A new openness across the division and Chelsea's need to boss from the off. Pat Nevin discusses these thoughts in this week's column.

Well obviously nobody spotted that one coming over the horizon. I had been to see Wigan twice this season already and I could scarcely believe the lack of quality and ambition from a team chosen by my old friend Roberto Martinez. So just like everyone else, the weekend's defeat was a complete shock to me.

No doubt the manager while looking ahead will go through it with a fine tooth comb to find out just what went wrong, but the big moments such as the Cech sending off and the third goal give some depth to the picture. Going down to ten men, losing your keeper and then a goal from the ensuing spot kick is hard to come back from. As for the third goal, at that point there were only nine Chelsea players on the park, with Ashley off injured and of course the ball was tapped in from precisely where he would have been defending.

If all these sound like lame excuses, I guess that is because that is just what they are. The team didn't have a good day and well done to Wigan for their battling efforts, they deserved the points in the end. Is it the end of the world though? Well in the bigger picture, it has been a great run over the past months which I suppose had to come to an end some time and a quick look at the league table doesn't make for too depressing reading after seven games.

Standards are however high, so faults have to be addressed and maybe the habit of going a goal down and then fighting back was always going to backfire at some point. That is not to say the team has deliberately lost early goals to make it an interesting challenge some weeks, though now and again it has seemed that way from the stands, but starting a game brightly and bossing it from the first minute is probably something Chelsea should be doing as a matter of course.

If you are an opposing team playing against the might of the current Chelsea squad, what you need more than anything else is a chance to play your way into the game, not to concede early, then to slowly but surely strengthen a belief that was disturbingly shaky before the kick off. That has been allowed to happen too often this season and led to a few hairy moments and late fight backs to bring all three points home to the Bridge.

The slow starts began at Wembley against Manchester United and carried on against Hull City, Stoke City and of course Sunderland. I have no doubt that it is something Carlo Ancelotti will be working on this week as we approach the most difficult and important period of the season so far.

The game in Nicosia is vital of course and a win there would go a very long way to ensuring qualification from the group stages of the Champions League. October then follows with a host of games, every single one of which will be difficult. The visit of Liverpool is of course the most exciting as the Scousers seem to have a side that has got into its stride after a decidedly stuttering start this term. I just hope that Chelsea have close to a full squad to choose from in this one as it could be a real gauge on how strong both teams are.

The most common result in recent years has been a draw with Liverpool coming down with a limited willingness to commit players forward and I just wonder if this will change at the weekend? They have been a more offensive looking outfit recently but if Benitez puts two sitting midfielders out there, be it Mascherano and Lucas or asking Gerrard to drop deep, then it is likely to be another stalemate.

It would however be quite a surprise given the abnormally low number of draws there have been in the Premier League so far this season. I was talking to a journalist friend about this very point yesterday and trying to figure out why it has been just so open in comparison to previous seasons.

Are teams going for the wins and ignoring the chance of a safe point? Have the tactics changed and become more offensive throughout the league? Is it just an anomaly, a statistical blip? If the game against Liverpool ends up a high scoring win for either side maybe then we can start believing that the Premier League has indeed changed.

I for one wouldn't complain, too many teams have come to Stamford Bridge over the past few years and attempted to park the bus in front of the goals, usually to very little effect it has to be said. I have also had to watch some dreadfully tedious games around the country working for BBC Radio 5 Live, with neither coach willing to take any risks. If it is more open now and defensive coaches become slightly less important then it might turn the bosses' hair grey, but at least the rest of us will be getting our monies worth.

Last week I asked which player scored hat tricks both for and against Chelsea, a question originally suggested by Nigel Kotani and he underlines he meant league hat tricks. Well the answer I was looking for was Gordon Davies, who managed the feat against us back in 1983 playing for Fulham, I know because I was playing, and it must have been very galling for him as we beat them 5-3. He scored three for the Blues v Everton (pictured above) when he later signed for us, and even if he often had to stay in the shadow of Kerry Dixon he was a fine goalscorer.

The winner picked at random was Ramzi Shammas from Harpenden in Herts, who was actually down at Craven Cottage that day he tells us. The prize will be on its way soon, postal strikes notwithstanding.

This week to have a chance of winning a copy of Roy Wonder, the biography of Chelsea great Roy Bentley, could you tell me how many draws there have been in the Premier League so far this season, as of 29 September 2009? Answers as ever to pat.nevin@chelseafc.com the winner to be picked at random by my glamorous assistant.

Good luck and good luck to the team over in Cyprus.