Tal Ben Haim may not have commanded a transfer fee when Chelsea picked the Israeli international up on a Bosman, but he cost the Blues a win at Portsmouth on Saturday.

            It is not the first time Ben Haim's sloppy defending has cost Chelsea a goal as he got roasted by Fernando Torres at Anfield earlier in the season and has never truly looked comfortable in his new surroundings.

            When opposing sides play against Chelsea and see the like of Carvahlo and Terry in the back four, they know they will find it difficult to break down the Blues.  That mood changes when Ben Haim plays as I am sure opposing forwards fancy their chances against the Israeli who looks like he has gotten slower the longer the season has gone on.

                            I don't believe that pace is Ben Haim's big problem as you just have to look at John Terry to know that you can lack quickness and still be a world-class defender at the premier league level. His problem is that his positional play puts him in position where he has to rely on his pace, and as I just mentioned, he doesn't have any.  We saw this when he allowed Torres to turn on him at Anfield, almost inviting the Spaniard to test his speed against him. That was a silly idea and so was pushing up on Saturday and giving an already quicker Jermaine Defoe a 5-yard head start to goal. I can't imagine quality defenders like Terry and Carvahlo would have pushed up and gambled that Alex would win the initial header. Terry would have dropped with Defoe to make sure that if the ball came over the top he would be in a position to body up on the forward and not allow Defoe to use his pace.

The funny thing is that Ben Haim is probably quicker than Terry but the England skipper is a lot more positionally savvy than the Israeli and it doesn't seem to be getting any better. Maybe Terry can give him a few pointers

Owners like Roman Abramovich may be multi millionaires but are just like anyone else in that they love to get a bargain. That's what he thought when he signed up Ben Haim but if h continues to make mistakes, he could prove to be one of the Russian costliest signings if Chelsea lose out on the title by a point or two.