Odds lengthen on top-six joy for McClaren

Middlesbrough, on the other hand, are proving a far more borderline bet. The pedigree is proven, the ability is apparent and, as last season proved, the Teessiders know how to stay the distance.

But, this morning, the league table shows they remain seven points adrift of a European place. Despite Saturday's spirited showing at Stamford Bridge, the odds on that changing by the end of the season remain utterly uncertain.

Throw Boro into a cup competition and they perform like thoroughbreds. In Europe, they have already reached the last 32 of the UEFA Cup after failing to concede a goal in five successive games and, in the Carling Cup, a quarter-final visit from Blackburn represents a navigable passage to the semi-final stage.

In the Premiership, though, Steve McClaren's men have misfired. Just when it seems they have finally turned the corner, they stumble at the very next hurdle.

That might seem a harsh assessment on the back of a narrow defeat at the home of the champions. Boro performed admirably for much of the game and could have produced one of the shocks of the season had Jimmy-Floyd Hasselbaink's 14th-minute shot not rebounded from the foot of the post.

In the end, though, they slipped meekly to their sixth defeat of the campaign. Despite all of the upheaval that has been going on at Newcastle this week, the misfiring Magpies have as many Premiership points as Middlesbrough.

"We shouldn't be talking about the bottom half of the league," admitted McClaren. "But we need to remember that we've only lost three of our last 13 games.

"We suffered from inconsistency at the start of the season and it's no use trying to deny that. But we are getting over that now.

"We didn't deserve to lose (against Chelsea) and there won't be many teams this season who are able to say that. We deserved to get something out of the game.

"I said to the players, 'You should be proud of your performance'. On another day, we would have scored and come away with a result. If we continue to play like that over the whole of the season, we will win more games than we lose."

Perhaps, but performing against the likes of Chelsea has not been Boro's problem this term. Wins over Manchester United and Arsenal underline the potential that exists in McClaren's squad, but defeats to the likes of Sunderland, West Ham and Everton also highlight the deficiencies.

A lack of consistency has obviously been the problem but, as Saturday proved, it is difficult to identify individuals on which to pin the blame.

Barring the indefensible home defeats to Sunderland and Charlton, Boro have not played badly in the league this season. They have frittered a succession of points away, though, and that is a habit that is proving difficult to shake off.

The defence have been at the root of the problem, with Boro's last Premiership clean sheet coming way back on August 23. Against Chelsea, McClaren changed formation again by pairing Gareth Southgate with Chris Riggott at the heart of a flat back four. In the absence of Stuart Parnaby, Matthew Bates was asked to fill in as a makeshift right back.

The former ploy was successful with Riggott winning the physical battle with Didier Drogba and Southgate mopping up anything that came his way. The latter was more of a problem, though, with Bates inevitably struggling to handle the wing wizardy of Arjen Robben.

He was hampered by a lack of cover, and that inevitably brings us to one of McClaren's biggest headaches at the moment. What should he do with Fabio Rochemback?

The Brazilian midfielder has been something of an enigma since he arrived on Teesside in August - a revelation on his debut against Arsenal, largely anonymous ever since.

While his ability is not open to question, his positional play is a different matter altogether and, after trying him in a variety of midfield berths, McClaren has gravitated towards giving him the free role he occupied at Chelsea.

Going forward, it undoubtedly caused the home side problems. Michael Essien struggled to track the South American's runs, while Yakubu benefited from his probing passes.

But, at the other end of the field, Rochemback's liberation played into Chelsea's hands. George Boateng was forced to operate as a problem-shooting right midfielder - though he never got close enough to Robben to eradicate the problem entirely - while Doriva found himself engulfed by both Frank Lampard and Eidur Gudjohnsen.

"Rochemback is going to be a great player for us," said McClaren. "It may take him a while longer to settle in though. He ran the show against Arsenal when he first arrived at the club and he wants the ball all the time.

"He makes us play and he can certainly play himself. He has great quality and he's only 23. He will get better and better as he settles into things fully."

Undoubtedly he will but, away from home, he needs to play with more discipline. As Saturday's game wore on, Chelsea's midfielders enjoyed more and more space.

Lampard sent two simple side-footers sailing over the crossbar, Robben curled narrowly over the top after jinking between Bates and Boateng, and Drogba somehow contrived to miss from no more than six yards.

Yet the goal that settled the game was a far more basic affair. Chelsea's power from set-pieces had been apparent in the first half when Rochemback was forced to clear off the line from both William Gallas and Terry.

After the interval, he was unable to complete his hat-trick. Damien Duff delivered a corner from the right, Terry applied a powerful downward header, and Rochemback was unable to prevent the ball crossing the line from his position on the post.

"Some linesmen wouldn't have given the goal," mused McClaren, remembering the dreadful decision that cost his side a point at West Ham.

"Or at least one linesman in particular."

Surely even Terry wouldn't have staked money on a repeat of something like that.