Avram Grant’s Portsmouth side nearly grabbed a precious point at Stamford Bridge in their uphill battle against relegation.   But that, and a dramatic late equaliser at Sunderland on Saturday, has failed to shift media focus away from their other uphill battle against administration and the transfer embargo which threatens to scupper Grant’s plans to strengthen his squad during the January transfer window.   Avram Grant’s return to Stamford Bridge, where he was manager for most of the 2007/08 season, nearly provided another shock result in a week of shock results for the EPL’s top-four.

Portsmouth eventually succumbed to a Frank Lampard penalty when they were eleven minutes from grabbing a point.

Last Saturday, Pompey did grab a valuable point through Younes Kaboul’s stoppage-time equaliser.

Unfortunately, the already-booked Kaboul let his emotions get the better of him and over-celebrated the goal, topless (never wise in Sunderland in December), amid Pompey’s travelling faithful, leading to a second booking and his dismissal.

This didn’t affect matters at Sunderland, as the game was all-but-over. But Kaboul was suspended for the Chelsea match and, given that he has been Portsmouth’s best defender this season, it could have proved vital in such a close match.

Pompey are three points behind second-from-bottom West Ham. And they have had to vehemently deny reports of numerous behind-the-scenes problems, including claims they would be in administration by Christmas.

The automatic nine-point deduction for entering administration would virtually extinguish Portsmouth’s hopes of Premier League survival, which remain desperately important to the whole club’s overall survival.

But a club statement last week said Portsmouth were: “disappointed at recent inaccurate media speculation regarding the club’s finances…The club is not going into administration.”

The media speculation arose from the latest problems Portsmouth had with paying players’ salaries for November and from the apparently untimely departure overseas of under-fire Chief Executive Peter Storrie.

Club managing director Mark Jacob unhelpfully refused to confirm or deny reports that Storrie’s long-term position at the club was unsafe. But it has emerged more recently that Storrie has been in Australia and the Far East in search of much-needed new investment for the club.

This investment is all the more necessary as Portsmouth still owe money to a number of clubs and agents involved in past, and some distant past, transfer negotiations.

Portsmouth have successfully negotiated repayment schedules with a number of these football creditors. But Chelsea, owed £750,000 from full-back Glen Johnson’s move to the South Coast in 2007, are demanding immediate repayment.

In order to facilitate this, the Premier League have declared their willingness to withhold Portsmouth’s £7m share of January’s broadcast revenue and maintain the embargo on transfers which has been in place since October.

The club’s statement last week insisted that “historical arrears are being dealt with on an on-going basis” and that the tax authorities had just received £2m from the club towards their allegedly eight-figure revenue bill.

The statement re-iterated that “long-term funding (is) being put in place” by reclusive owner Ali Al-Faraj and his associates.