Sentence:  Chelsea remain <WSD>rank</WSD> outsiders to retain their crown and they still lie 12 points adrift of United, but Ancelotti will regard this as a performance that supports his insistence that they can still have a say when the major prizes are handed out this season. 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  Complete, used as an intensifier (usually negative, referring to incompetence).