For half an hour in the inelegant surroundings of Roots Hall last night, it was as much as Luiz Felipe Scolari could do to look skywards, seemingly in the hope of being engulfed by fog.

His Chelsea team were facing the humiliating prospect of an FA Cup third-round replay defeat by Southend United and, given that rolling mist had caused this match to be postponed briefly, before lifting in time for a rethink an hour before kick-off, it seemed like it might be his best bet.

It did not turn out that way, of course, with Chelsea running out comfortable winners in what would, by the end, go down as a muchimproved performance, but, before the goals from Michael Ballack, on the stroke of half-time, Salomon Kalou, Nicolas Anelka and Frank Lampard, Scolari was indebted not to the fog but to what might be termed a Mark Robins moment.

That is shorthand for a turning point for a troubled manager — Robins, now in charge of Rotherham United, having saved a pre-knighted Alex Ferguson from the sack with a goal for Manchester United against Nottingham Forest in an FA Cup third-round tie 19 years ago.

While this occasion did not seem to carry quite the same historical significance, Scolari will hope to be able to look back on Petr Cech’s save from Alex Revell, which prevented Southend going 2-0 up in the 38th minute, as the moment when impending disaster was averted in his troublesome first season at Stamford Bridge.

Ultimately, this was an uplifting evening for them, but it still seems a little too early to say whether this trip to the seaside will have the restorative effect that Scolari is looking for after an immensely difficult few weeks.

John Terry, the captain, suggested that Scolari’s public criticism of the team on Tuesday had given him and his colleagues a much-needed kick up the backside, but, even in victory, there were causes for concern, not least another goal conceded from a set-piece, another injury to Joe Cole, who will be assessed today, and the continuing travails of Didier Drogba, whose future appears uncertain. He was left out of the 18-man squad after a dreadful performance in the 3-0 defeat by Manchester United at Old Trafford on Sunday.

Drogba will have to show a drastic improvement in attitude on the training ground over the coming days if he is to return to the squad against Stoke City on Saturday, but Scolari’s immediate priority will be to sort out the defence, particularly when it comes to set-pieces.

Remarkably, Adam Barrett’s header in the sixteenth minute, which put Southend ahead, meant that five of the past seven goals that Chelsea have conceded have come from dead-ball situations.

Scolari had attempted to rectify that situation beforehand by announcing that he was to move away from man-to-man marking to a zonal system, such as that favoured by Liverpool, but the ease with which Barrett headed home a corner by Junior Stanislas suggested that there remains an awful lot of work to do.

As Steve Tilson, the Southend manager, put it: “If your delivery is good and they are zonal-marking, you end up getting a run on them. It was the first time they had tried it and, no doubt about it, they didn’t look comfortable from set-pieces.”

Ray Wilkins, the assistant first-team coach, seemed unsure afterwards whether zonal or man-to-man marking would be the way forward for Chelsea, but, at this point in the game, with their team 1-0 down, it was as much as the visiting supporters could do to indulge in gallows humour. “It’s so foggy, call it off”, they chanted, and, as their defence continued to wobble, Scolari seemed to spend a lot of time looking to the heavens.

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