Leaving aside who Laura might be in this situation, it seems that events at Stamford Bridge might turn out to be a microcosm of our league season - plenty to be optimistic about, a slender lead, but ultimate disappointment. Still there's always the Champions League…
Manuel Almunia - 6 - Will be disappointed with the second goal, but was impressive on the whole.
Bacary Sagna - 7 - Sad that the joy of his first goal for the club quickly turned sour. Excellent as ever.
Kolo Toure - 7 - Some excellent last-ditch defending, but why does it always have to be last-ditch?
William Gallas - 7 - Troubled by Drogba, but then who isn't? It is not the quality of our defenders that is the problem but the balance of the defence.
Gael Clichy - 8 - If any player didn't deserve to be on the losing side it was Gael - one of his best performances of an impressive season.
Emmanuel Eboue - 4 - Was it the mindless booking after five minutes, the twice making runs directly behind the player with the ball or the cross that couldn't have been more off target if the American military has been involved? Not sure which really wound me up most, but after encouraging signs against Boro this was a terrible performance.
Francesc Fabregas - 7 - Here, there and everywhere, but didn't have enough targets up front to find the penetrating pass.
Mathieu Flamini - 7 - All-action excellence from Flamini and was quickly off the bench at the end to salute the crowd - something that was lacking from certain players.
Alexander Hleb - 6 - Played down the centre and struggled to make headway against Carvahlo and Terry.
Robin van Persie - 6 - Starting to regain sharpness but this was no game in which to be even slightly off the pace.
Emmanuel Adebayor - 5 - It's a hard task to play up front on your own against quality centre backs and was given a lesson by the man at the other end of the pitch.
Substitutes:
Abou Diaby - 5 - Little impact.
Theo Walcott - 5 - Little ball.
Nicklas Bendtner - n/a - Little point.