Boas was in a difficult position at Chelsea, but no one had expected it to become this bad.
Over the past while, with players like Drogba away at the Africa Cup of Nations, Chelsea's results had been badly affected. They had fallen out of the top four again, and their performances had been far from satisfactory. There had even been chants at Stamford Bridge calling for Boas to be sacked.
That was hardly difficult to understand. Boas's team had genuinely been playing terribly lately.
Since mid-January, Chelsea had taken only three points from their last four Premier League matches. That included three consecutive draws against Norwich, Swansea, and Manchester United, with the 3–3 draw against Manchester United being the most frustrating of all. After taking a three-goal lead, they had allowed United to score three in a row.
It could be said that the Red Devils had vented all the resentment they had built up against Man City on Chelsea in one go.
Over the past month, Chelsea's only victory had come at the end of January, away against Queens Park Rangers in the FA Cup—and even then, they had been lucky to win thanks to Mata's Penalty Kick.
This record made it obvious that after Boas's Chelsea had shown some signs of recovery, they had quickly collapsed again.
But for the FA Cup fifth-round knockout match at home against Man City, Drogba had finished the Africa Cup of Nations and returned to Chelsea. Everyone had begun to feel that Chelsea might finally bounce back. Even if they could not defeat Man City, they should at least be able to put in a better performance.
At the very least, could they replace Torres, who had gone twenty straight matches without scoring?
To everyone's astonishment, Boas refused.
That stubborn Portuguese had