All good things must come to an end

Roy Hodgson has experienced his first loss as Albion head coach and, hopefully, it will act as reminder that the job in hand is not quite finished, writes Albion blogger Jarrod Hill.

In truth Chelsea more than deserved to end our unbeaten run and sometimes as a fan you just have to admit that the opposition were just better than us.

Defensively we never got to grips with the shape that Chelsea played. Ashley Cole and Branislav Ivanovic pushed on and found space time and time again and invariably a team of Chelsea's quality will hurt you in the final third.

Chris Brunt and Jerome Thomas failed to protect their full backs and Steven Reid was completely overrun at right back. Scott Carson didn't cover himself in glory with two of the goals, however he made some excellent saves during the game preventing an even larger margin of defeat.

I was hoping Chelsea would persist in playing the out of sorts Fernando Torres and Nicolas Anelka in attack. The returning Didier Drogba showed why he has scored so many goals in the Premier League by being a constant thorn in our side.

I must add that although I concede Chelsea were the better team they were also assisted by a rather strange refereeing performance by Mr Probert and his officials.

The friendly smiling jovial relationship he displayed towards a number of Chelsea players was at best unprofessional and smacked of double standards when he stood listening to John Terry bemoan a corner we were rightfully given but waved away Chris Brunt whenever he approached him to dispute any number of contentious decisions. It felt like one rule for one, but another rule for the world-renowned England star John Terry, see my point?

Chelsea on their day are a fantastic side and out played us in nearly every department, but I guess that's what money buys you. The first 20 minutes suggested the game would much more of even contest as we were easily the better side.

Youssouf Mulumbu wasted a great move and opportunity when firing over the bar before the impressive Peter Odemwingie scored in my opinion his best Albion goal yet. He was coolness personified as he delicately chipped the ball over the advancing Petr Cech after being fed the ball from a neat exchange of passes within midfield. His tally of twelve goals this season surpasses Robert Earnshaws total of eleven goals during a Premier League campaign and he continues to improve.

This season has been a steep learning curve for our Nigerian pace ace and it will be interesting to see how well he does next season having gained a year's experience of football in England. I think he has improved as a player, yes he has some flaws to his game, sometimes losing the ball in the wrong position, but you can see he has learned as the season has gone on. I am sure Roy will be keen to keep him whatever division we are in next season and a priority must be to ensure we have other strikers of the same quality. Anyway that is a blog for another day!!

As disappointing as it was to lose there was still enough on show from our boys to suggest we can get over the finishing line and survive this season. I did think a few players showed signs of fatigue on Saturday and maybe the first team could do with a little freshening up in certain positions. Spurs are up next and I have said for a while that once we get Saturdays away trip out of the way we are left with four games that for me represent excellent opportunities for the points to see us over the line.

Two local derbies still to come and a relegation scrap that continues to perplex even the self styled football geniuses to offer a prediction of the three clubs to drop through the Premier league trap door.

Every time I look at the table and then at the fixtures to come I realise the problem. This season has seen results that nobody would ever have predicted for nearly every team. Our win at the Emirates, our draw at Old Trafford, Wolves beating Chelsea and Manchester United, Blackpool's start to the season, even this weekend had Stoke beating Bolton 5-0 albeit in the FA Cup and not the league.

The Premier League has become much less predictable than in recent seasons, well at the bottom it has anyway. Having been asked the question continuously for the last month I am going to make my own predictions for who will drop out of the Premier League come the end of the season. It is against my better judgement and I cannot honestly say I feel comfortable doing it when we remain in with a chance of being sucked into it ourselves.

But here goes, Blackpool are in free fall and, I think, having fallen like they have it would take a major shift in momentum for them to find the spirit they had in abundance back in 2010.

West Ham have enough quality players to suggest they are too good to go down, but I have heard that before and their fixtures look like the toughest run in. Scott Parker is currently injured and his absence leaves a huge void, not sure if all the loan players they have will have the stomach for the fight.

I think the third team to be relegated will be either Wolves or Blackburn. I think it may even go down to the last game of the season as they face each other on the 22nd May. Blackburn's next two games are at home against Manchester City and Bolton and those games will have a huge say in their destiny, but something tells me the Wolves v Blackburn game will be the most crucial of all the final day's fixtures.

Tin hat at the ready, fire at will!