It does not matter who starts in goal for Chelsea - until Frank Lampard sorts out their defensive issues, they can forget about any hopes of winning the title.
The Blues produced a stirring comeback from three goals down to rescue a 3-3 draw at West Brom on Saturday evening, with Tammy Abraham scoring an injury-time equaliser.
But there was little celebration from Lampard at the final whistle after more defensive shortcomings cost his side at The Hawthorns.
Two individual errors and more bad defending from a corner gifted West Brom three goals in the first half and left Chelsea with a mountain to climb.
Goals from Mason Mount, Callum Hudson-Odoi and Abraham earned a draw, but this was more crucial dropped points.
There has been a lot of talk this week about the goalkeeping situation at Chelsea but the £22million signing of Edouard Mendy will not fix those defensive shortcomings that have undermined them since Lampard took over at the start of last season.
Mendy did not play against West Brom having only joined on Thursday and it was no real surprise that Lampard dropped Kepa Arrizabalaga and started Willy Caballero.
But no goalkeeper could do anything about the horrible mistakes by Marcos Alonso and Thiago Silva that gave Callum Robinson two early goals.
First Alonso gifted West Brom possession with a weak header and Robinson fired past Caballero. Then Silva let a square ball roll under his foot and Robinson nipped in to race clear and score another.
Silva, who was named Chelsea captain on his Premier League debut, was brought in to help eradicate those errors but the worry for Lampard is that this problem is deep-rooted.
Then more slack marking by Alonso from a corner left Kyle Bartley in the penalty area to make it 3-0.
There were positives for Lampard in the character his side showed in the second half and the impact of Hudson-Odoi off the bench.
But these defensive shortcomings have been their undoing under his management and he knows they cannot even think about challenging Liverpool and Manchester City until they sort them out.
