Avram is still lost when it comes to big game hunting

Yet it's not personal; it is based on the hard, cold fact that, so far under his stewardship, he wins the games he should win but can't prevail in the marquee encounters.

He still has time to enjoy watching humble pie being consumed in the press room, perhaps starting as early as Sunday should Chelsea beat and thus leapfrog Arsenal. Until he proves otherwise, though, how can he convince any Chelsea follower he has a sure hand on the tiller when his key contributions to last night's failure were two backfiring substitutions?

The first, with his side leading 3-2, was to swap Salomon Kalou for a third centre half Alex, which succeeded only in surrendering any attacking initiative, unbalancing Chelsea's defence and offering an open invite for Spurs to come and bombard them. The second, when they were up 4-3 with 10 minutes left, was to take off the best player on the pitch, Joe Cole.

"Joe was tired," Grant explained. Really? Just two minutes earlier, Cole had skipped past his hapless plaything Pascal Chimbonda and deposited Chelsea's fourth. So once Robbie Keane had curled his wondrous late equaliser, the visitors' main weapon was already gone, leaving even Spurs defender Alan Hutton marvelling gratefully: "Joe's top quality. Obviously when someone like that goes off it's always good."

By the time Didier Drogba wandered over to the bench in the dying minutes, seemingly confused about what approach Chelsea were supposed to be taking and looking for guidance, it was all too late. Losing the lead once had been unfortunate; twice had been careless; but three times while conceding four goals? Sorry, but this could and would never have happened under Mourinho.

Chelsea played some lovely stuff but it is a long time since Chelsea have been this slapdash in defence, even if Carlo Cudicini eventually rescued them from calamity with his blinding last-gasp, point-blank save from Dimitar Berbatov.

Fabio Capello could have been forgiven for watching John Terry and wondering if he's in the form to make the starting XI, never mind regain the captaincy. Remember also that this was the second time Chelsea have drawn 4-4 this season after their Boxing Day match with Aston Villa ended the same way. Then, there was Ashley Cole; what must the England boss have made of a bloke who makes a potentially leg-breaking lunge on Hutton, then effs and blinds as if he's been the victim before contemptuously turning his back on the ref while being booked.

Dear old Ash; sometimes it just seems as if his whole life's work is geared towards making himself even less adorable than John McCririck.

This may be doing a disservice to Grant but at the moment the impression of his Chelsea is of a team whose class, stubborness and fighting spirit is stemming from the quality, pride and know-how of champions almost playing from memory and not from any great inspiration nor clarity of direction from their manager.

On Sunday, Grant has another chance to kill this growing impression dead. As long, of course, that even he's prepared to concede that Arsenal at Stamford Bridge might just be, er, quite a big game.