - in his defence there was an awful lot of football played in between his misplaced pass and Andy Carroll finishing.

Ramires showed signs of improvement too, he was far more physical and more eager to jump into the challenge yesterday. A sign of better to come?

The main thing to remember with Chelsea is during this (in the word's of Carlo Ancelotti) "bad moment", we are far weaker than last season.

Alongside injuries to our leader's on the pitch, Terry & Lampard, we have a lack of Ballack on the bench, and not forgetting Carvalho (although this is arguable as he is currently getting battered by Barcelona!).

A player like Ballack would be indispensable in a time when we are missing two major players in the middle of the pitch. His physicality is certainly missed, I have always stated that he was a great influence, he could break play up and had bundles of experience.

Our midfield without this sort of player is very lightweight. Ramires may be improving, but he is easily bypassed by attacks and at this time really isn't providing enough creativity.

The European game in midweek showed us our longest glimpse of McEachran thus far, maybe he really is a viable option for that midfield role. I wouldn't be as skeptical of it as I may have felt previously.

Kakuta played very well too, it was odd that Kalou replaced him against Zilina, but it could have been a question of experience.

There is a lot to feel down about at the moment, but I think we need to be realistic and the reality is that without further investment and the injury problems we are experiencing, could we really maintain a serious title challenge and gun for Europe too?

This could all change, I hope I'm proven wrong. But there is a sense of foreboding for me at the moment, we have a ridiculous schedule of tough games in December. We can't possibly take full points, at this rate we'd be lucky with any. Something needs to change.

Much has been said in the press about Wilkins leaving having its effect on the team. I don't particularly believe that. This is much of the same team who lost their mentor Mourinho and managed to take Avram Grant to the Champions' League final!

The other stories about Abramovich wanting a set up like Barcelona are almost laughable. He employed an Italian manager - the exact opposite to the Catalunian style - and must be dreaming that you can suddenly transport their way of play across countries. It ain't gonna happen.

Clubs who win things have to pick themselves up when they are down, we've done it before and I pray to god we can do it again. It is a thoroughly tough time for us, we should count ourselves lucky that we are only two off top.

So on that rather sombre note.

Keep The Blue Flag Flying High (Even when you're down!).