After hiring an image consultant to make him look more suave, Avram Grant has taken to wearing a black trench coat that gives him the appearance of an old-fashioned American mobster such as Al Capone and, after this lucky escape, he may finally realise why José Mourinho regarded some players as untouchable.

The Chelsea first-team coach got away with his gamble of resting John Terry and Frank Lampard, with his side securing a result that leaves them in a good position to reach the quarterfinals, but it could easily have been different. Olympiacos dominated possession, played some enterprising football orchestrated by Predrag Djordjevic and, with more composed finishing, might have won.

After this dour display, Trinny and Susannah may have to return to Stamford Bridge to work on Chelsea’s footballing aesthetic. Grant was employed to echo Ruud Gullit by introducing sexy football, but this performance was about as attractive as one of his ill-fitting tracksuits.

Chelsea were as poor as they have been all season, lacking shape, width and attacking threat. Didier Drogba looked isolated and unfit up front and Ashley Cole could have been forgiven for giving up as he was repeatedly ignored when he overlapped down the left, with only the hard-working Michael Ballack of their attacking players emerging with any credit as Michael Essien also laboured. The private thoughts of Terry and Lampard as they sat on the substitutes’ bench would have been worth far more than the proverbial penny.

Grant defended his decision to leave them out in picking a side that showed 11 changes from the weekend, but offered no guarantee that the captain and vice-captain will return for Sunday’s Carling Cup final against Tottenham Hotspur.

“In football, I never gamble and we put a strong team out,” he said. “We played with a strong team and also a strong bench, and we will do it again and again in the future.”

Grant shares a common managerial trait of looking at matches through rose-tinted glasses, but at least he had the good sense to concede that this was the worst performance of his reign. Roman Abramovich, the Chelsea owner, will not be losing faith in his good friend just yet, but, as he contemplates the prospect of a dream final in Moscow in May, a worrying trend is emerging. After winning nine successive matches, Chelsea have drawn three of their past four matches, with Huddersfield Town the only side to be beaten in that time.

“This is the game we play less well than in previous games, but the result is OK,” Grant said. “We didn’t create a lot of chances, maybe just a couple, so it’s a little bit disappointing.”

The one redeeming feature was that Chelsea have gone almost nine hours without conceding a goal in this competition and they defended well enough to leave Petr Cech largely unoccupied. The Czech Republic goalkeeper made only one save of note, low to his right from Djordjevic just before the hour, but he was sufficiently worried to charge out of his penalty area to reprimand Essien for giving the ball away after Luciano Galletti had volleyed wide from Ieroklis Stoltidis’s cross shortly afterwards.

Not many teams can compete with Chelsea physically, but Olympiacos are built for a battle and, in a stadium named after the hero of Greece’s War of Independence, Georgios Karaiskakis, took the fight to the visiting side. Darko Kovacevic cut an imposing figure up front, but it was the movement of his fellow Serb, Djordjevic, that was most menacing and could have given them an early lead.

Djordjevic released Galletti with a wonderful through-ball in the eighth minute, but his shot was blocked, while Anastasios Pantos later cut in from the left and shot just wide. Djordjevic’s 30th-minute corner from the right was headed across goal by Stoltidis, but Vassilis Torosidis missed making contact by inches at the back post with Cech beaten.

Grant resisted the temptation to make changes at half-time, reasoning that his players could not play any worse. However, without impressive performances from Alex and Ricardo Carvalho at the back, he might have been proved wrong.

Still, Grant remained unmoved until the 75th minute, when Nicolas Anelka and Salomon Kalou replaced Florent Malouda and Joe Cole on the flanks. Anelka did bring some improvement, going close with a snap shot at the far post before creating a chance for a last-minute winner that was missed by Kalou. It was enough to suggest that Chelsea should eventually prevail, although a goalless draw away from home remains a dangerous scoreline. If Olympiacos grab an early goal at Stamford Bridge in a fortnight, Grant will have more than his coat to worry about.

Olympiacos (4-3-2-1): A Nikopolidis — M Zewlakow, P Antzas, Julio César, A Pantos — V Torosidis, C Ledesma, I Stoltidis — L Galletti (sub: Leonardo, 83min), P Djordjevic (sub: F Belluschi, 76) — D Kovacevic (sub: L Nuñez, 87). Substitutes not used: M Sifakis, C Patsatzoglou, K Mitroglou, M Sisic. Booked: Belluschi.

Chelsea (4-3-3): P Cech — J Belletti, Alex, R Carvalho, A Cole — C Makelele, M Essien, M Ballack (sub: F Lampard, 86) — J Cole (sub: S Kalou, 75), D Drogba, F Malouda (sub: N Anelka, 75). Substitutes not used: C Cudicini, J O Mikel, S Wright-Phillips, J Terry. Booked: Makelele, Alex, Belletti, A Cole.

Referee: K Plautz (Austria).