Chelsea FC: Terrible Offense Will Mean Loss to Napoli in Champions League

Chelsea has a tall order ahead of themselves—they are the only English club left in the Champions League.

Arsenal mounted an incredible comeback to just barely miss the ledge against AC Milan last week, losing on aggregate 4-3.

Chelsea, however, is gearing up to rally against a first-leg result of 3-1 and avoid being the second English club in two weeks to have an Italian side—in the Blues' case it's Napoli—send them packing.

With a two-goal deficit, things look dire for Chelsea, and if their recent form tells me anything it's that a two-goal comeback just isn't in the cards.

This season, Napoli has won with patient, defensively focused tactics. They're in the middle of a seven-game win streak in Serie A and they've done it by conceding only four goals. The even crazier thing is that out of those seven matches, five of them were clean sheets.

Napoli's trio of centre-backs Paolo Cannavaro, Salvatore Aronica and Hugo Armando Campagnaro have protected goalkeeper Morgan De Sanctis incredibly well this season, allowing him to face very few shots and leading to his nine clean sheets. They are truly a club who are firing on all cylinders.

Chelsea, however, the exact opposite.

There aren't any cylinders to fire on. They're inconsistent, looking more and more like a club that is stumbling to wake up. There's dissension in the clubhouse as some Blues players are publicly supporting former manager Andre Villas-Boas and some are staying silent, waiting until the summer transfer window opens to leave what they think is a sinking ship.

But more dangerous than inconsistency and a split decision on the former manager is the simple fact that Chelsea are not the goal-scoring machine it once was—playing right into Napoli's strength. They've gone soft on offense in the last three months, netting more than one goal just three times since December 13.

Chelsea's bread and butter early in the Champions League was scoring goals early and taking advantage of teams when they panicked.

With Napoli up 3-1, Chelsea is the one who is panicked. They're facing an Italian side licking their chops at the thought of eliminating the Blues at Stamford Bridge.

Unless caretaker manager Roberto Di Matteo can light a fire under forwards Didier Drogba and Juan Mata, Chelsea's days in the Champions League will be over on Wednesday night.