Boro have a reputation for providing a challenge for the top four clubs. Correction, we used to have that reputation.
This season, we look more and more like an easy three points for those teams and for any other opposition.
First Liverpool beat us, despite an excellent team performance at Anfield, then Manchester United made short work of us and we exited the Carling Cup.
Yesterday Chelsea made us look like amateurs, scared children who had wandered into a match with the big boys by mistake.
The way we played yesterday was threatening to no-one.
But it was damn scary for the fans.
If Chelsea come to your ground, play you off the park, score wonder goals and stop you from playing entirely then you have to hold your hands up and applaud their sheer quality.
If, on the other hand, there are only about four players putting up any kind of resistance to a Chelsea onslaught that, in all fairness, could and probably would have yielded double figures had Scolari's boys stayed in top gear, you have to start asking questions.
But then why would Chelsea bother?
Chelsea strolled through the second half and they scored four goals.
Mind you, had the players all sat in the middle of the pitch, reading their own over-priced biographies and just left Cudicini to it, Boro in all likehood would still never have scored.
The Boro side who beat Wigan were absent from start to finish and, while the injuries did not help, it is the players on the pitch and the manager who must take responsibility.
I could give a player by player rating of the match but it would be far too depressing.
Southgate made a bold statement by moving Aliadiere back up front and partnering him with Mido in favour of the out-of-form Alves.
And while Aliadiere kept going, something only a handful of Boro players can claim with any honesty, he had not brought his shooting boots to the match.
Mido also had a very bad game, displaying none of the movement or vision which has made him a fan favourite.
The manager also started with Adam Johnson and Stuart Downing on the wings - I say wings because they seem to switch at will.
Unfortunately neither was very effective.
A huge gulf in class and belief was amplified when comparing the two captains.
Stuart Downing once again lost the plot trying to be both a winger and a captain. He has no authority amongst the lads he grew up with and he knows it.
John Terry on the other hand reminds me of a General marshaling his troops. Five nil up and he was still shouting at his team mates, urging them forward.
We can't all have Terry in our side, mores the pity, but we are seriously missing the strength and leadership of Captain Pogatetz.
Downing's inexperience and our lackluster strike force could have been accommodated, up to a point, if our defence had shown up, or our midfield could retain possession.
Sadly our midfield needs a complete overhaul (Digard's substitution came too late) and our normally excellent defence were absent.
Wheater had maybe his worst game in a Boro shirt and Riggott seemed to get a couple of knocks but had no option but to endure as we had absolutely no replacement for him.
We can moan about Huth and Pogi being unavailable all we want but Chelsea had far more injuries than we did - the difference is they have a squad who can cope.
Taylor went missing and Grounds looked terrified, so much so that he was eventually replaced by another young defender, John Johnson.
The positives? Twenty-year-old Johnson looked as comfortable as anyone could possibly look making their first team debut against Chelsea, as a sub, when your team is getting slaughtered.
Another academy local boy who looks like a good prospect for the future.
Chelsea could have scored ten, whereas had there been an hour of extra time, the Blues would still have taken a clean sheet back down south with them.
Ross Turnbull actually pulled off some good saves but, as his defence collapsed in front of him, he looked small and vulnerable.
Belletti's goal was stunning and unstoppable. The same cannot be said of the other four which landed in Boro's net.
"Are you Tottenham in disguise?" chanted the Chelsea contingent. I suppose it could be worse and we could be Newcastle.
Another frighteningly bad performance from our beloved Boro left the fans angry, depressed and disillusioned.
The small boy wearing a Mido shirt crying on his dad's shoulder who I encountered as I left the Riverside probably summed it up best.
First published on www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/sport/fanzone - Oct 08
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