Blues revival means nothing yet, as comparisons between Chelsea and Inter mount up.

Since the sacking of Andre Vilas-Boas, Chelsea have won all four of their games, including an impressive 4-1 home win over Napoli in the last 16 of the Champions League; however the Blues need look no further then Inter Milan to show that a caretaker manager and a half decent run of results, can’t paper over the huge amount of cracks at the football club.

Since Jose Mourinho (with the exception of Carlo Ancelotti) the club has struggled to repeat the ‘Special One’s’ heights, something identical in Inter Milan. Chelsea have coped with the loss of Mourinho; however Inter are still mourning. In the summer of 2010 Inter Milan completed the treble; yet four managers and 20 months later the club find themselves 20 points behind their city rivals AC and out of both cup competitions. The month of February saw the Italian giants reach a new low as the club went on a run of six games without a win (which included five successive goalless defeats), which all but extinguished their top three aspirations.

The shadow of Mourinho still lurks over Chelsea and Inter Milan 

Roberto Di Matteo doesn’t have a managerial record to match his caretaker counterpart Claudio Ranieri, and despite being a club legend, many didn’t expect Chelsea to get the better of Napoli under his guidance, much in the same way not many were predicting an Inter Milan win away to their city rivals AC in the biggest match in Italian football. That win for Inter was in the middle of their best form of the season, as the club peaked at seven wins on the trot; however defeat to Leece and an incredible 4-4 draw with Palermo saw the clubs form nosedive (which is stated above).

Chelsea have to avoid falling into the same trap as Inter and if the club have a similar off the field pattern as Inter Milan, then their squad is also in a similar shape: Big centre forwards transfers have flopped as neither Fernando Torres nor Diego Forlan have gone close to justifying their moves; both squads have had their doubters over the amount of genuine quality in the side; both have a high amount of players reaching the end of their careers; both have spent big an attempt to regain domestic control.

I’m not saying Chelsea will fall so heavily from grace like Inter have; however if Chelsea hadn’t overcome Napoli (saying that I expect Benfica to edge out Chelsea in the quarter finals) then their seasons wouldn’t be too dissimilar. Chelsea, unlike Inter Milan, for a surprise change in this piece, were fortunate in the sense they got a favourable domestic cup draw meaning an FA Cup run has just covered over how far the Blues are behind both the Manchester clubs. The Chelsea dressing room is easily the hardest to control, with a number of huge egos at the club; and if Chelsea slip up soon I wouldn’t be surprised to see the wheels really fall of the Di Matteo bandwagon.

Gasperini sacked after just five games

Inter Milan have sacked Gian Piero Gasperini after just five winless games.

The former Genoa manager was a surprise selection to replace Leonardo, and despite such a short period at the club, I feel Massimo Moratti was right to sack Gasperini.

Inter Milan slumped to a poor 3-1 defeat away to newly promoted Novara last night and quite frankly they were appalling. Their inability to retain the ball against a Novara side, who despite defending well, weren't great at keeping the ball themselves, was the worst I've ever seen from an Inter side bereft of ideas and attacking fluidity.

One failure doesn't result in Gasperini becoming a poor manager, however the timing for him to join the club just wasn't right. With an ageing squad and the severe decline in form of some of their key squad from the 2010 treble winning side, Gasperini was never going to succeed.

The defensive unit that so brilliantly thwarted Pep Guardiola's Barcelona just fifteen months ago has deteriated. Lucio, Christian Chivu and Javier Zanetti all performed admirably that night in the Nou Camp, however fast forward to last night, defensively Inter Milan were awful. Novara had three, they could've had five. Takayuki Morimoto was man of the match for Novara and gave Andrea Ranocchia a torrid time, resulting in the later being sent off and conceding a penalty for the vital second goal.

Its not just defensively however that Inter have been poor, their forwards have been in serious decline. Diego Milito was one that received praise for their treble season, with the striker scoring 22 league goals as well as two in the Champions League final. However the Argentine's form has been bad for a while now. The striker followed his 22 league effort with just five goals in Serie A last season and despite two on the opening day this season, the former Genoa forward hasn't scored since and really looked out of touch last night. The loss of Samuel Eto'o is huge, the striker scored 53 goals in two seasons with the Nerazzurri and the burden of replacing the Cameroon strikers goals falls heavily on Diego Forlan, who like Milito, has been poor since a great 2010 season and Pazzani, who despite a good back end of the 2011 season, will struggle to find the net as regularly as Eto'o.

Despite a couple of good seasons with Genoa Gasperini hasn't got a CV that fills a chairman with confidence, and the move was seen as a similar one to AC Milan's decision to appoint Masimmo Allegri, which worked well for the later in their successful 2010-11 Serie A campaign. Allegri, like Gasperini had minimal experience in the top flight of Italy, however after Gasperini's ultimately awful spell at Inter, its fair to say the similarities end there.