25 down; 13 to go.

We're now two-thirds of the way through the season and the early season optimism has been well and fully dashed. While challenging for the title in a season of transition was always going to be a pipe-dream, I don't think even the most pessimistic of us expected this much struggle. Once we were challenging the Manchester duo for a place at the top, now we find ourselves locked in mortal combat for that all-important 4th place and the last remaining Champions League spot.

Having collected just 2 points from the last three (by way of a last-minute lucky deflection, a thrown-away 3-goal lead at the Bridge, and the season's the worst performance), it is certainly make-it or break-it time at Chelsea. Regardless of who gets blamed for all that, Chelsea need to rediscover some semblance of form and quick, lest we risk fading into true mediocrity.

For we're surrounded by three hungry, also deeply flawed teams: Arsenal, Newcastle, Liverpool. Fortunately, just like Chelsea, not one of them looks capable of true excellence...

Let's take a look at their performances so far this season and the challenges that lie ahead to see if we can glean any insight as to might claim that 4th place ribbon.

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With the Guardian getting rid of their chalkboards (sad!) I'm going to have to figure out a different way of working up match analyses. Until I do, however, I'm going to compromise and just do player ratings. These are entirely subjective and don't mean a whole lot, so don't complain too much when I say something you disagree with.

The scale is from 0-10, with 5 as Premier League average (and I'd consider a 6 the minimum acceptable from a Chelsea player). These grades are completely uninformed by statistics. Go ahead and add yours in the comments.

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That was complete and utter dross. What more does anyone want to say? Everton were a better team, and we were abysmal. Chelsea did nothing in attack except ping in terrible crosses, the centrebacks were exposed by awful play from the central midfielders and the fullbacks, and it looked like we were playing down a man for more or less the entirety of the second half.

Most of the team completely failed to show up. Fernando Torres was once again complete and utter crap. Juan Mata decided that the aerial route was the way to go for some stupid reason. I don't know what the hell Daniel Sturridge was doing, but despite it being energetic it wasn't particularly useful. Ashley Cole was so bad his injury came as something of a relief (and at least Ryan Bertrand was good).

This isn't acceptable. Dropped points and losses are fine but this sort of performance is not. This was an embarrassment, and if Andre Villas-Boas makes a single peep about how it wasn't a fair result he deserves to be kicked in the nuts repeatedly. You're a motivator, right? So [fun]ing motivate!

2-0. God.

Everton starting lineup (4-5-1): Tim Howard; Leighton Baines, Johnny Heitinga, Sylvain Distin, Phil Neville; Steven Pienaar, Marouane Fellaini, Tim Cahill, Darron Gibson, Landon Donovan; Dennis Stracqualursi.

Substitutes from: Jan Mucha, Tony Hibbert, Royston Drenthe, Magaye Gueye, Ross Barkley, Apostolos Vellios, Shane Duffy

Chelsea starting lineup (4-3-3): Petr Cech; Ashley Cole, David Luiz, Branislav Ivanovic, Jose Bosingwa; Michael Essien, Frank Lampard, Raul Meireles; Juan Mata, Fernando Torres, Daniel Sturridge.

Substitutes from: Ross Turnbull, Paulo Ferreira, Ryan Bertrand, Gary Cahill, John Obi Mikel, Florent Malouda, Romelu Lukaku.

Welcome back, Frank.

It's difficult to gauge just how I feel about Chelsea right now. On the one hand, they've earned a grand total of three points out of the last nine. On the other... wait a second, that's terrible. Alright!

Chelsea managed to avoid losing against Manchester United last weekend in pretty much the worst possible way, giving up three goals in the final forty minutes to end up with a draw when a win looked certain. That put pretty much everyone in a bad mood, but it's important to remember that we were a spectacular David de Gea save away from getting a win against the defending champions. No matter how you slice it, coming that close to beating United is a good thing. Failing to actually do it? Not so good.

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Chelsea's performance against Man United raised a lot of debates among fans and commentators of the game. But there is no disagreement when it comes to the quality of Juan Mata's goal -- it was absolutely brilliant! A thumping finish that the beautiful cross from Torres deserves.

The build up to this goal is also very interesting. It wasn't direct but it was quick -- it took only 23 seconds from start to finish. Plus, it was built on forward and backward ball movement on just one side (Chelsea's right) of the pitch rather than the usual slow side-to-side progression (like this one against Man City and this one against Sunderland). Let's look at the second-by-second break down of this build up, shall we?

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Cast your mind to a few hours ago. Most of us were praying for a snow day. Chelsea had a missing list consisting of Ashley Cole, John Terry, John Obi Mikel, Frank Lampard, Ramires, Salomon Kalou and Didier Drogba. They were forced to field a bench consisting almost entirely of toddlers. And they were facing the defending champions. Things looked ugly.

And yet we came away with a point - and I'd argue we very much deserved to get all three. Some quick (positive) thoughts in lieu of a full match report (we'll do that one later):

• Michael Essien's back, and was superb for most of the game.
• Juan Mata's goal was pretty much the best thing ever.
• Jose Bosingwa answered his critics with an absolutely sterling display at left back.
• Gary Cahill had an excellent debut, making me look silly.
• We scored three goals against Manchester United.
• The 4-2-3-1 worked pretty nicely.
• David Luiz is a hero.

Yeah, it's disappointing that we went from 3-0 up to a 3-3 full time, but even then it took a pair of great saves by David de Gea and a blown chance from Raul Meireles to keep it level. It's a good result, and by and large it was a good performance. It just didn't work out. I'm still pleased with the team today.

Chelsea starting lineup (4-2-3-1): Petr Cech; Jose Bosingwa, David Luiz, Gary Cahill, Branislav Ivanovic; Michael Essien, Raul Meireles; Florent Malouda, Juan Mata, Daniel Sturridge; Fernando Torres.

Substitutes from: Ross Turnbull, Paulo Ferreira, Ryan Bertrand, Sam Hutchinson, Oriol Romeu, Lucas Piazon, Romelu Lukaku.

Manchester United starting lineup: David de Gea; Patrice Evra, Rio Ferdinand, Jonny Evans, Rafael da Silva; Ashley Young, Ryan Giggs, Michael Carrick, Antonio Valencia; Wayne Rooney, Danny Welbeck.

Substitutes from: Ben Amos, Fabio da Silva, Paul Pogba, Paul Scholes, Park Ji-Sung, Javier Hernandez, Dimitar Berbatov.

For the sake of my sanity, I'm listing this as a 4-2-3-1. Otherwise I hate this lineup.