Well At Least Chelsea Are In Good Company

Chelsea suffered a bad result at the Stadio San Paolo on Tuesday, but they weren't alone in struggling in the Champions League. Almost every single group winner had a poor game on the road, and that pool includes some very good teams. Real Madrid played poorly and drew. Bayern Munich played poorly and lost. Benfica player poorly and lost. Arsenal got blown to smithereens at the San Siro. Chelsea, of course, lost to Napoli.

The only team to have emerged from the first leg of the knockout rounds with an away win was Barcelona, and even they were given a bit of a scare by Bayern Leverkusen, who would have done a lot better without the overly negative tactics. Without Barca, the other seven leaders lost by a combined 14-5:

Zenit St. Petersburg 3-2 Benfica
Bayer Leverkusen 1-3 Barcelona
Lyon 1-0 APOEL Nicosia
AC Milan 4-0 Arsenal
CSKA Moscow 1-1 Real Madrid
Napoli 3-1 Chelsea
Marseille 1-0 Inter Milan
Basel 1-0 Bayern Munich

No, Chelsea aren't in good shape - a two-goal deficit doesn't feel very happy at all against a team that can demolish anyone who tries to come at them. But it's important to remember that this result isn't particularly surprising or embarrassing and that almost every team left in this competition can put up a strong fight against anyone on their day. Some of those deficits will be overturned, and there's no reason Chelsea can't do it.