I totally concur with your assessment about Chelsea being one of the most interesting teams this season because they really played beyond people’s expectations from the beginning of the season. I could’ve sworn they swapped places with Manchester City, judging from their past performances.
They’ve had some pretty good and significant wins and victories this season, and if not for those lost points, they would’ve had some much better ranking right now, but I guess it’s still not too late to turn the table around for the better; if they start now by focusing more on growing their points, I’m sure they’ll be able to make some pretty great progress by the end of the season.
Chelsea performance has improved a little than what they have played over the past seasons but it's a shame to see them trying so hard to pass Nottingham Forest. If they are that good, they should be above Arsenal playing band for band with Liverpool but they are struggling to retain that 4th place, no wonder when people attack them trying to win the season trophy, they counter it by saying they are just playing, they are not in for the trophy but we know it's because they are still bad.

Newcastle and Manchester City seems to be interested at where Chelsea is sitting in, I'm not really sure who is going to take the fourth place because Chelsea is weak unless they later improve on their performance. There is big chance Manchester City will like to come back to the top 4 so they can secure their place in the Champions League of next season, that means one team is definitely getting out of that place but I'm not sure yet which team is going to be affected.