Then, at half time, the Tinkerman did what he does worst. Replacing Jesper Gronkjaer with Juan Veron seemed like a pretty stupid move. Ten minutes into the second half, when Claude Makelele's oscar winning performance helped get Zikos sent off it seemed even stupider. That's hindsight for you!
From that point onwards, Chelsea went into cruise control. The effort shown in both Champions League games against Arsenal, had clearly been left back in West London. The usually assured John Terry, whilst still his commanding self, was not reading the game well.
With just over 12 minutes to go, JT and Marcel were both caught ball watching. Morientes doesn't need any invitation to go for goal and he made them pay. Five minutes later, rather than Chelsea pulling level again, Monaco went further ahead. Shabani Nonda, on for seemingly 20 seconds, beat JT to a cross that should have seen row Z. Instead, Marco Ambrosio made a hash of it- and it was good night Chelsea.
Prior to the goals, Claudio brought on Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink for Mario Melchiot. Moving the central midfielder Scott Parker to right back. Scott Parker was then replaced by central defender Robert Huth, who spent most of his time on the right wing. Confused? You bet the players were!
But although the result wasn't great, there are positives to take out of the game. We do have an away goal, meaning that a 2-0 win is enough to see us through. And we will also have Damien Duff and William Gallas back for the return leg. Boy are we going to need them!
What we don't need, is to hear Chelsea fans ringing in radio phone ins and calling for Claudio Ranieri's head. Come on guys, this is the same guy who got it tactically spot on to beat Arsenal earlier in the month!
Win or lose in the return, we need to Keep The Blue Flag Flying High! As the Tinkerman says, "Together with all our hearts"...