We’ve got back the wings, let’s fly!

The big news is Joey is back! Man, how much I missed him! This is not one of the easy ‘three-goal-margin clean-sheet’ matches against a relegation battler. Reading are really riding high. 13 points in 7 matches is something the Reading manager would have taken any day before the start of the season. In fact, against Man United, with some luck, they would have won the match. Any match where the opposition has the mathematical possibility of topping the table after the match is not to be taken lightly. But somehow, I feel this should be a 3-0 in favour of us.

Joe Cole is back and he played for full 90 mins for the Chelsea Reserves and also created the two goals scored in the 2-1 win against Coventry City. He has, in fact, declared himself fit and available for selection. Looks like he is bored of not playing. Ballack still serves the last match of his direct red card ban he got against Liverpool. Mark Riley, who carded Ballack in that match, would be the referee for this match as well. Remember he had also cautioned Cech, Essien and Lampard in that match. Other good news is that Boulahrouz is back as well and he played in that Reserves match against Conventry City. With Joe Cole and Robben back, I think we should get back to our familiar role of being invincible.

Ashley Cole was injured in the Wednesday’s match for England against Croatia, so Bridge will be in and I’m waiting to see him play. I would go for a safe 4-4-2 with Robben and Joey in the side midfield with Makalele, Ashley Cole and Kalou in the bench. Or the the other way is to start with Kalou alongside Sheva and bring on Drogs after an hour. In any case, Kalou should play, mostly replacing JCole, as I dont think JCole would be playing 90 minutes.

See this beautiful piece of skill from Kalou.

[youtube]SIa3l1-QZsw[/youtube]

Some trivia: Only Chelsea and Everton have scored in all premiership matches so far and Chelsea is the only team to have taken the lead in all the matches so far. Let’s hope we beat Reading when we face them for the first time in 76 years, while keeping these little records intact.

Next to England, Arsenal suffered the heavist blow in the Euro 2008 qualifiers as Ljunberg, Eboue & Baptista are injured. Eboue & Ljunberg are out for three to four weeks. Arsene must be thinking of the Murphy’s laws. Luckily for him, they have a comfortable home game against Watford on Saturday. Man United travel to the JJB stadium and if they fail to win and if we win, we are on top again.

Enough said about Sheva. Let him play his game and all I want is a Chelsea win.

My predictions for the weekend matches:

Arsenal 3 - 0 Watford
Aston Villa 2 - 1 Tottenham
Liverpool 2 - 1 Blackburn
Man City 2 - 0 Sheff Utd
Middlesbrough 0 - 1 Everton
Portsmouth 1 - 1 West Ham
Reading 0 - 3 Chelsea
Wigan 1 - 2 Man Utd