With no end in sight to the erratic run of form that has hamstrung Chelsea's progress since the turn of the year, the big question is can manager Antonio Conte restore the London club's fortunes on the pitch and salvage the Blues' season?

Since hammering Stoke City 5-0 at Stamford Bridge in the final game of 2017, Chelsea's record reads: Played 14, Won 4, Drawn 6, Lost 4. It's a troubling sequence of results which has seen Conte's side slip from second to fifth in the Premier League and slide meekly out of the Carabao Cup at the semifinal stage to Arsenal.

It's not all doom and gloom for Blues supporters, though. Chelsea's 1-1 first-leg draw with Barcelona at the Bridge provides a glimmer of hope in the Champions League and the club have progressed through to the quarterfinals of the FA Cup.

This scenario has brought memories flooding back of the glories of 2012 when Chelsea turned adversity into triumph and won both trophies. However, while hope always springs eternal for Blues fans, chatter about repeating the feat is mitigated by the stark realisation that the current team lacks the leadership, do-or-die spirit, craft and guile to enable lightning to strike twice.

Conte doesn't have a dressing room of Cech, Cole, Terry, Lampard and Drogba -- players whose motivation, ambition and desire was limitless and infectious when they came to Chelsea. Instead, he has a squad which lacks identity, is in transition and is also in desperate need of a leader who can galvanise those around him when things go wrong (as they have done all too frequently of late.)

Where once there was unity, now there are players stalling over signing new contracts. The hesitancy goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois and talisman Eden Hazard are displaying when it comes to putting pen to paper on new deals is worrying, particularly in the case of Hazard who is genius personified.

Conte, too, appears to be in a quandary. Despite Chelsea's shabby form, the highly-strung Italian still retains sufficient support from the Blues matchgoing crowd for chants of "Antonio, Antonio" to drown out any dissenting voices. Whether Conte still has the support of owner Roman Abramovich is debatable though and rumours that he is living on borrowed time persist.

The widely held belief is that Antonio Conte will depart Chelsea at the end of the season irrespective of how things play out. AP Photo/Rui Vieira

Caught between a rock and a hard place, the widely held belief is that Conte will depart at the end of the season irrespective of how things play out. The fact that there will be no shortage of world-class clubs willing to employ him further fuels speculation, and if the Chelsea manager is already thinking about leaving the Bridge, it has to have a knock-on effect on a dressing room filled with players who have the added distraction of a looming World Cup.

Despite these myriad uncertainties, there is solace to be found in the fact that Conte is a serial winner who brought glory to the Bridge last season when winning the Premier League title against the odds. The kick-every-ball attitude remains there for all to see every time Chelsea play, as does the frustration etched on his face when games unravel.

After the Barcelona game, in which Chelsea were denied victory by a defensive error, Conte advised that his side almost played the "perfect game." Clearly, much thought had been put into planning for that match and the same will go for the return leg. Unlike 2012 when Chelsea stunned the Catalan giants in Camp Nou to reach the final, this time victory would only secure passage to the quarterfinals meaning more perfection would be required.

Similarly, in the FA Cup, Chelsea are still two ties from the final. Quarterfinal opponents Leicester City are not Barcelona, but at the King Power, given they have nothing else to play for this season, they will need no motivation to win.

If life wasn't complicated enough for Conte, prior to the Champions League and FA Cup clashes, he has to find a way of stopping free-scoring runaway Premier League leaders Manchester City at the Etihad and bogey side Crystal Palace at the Bridge. Dropping points in those fixtures will further damage Chelsea's chances of automatic qualification for Europe's elite competition and heap more pressure on a beleaguered boss who will probably need miracles as opposed to perfect games if he is to see his contract out.