Chelsea 1-3 Napoli: The Decision That May Have Cost Villas-Boas His Job

Many deemed it to be a match in which Andre Villas-Boas needed a result.

Instead, Chelsea fell to Napoli 3-1 in the first leg of their Champions League Round of 16 tie.

Sure, the Blues have a return leg left to salvage this season's European dream, but they will certainly face long odds at Stamford Bridge.

Hence, with Chelsea probably going out of the Champions League and struggling mightily for form, AVB is pushed ever closer to the precipice of unemployment.

And he has no one to blame for this one but himself.

The match-play between Chelsea and Napoli was a comedy of errors from both sides; perhaps the rain or the couple of injuries factored into this, but the match quickly became one of the sloppiest in the recent memory of the Champions League knockout stages.

In the 27th minute, Napoli captain Paolo Cannavaro (2006 World Cup hero Fabio's younger brother) made a horrendous error, terribly shanking a Daniel Sturridge cross straight into the path of Juan Mata in the middle of the box.

The ball had taken a ridiculous bounce ahead of Cannavaro, but there was no excuse for such a fundamental error.

The ball set up beggingly for the Chelsea midfielder, and Mata graciously obliged in dispatching the ball into the net and giving Chelsea a lead.

Not to be outdone in defensive miscues (which has been their forte this season), the Blues let an equalizer in not 15 mutes later when Chelsea failed to close down Ezequiel Lavezzi and allowed him the space to rip a shot past Petr Cech.

Two more goals followed for Napoli: one a Cavani goal that looked to be a handball (if that decides this tie, it will be a tragedy) and another Lavezzi goal aided by a defensive miscue, this time by Sideshow Bob David Luiz.

Other miscues were peppered throughout the match, so many in fact that it might (and perhaps should) have been a larger scoreline on both sides.

Chelsea fans may rightfully feel hard done by on that Cavani goal, but the cruel truth of the matter is that the Blues were not good enough: they had a few more miscues and took a few less chances than Napoli.

And yet, above all of these errors, one player was able to stand out above the rest with his play.

That man is Raul Meireles.

It was Meireles who failed to close down Lavezzi on the Neapolitan's opening goal; in fact, instead of closing him down, he ran away from him.

Before this, the Blues' defense was not breaking and Cech was playing very well, including a fine save off of a Cavani shot; Meireles' one action allowed Napoli the equalizer and gave them the confidence to go forward the rest of the match.

Time and time again, his poor play in midfield left the injury-ravaged defense exposed.

After he and Florent Malouda were replaced by Michael Essien and Frank Lampard—the latter two whose experience with Chelsea in the Champions League is massive—the problems in the midfield decreased dramatically.

Clearly, Villas-Boas' rejection of the club's past (which he expressed in a not so veiled manner when he said that the support of the players does not matter to him) led him to leave out Lampard and Essien, which seems to have cost his team dearly.

It is an unfortunate circumstance for the young Portuguese manager (as injuries in defense to Bosingwa, Cole, and Terry were a large influence on the match), but if Chelsea were to go out at this stage in Europe, he will now surely take the brunt of the blame.

With Abramovich the chairman, it is unlikely Villas-Boas will be forgiven so easily for causing an exit from Europe.

There may have been talk of this past match being a must-win for AVB, but that talk was exaggerated: a loss in this next match with Napoli will surely seal the young manager's fate.