Chelsea 1 Everton 1:THE INITIAL emotion welling up in Carlo Ancelotti as he surveyed a group of players numbed by another setback was rage. There was fury that sloppiness continues to dog his side's approach and frustration that an apparent lack of urgency has stalled their title defence. At times, his team had been unrecognisable in this latest stuttering display and the manager, as calmly as he could muster, wanted to know why.

It was a rhetorical question, though the look of thunder served to illustrate the manager’s exasperation. Ancelotti does not do public shows of anger naturally. His side’s prolonged slump is draining his good humour. This is already Chelsea’s worst league run in a decade, with only five points taken from six matches.

This creaking display was perhaps more alarming than the defeat, despite their dominance, at Birmingham City, or the aberration that was last month’s home loss to Sunderland. On Saturday, they did not have to try to come back from an early deficit, as they had at Newcastle United, Liverpool and St Andrew’s. Indeed, with John Terry restored and striking the bar early on, there had been elements of their first-half display that were encouraging.

However, from a position of relative superiority, Chelsea disintegrated. Ancelotti claimed “everything in the second half was wrong”, pointing to the fear that had crept into the team and stifled their ambition. Passes went sideways among players nervous to surrender possession before the visitors’ pressure eventually induced long and hopeless launches upfield that Everton’s defence gobbled up.

The front players melted into the mess, their authority eroded and the rather aimless nature of the play inviting accusations of indifference. Didier Drogba’s attempts to prompt the crowd to lift the home side were greeted with derision from many.

The willingness to abandon their tried and tested style suggested a complete lack of faith, as well as belief. Ancelotti had not seen that coming, not least with their lead established at the break, and it is doubtful whether the manager will be able to shock his squad out of their slumbers, having already publicly questioned their desire in recent weeks.

That criticism might have been offered to provoke a result. If so, the rather listless second-half offering was damning and may prompt more clutching at straws. The midweek trip to Marseille for a dead-rubber Champions League fixture seems even more like an unwanted distraction.

Aside from the absence of Frank Lampard, there are other immediate selection issues as well. Jose Bosingwa was humiliated by Leighton Baines, whose flurry of second-half crosses eventually brought Jermaine Beckford’s equaliser, and Paulo Ferreira was a far from convincing replacement. Chelsea’s best right-back, Branislav Ivanovic, will be needed at centre-half over the next few weeks, with Terry delicate and Alex injured. Gareth Bale could run riot at White Hart Lane on Sunday.

Everton, spiky and resilient, were hardly ideal opponents against whom to prompt a revival, even with their form so patchy.

David Moyes has secured draws in five consecutive league visits to Stamford Bridge and, after Phil Neville’s error had gifted Nicolas Anelka the chance to win a first-half penalty, they muscled their way back into the contest and, by the end, might even have triumphed. Theirs was the more coherent approach after the break, invariably channelled through Baines down the left.

Everton’s only gripe centred on Drogba’s dramatic reaction to Neville’s foul that earned a booking moments after the full-back had saved Florent Malouda from potentially worse, when the Frenchman appeared to have slapped him.

“These players have a responsibility,” said Moyes. “Phil’s been a pro and not rolled about. He could have stayed down and held his face, but he just ran away and didn’t in any way try to get the player sent off. But there were one or two who went down very easily after that and got him booked.”

Neville’s reaction was even less diplomatic. “We came here not expecting any decisions, and we were not disappointed,” he said.

His side could at least celebrate a point well merited and. For Chelsea, the simmering frustration persists.