I woke up this morning (after having a bizarre dream in which my brain filled in the remaining 50 unread pages of V for Vendetta ... more on that in a bit), and put on my Lampard Chelsea kit under my sweater and came to work. When 11:45am rolled around and the climactic second leg of the Chelsea/Barcelona Champions League round of 16 encounter began, i steered clear of Soccernet and Sporting Life. I didn't want to know what was happening until it was over.

Matthew sent me a one word email around 12:30, reading simply "nervous?". I responded in the negative. I was content that Barcelona deserved to progress to the Champions League quarterfinals. We missed our chance to put them in a hole at Stamford Bridge two weeks ago, and i'm not convinced that this year's squad has the resilience to orchestrate a stunning comeback on hostile turf. For the first time ever, i admitted that should my team lose, i hope that the team that beat them goes on to win the championship.

1:45pm finally arrived, and i went to Chelseafc.com and found that the Blues had failed to overturn their first leg deficit, drawing 1-1 in Barcelona and losing 3-2 on aggregate. Various excuses could be trotted out to explain our failure (and i'm sure Mourinho and others with expound on them at length), but i prefer to dwell on a few truths:

1. Our performances in Europe this campaign, unlike last season, were not terribly inspiring. A loss to Real Betis and two mind-numbing nil-nil draws with domestic rivals Liverpool did not convey the impression of a world-conquering squad.
2. Finishing second in our qualifying group was fatal. It doomed us to being paired with a tough opponent in the round of 16, and in my opinion we got the toughest of the lot in Barcelona.
3. The cold, hard fact is Barcelona are simply a better side than us at the moment.

Once those sobering realities sink in, the question becomes "where does Chelsea go from here?" As has already been suggested by a Soccernet columnist, the Stamford Bridge checkbook will almost certainly open again this summer to attract more top-tier players. Eto'o and Ronaldinho (if you can't beat 'em, sign 'em?)? Shevchenko? We definitely need a striker, but my impression is that Europe's top clubs will again refuse to cash in their assets to Roman Abramovich. Bayern Munich defector Michael Ballack appears to be a viable possibility, but you have to wonder why we would sign him when we've already got Frank Lampard. The whole state of affairs raises a paradox in my mind. We need some missing pieces to really exert our will in the Champions League, but we also need a cohesive squad. And i feel that the two might be mutually exclusive at this point ... more signings means more tinkering and less solidity.

I suppose that the silver lining is now our squad can wrap up the Premiership and FA Cup without distraction.

blue is the colour football is the game we're all together and winning is our aim so cheer us on through the sun and rain 'cause Chelsea, Chelsea is our name