Chelsea should be celebrating a morale-boosting victory at Borussia Dortmund, but instead are again left wondering how to fix their dismal finishing.
Karim Adeyemi's stunning 50-yard dribble and finish in the 63rd minute was the only goal in a 1-0 first-leg defeat here, despite the Blues dominating in Germany.
Joao Felix, who was again outstanding in his general play, was the biggest culprit, missing three gilt-edged chances. However, his presence inside and outside the box at least led to chances for himself and others.
Kai Havertz is completely non-threatening as the club's makeshift No9, working hard but rarely a concern for any defenders; Mykhailo Mudryk played well but does not yet look capable of being a regular matchwinner at this level; similarly, Hakim Ziyech.
After Felix, marauding wing-back Reece James looked the most likely to score last night, putting in a performance where he looked more like his old self again after all his injury troubles. Centre-half Kalidou Koulibaly, meanwhile, had a shot cleared off the line.
Remarkably, Chelsea had no strikers on their bench to change the course of the match, having questionably deselected Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, one of Europe's top finishers for the last decade, from their squad.
Blues boss Graham Potter insisted that it was his choice to leave out the forward, who broke onto the scene playing for the Bundesliga club before joining Arsenal. It now looks like a regrettable choice, although Potter is unlikely to admit it publicly.
The club's record-breaking £300million January transfer spend has at least fixed one major issue: Chelsea are creative again.
The problem of a lack of goals now exists only because chances are being wasted, but the likes of Felix, Mudryk and Enzo Fernandez have brought artistry, variation and unpredictability to their forward play.
Last month, Chelsea were creating goal chances at the rate of a relegation-threatened team, but that issue is being fixed.
Twenty good, fluid minutes away at West Ham last Saturday was followed up here by a solid display across an entire match for the first time since before the World Cup.
Had Chelsea even drawn here, the narrative could have been about a potential revival. Yet, having scored only four times across nine matches in 2023, the lack of goals means the Blues have to be near-perfect defensively to draw or win games.
Of Dortmund's counter-attacking goal against the run of play, Potter said: "It's a poor goal and we have to do better. We were pushing at the time and were the better team, so to concede in that manner is what we're disappointed with.
"The players are honest and they know they can do better with that. We have to help them, of course, but we will focus on the positives. The performance was another step forward for us.
"It's half-time [in the tie], it's a tight game. We will improve, and in three weeks' time we can take the game at Stamford Bridge."
For arguably the first time since his appointment, Potter has plenty of evidence to match his upbeat demeanour. Last night, Chelsea showed that they do have a team who can compete and come back to win on March 7; that can rise up from a position which, to them, is near rock bottom.
However, without at least one expert finisher emerging from their squad, they can only go so far.
