Chelsea in the dock over anti-Ferdinand chants

ON THE FACE of it, a 1-1 draw with Genk in the Champions League represented an adequate night's work for Chelsea. But in reality the Blues' trip to Belgium turned into a nightmare on and off the pitch.
 
Earlier in the week new manager Andre Villas-Boas read his team the riot act after two straight defeats in the league, and he would have expected a reaction against the minnows of Group E, whom they thrashed 5-0 at Stamford Bridge last month.
 
He would also have been hoping to deflect attention away from the John Terry race row, after the defender was accused of racially abusing QPR's Anton Ferdinand during a match last month.
 
However, things did not pan out that way:

• Just before kick off it emerged that the Metropolitan Police have begun a formal investigation into the allegations that Terry called Ferdinand a "fucking black cunt". The move increases the pressure on Terry and has led to calls for him to be stripped of the England captaincy. It also means that an FA investigation into the incident cannot be completed until the police have concluded their investigation. Terry was an unused substitute in the game.

• The Chelsea fans responded to the news of the police investigation by producing anti-Ferdinand chants during the match in Belgium. Sections of the Blues support could be heard chanting: "Anton Ferdinand, you know what you are." The club was forced to issue a statement after the game condemning the songs as "wholly inappropriate". Manager Villas-Boas claimed he had not heard the fans. "I was concentrating on the game," he said.

• On the pitch, Chelsea's revamped team, with five changes to the one that lost to Arsenal on Saturday, failed to dominate Genk. They did take the lead through Ramires after 25 minutes but were unable to add to it.

• There were chaotic scenes when Chelsea were awarded a first half penalty. With the Blues' usual penalty taker, Frank Lampard, on the bench at the time, none of the senior players on the pitch – who included Fernando Torres, Nicolas Anelka and Florent Malouda - were prepared to take responsibility. In the confusion, the young defender David Luiz grabbed the ball, took the spot kick and missed.

• Genk forward Jelle Vossen equalised in the second half and the home side had chances to win the game, even though Chelsea brought on Lampard to try and restore control.

The silver lining for Chelsea is that they are still top of their group and a win in their next game at Bayer Leverkusen in a fortnight’s time will get them into the knock-out stages of the competition.
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