Good afternoon and welcome to another Premier League liveblog as Chelsea visit Norwich City. It’s a tricky game for Andre Villas Boas’s side as Norwich have been comfortably mid-table this year but also made life very uncomfortable for a lot of teams around and above them. Certainly, Chelsea are going to have to be on their guard to keep out Grant Holt. On the other hand, however, Norwich have yet to keep a clean-sheet this season. And that’s a particular fillip for Chelsea given that they’ll be looking to get Fernando Torres scoring as well as capitalising on the face-offs between the four teams around them tomorrow.

The teams:

Chelsea: Cech, Bosingwa, Luiz, Terry, Cole, Ramires, Meireles, Lampard, Sturridge, Torres, Mata

Norwich: Ruddy, Martin, Johnson, Morison, Whitbread, Holt, Surman, Pilkington, Fox, Naughton, Ayala

So no Gary Cahill for Chelsea.

And we’re off.

Almost an opener for Norwich there! Despite a positive start for Chelsea in which they’d dominated the ball, Anthony Pilkington breaks down the right and fires a well-struck shot at Petr Cech. He parries and, just before Steve Morison can react, Chelea scramble the ball away.

And Grant Holt fires just wide! Great interplay between Holt and Morison before the former shot low but just wide. Again, Chelsea have been in control but they look susceptible to Norwich’s moxy on the break. There are goals in this.

Chelsea have had 70% possession so far… but 0% of the chances.

And just when it seemed Chelsea had opened up Norwich with a divine through ball from Juan Mata, Torres takes an odd touch that takes him wide then appears lethargic in possession.

Torres has still been very hesitant in his touches so far – as if he’s second-guessing himself – but that was a good hustle to release Daniel Sturridge. The return ball is cleared though.

And that would have been a divine goal from Norwich! Grant Holt fires a superb, searching ball down the right for Holt to run onto and his strike-partner half-volleys into the side netting.

Torres chases back with a slide-tackle to stop Pilkington crossing the ball.

An insightful tweet here from Chelsea-based journalist Dan Levene:

Game best summed-up as follows: Chelsea impotent in attack; Norwich patient in counter-attack. One Bosingwa error away from conceding then.

And that’s the problem with David Luiz. A simple cross in and he actually mistimed his jump to completely miss the ball with a header. Then, when the ball break, he flicks it up and clears.

Sturridge curls an inviting ball into the box but it’s a little ahead of Torres. Still hasn’t quite broken for him.

Holt and Morison are like a cut-price version of Dwight Yorke and Andy Cole at the moment. Dovetailing and interchanging wonderfully.

Malouda releases Mata in the box but his shot bobbles up for Ruddy to save.

Chelsea have lost their way a fair here. It just doesn’t look like really happening.

Lampard, by the way, has gone off for Malouda. Now has an ice-pack on his leg.

Torres chips the ball back for Malouda in the area but, just as he’s about to shoot, Pilkington surges in to clear. Great defending.

And that’s half-time

Chelsea in control but also impotent, with Norwich just looking patient and also ready to pounce on the break.

And the second half has kicked off…

Not much change in terms of pattern of play after half-time. Chelsea still need that spark of innovation. Perhaps a surprise so far that Villas-Boas hasn’t gone to 4-3-1-2 with Mata behind the central two.

As Chelsea pick away at the edge of the box, Luiz suddenly decides to go all in and fire from distance. It’s well over.

The game has also lost any sense of excitement as Chelsea seemed to have worked out their defensive issues and are denying Norwich any outlet in this half.

Oh Torres!! That should have been 1-0. Why didn’t he just hit it??! The ball broke to him about seven yards from goal. But time seemed to freeze as, rather than hit it, Torres dawdled. He then toe-poked wide. Awful.

That might have been a penalty for Norwich. It was certainly a handball as Raul Meireles had his arms up and effectively smacked the ball down.

Great strike Meireles but it’s over.

Remember, Norwich have yet to keep a cleansheet this season, remember.

Torres trudges off to be replaced by Romelu Lukaku. He doens’t look happy. He’s now gone 15 games without scoring, his worst run in England.

This from OptaJoe:

11 – Fernando Torres has now failed to score in 11 consecutive PL apps, beating his previous worst record of 10 apps (Jan-Apr 2011). Decline

Michael Essien comes on for Meireles. If Chelsea can get the Ghanaian fit and firing…

Mata turns and shoots just wide. Ten minutes left and you feel Chelsea need to winhere with the rest of the top five facing off tomorrow.

Ashley Cole volleys wide from distance. He was dreaming with that one.

Chelsea corner with three minutes of normal time left…

Malouda blazes over and wide as the area opened up! Atrocious, particularly since the ball was bobbling about a panicked Norwich box dangerously.

A minute left…

FULL-TIME: Norwich City 0-0 Chelsea

Norwich keep a clean-sheet, Fernando Torres keeps struggling to score and Chelsea keep proving unable to put anything like a formidable run for them. That result will be galling for them for two reasons: first, the fact that they’ve slipped up on the chance to capitalise on the fact the rest of the top five are facing off tomorrow. That’s the sort of result serious teams get in such circumstances. Secondly, it’s an indictment of an impotent Chelsea that they couldn’t score against one of the most porous defences in the division. Norwich, however, deserve credit for a doughty, disciplined performance that also offered early dynamism.