There were more questions than answers after a rare 3pm kick-off at Stamford Bridge.

For the rest of the weekend following Saturday's set of Barclays Premier League results, After The Whistle was feeling daunted by the prospect of working out past occasions when ourselves, Man United, Arsenal and Liverpool all failed to find the net in the same round of fixtures.

It must have been the question on many a mind following Saturday's collective 'failing to take advantage' among the favourites for this year's title and we are more than happy to notice that The Times has beaten us to the punch.

The goalless four is not, the newspaper reckons, unique in the Premier League era, which was not unreasonable to suspect. Apparently it has happened once before - back in February 1993 when the concept of the Big Four would have been very different from today - Norwich and Ipswich able to argue a place ahead of 10^th placed Chelsea.

At least with that question out the way, we were able to turn our minds to another one to come out of Saturday's 0-0 draw with Newcastle.

Unsustainable, that popular modern buzzword, is now being applied to the idea of a league title challenge that leans more on away point gathering than home one. So is it unsustainable?

It was The Sunday Telegraph's Patrick Barclay who alerted us to the fact Arsenal have won the league with a better away record than home. That was in 1988/89, the famous season when they triumphed on goals-scored with a 2-0 win in the final game at Anfield.

That was pre-Premier League and After The Whistle has done some digging, finding more recent occasions. Home success has been the bedrock of the clear majority of championship wins but there have been two exceptions since that 1989 Arsenal win.

One was by The Gunners again, in 2001/2 when they took seven points more away than home on the way to the Double - this being the season Chelsea lost out at Cardiff to our London rivals in the FA Cup.

And the other team to do it? Chelsea - in the first of our back-to-back years when the 2004/5 team under José Mourinho won one more game and took one more point on the road.

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While Felipe Scolari after the game was talking about hard work in training to solve the Stamford Bridge slip-ups, Patrick Barclay continued his thoughts on our home results and the wider title race.

'I thought with Deco this season, Chelsea would be more patient and there might be a lot of 1-0s and 2-0s but they would always be able to penetrate teams,' he told After the Whistle.

'But today was a special case. I think Newcastle surprised Chelsea because I don't think they thought a team nowadays would play such defensive tactics and it will probably be a special case.

'Also, Given's save in the seventh minute from Lampard was stupendous. Had that gone in we might well be looking at a three or four-goal victory. But it is true Chelsea did not create many chances.

'It is only a third of the way through and if Chelsea do win the championship by obtaining more points away than at home, there is no law against that and if Chelsea keep not losing, they have a good a chance as anyone.

'Man United have a problem in that they have to go to Tokyo for the club world championship and they might be out there for two matches which means they will certainly fall further behind Chelsea and Liverpool.

'It could be the tightest race for a long, long time. We know Chelsea can win away, they've proved that, and historically we've seen these players don't lose many at home. But Liverpool coming into the mix has made it great for the neutral.'

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For the second week running, Chelsea's club photographer Darren Walsh was in the right spot to capture one the game's major incidents.

Following on from the shots last week of Frank Lampard's ribs colliding with a West Brom knee, this week there is the answer to the 'Did he? Didn't he?' over Shay Given's on-the-line catch of Lampard's free-kick.

These shots are from a sequence and show the closest the ball went to being carried behind the line which, despite his Bambi-on-ice stance, find in favour of Given and the match officials' decision.

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For fans not at the Bridge this weekend, After The Whistle can bring news of a special half-time guest on the pitch on Saturday.

Chris Garland, Chelsea striker the 1970s period immediately following our FA Cup and Cup Winners' Cup wins, was brought to the centre-circle to a great reception, having appeared on Chelsea TV the night before.

Chris has an autobiography out, A Life of Two Halves detailing his football career and his subsequent 20 years suffering from Parkinson's Disease.

'The people have been unbelievable,' he said of his return to watch a game at the Bridge for the first time in over two decades.

'The ground is a lot different, it is superb now, and I'd like to thank the crowd, they were superb. It was one of those games where if Frank Lampard's header had have gone in, they would probably have won by five or six.'

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The question of which Bordeaux keeper will face Chelsea on Wednesday lingers on. Second choice Mathieu Valverde was again between the posts in their 1-1 home draw with Rennes on Saturday but was at fault for the goal conceded. Reports from France are that captain Ulrich Ramé, who played at the Bridge, could return in goal this week.

It's not been a good week for sixth-placed Cluj who lost 2-1 away to Pandurii and discovered they have lost two players, striker Didi and full-back Tony, to long-term injury. The Romanians visit the Bridge in a fortnight.

It is now official - Roma are back in form. Unbeaten since our visit to Italy, they won 3-0 away to Lecce this weekend with goals from Vucinic, Juan and Totti. Elsewhere in Italy, in the Serie A showdown between former Chelsea managers, it finished Mourinho 1 Ranieri 0.

Michael Essien's friend and former Portsmouth man, Sulley Muntari scored the decided between Inter and Juventus in a game of few chances at the San Siro.

afterthewhistle@chelseafc.com