Watching Alan Hansen make a fool out of Sutton on Match of the Day was very painful.

Hansen was attempting to highlight the main difference between Chelsea and champions Manchester United who had just crushed any lingering hopes of the Blues finishing in the top three in the Premiership with a 3-2 victory over the Londoners at Old Trafford.

Pulling up a caption showing the relative goalscoring exploits of each of the clubs' four main strikers was fair enough - Sutton scoring just one Premiership goal all season to Dwight Yorke's sackful.

But to then show clips of Sutton's two glaring misses against Sunderland on the opening day of the season was just too humiliating.

I actually cringed.

Hansen went on to explain that Sutton's confidence has never recovered from that and it's true - but to see the £10m man opened up to such ridicule was a bit harsh.

Still he had plenty of time to rediscover his form and prove to manager Gianluca Vialli that he had not bought a very expensive flop.

Sutton has scored a total of three goals in all competitions this season. That's £3.3m per goal. Is that a good return from 39 outings in a Blues' shirt?

It begs the question of what exactly Vialli is going to do about him.

He has to decide either to build a team around Sutton - thus saving face - or ditch the ex-Blackburn and Norwich man and start all over again.

Chelsea face high-flying Liverpool at Stamford Bridge on Saturday.

Manager Gérard Houllier has built up an excellent squad and they have been the second best team in the Premiership this season.

But, unlike the Blues, Liverpool have not had the distractions of a European campaign to distract them.

This is a point Chelsea managing director Colin Hutchinson made on Clubcall.

"Liverpool will play around 43 games this season, around 18 less than us," he said.

"They will have had time to rest and to focus on the Premiership.

"All our European games - and that's 16 including the two qualifying ones against Skonto Riga - have been high-pressure games. You must add them to the international matches, which many of our players have been involved in.

"We will have very tired players going into important matches.

"That is why our league form has fallen away so disap-pointingly.

"And don't forget that many of them will be involved in Euro 2000 this summer."

Clashes

Certainly the number of games played is important in what has become an eventful season. But team tactics and personality clashes have also been factors.

The absence of Graham Rix has also I believe been a defining factor.

His absence with a virus in recent weeks has left Vialli without is confidante.

Vialli is an excellent match planner; while Rix is at his best working off the cuff. Combined you have an excellent team.

Chelsea have missed Rix's input at crucial stages of matches, most noticeably in Barcelona when he could have advised Vialli to change his tactics and adopt an offensive rather than a defensive match strategy.

Rix was at Stamford Bridge on Saturday against Middlesbrough and at Old Trafford on Monday but did not take a coaching role on the bench.

Quite when he will return is debatable, as Chelsea are remaining tight-lipped on the matter.

A club insider has confirmed to me that the two have disagreed about how best to approach certain matches this month, and this could signal the end of Rix's time at the Bridge.

Significant

He has said that he eventually wants to be a manager in his own right and his departure could be more significant to the short-term future of the club than any player leaving.

Frank Leboeuf, Roberto Di Matteo, Didier Deschamps, Bernard Lambourde, Chris Sutton and Graeme Le Saux have all been touted as summer clearout casualties.

Certainly Chelsea will be looking to recoup some cash as they embark on their rebuilding exercise.

I only hope that young Leon Knight gets a runout before the season ends.

The reserve team striker, very much in the Gianfranco Zola/Michael Owen mould, has been very impressive this season.

So much so, that one young lad piped up with the comment that if he played in the remaining games of the season, he would end up with more first team goals than Chris Sutton - ouch!