The team that beats Barca should beat Pompey!

All you Chelsea fans rejoicing after the fantastic 3-0 win (officially 1-0) over Barca, get back to planet Earth. If you all feel that Chelsea will thrash Portsmouth this weekend, I wish that but dont quite expect that. The reason is, Portsmouth in this season, has surprised many and let this not be another one of their surprises.

With 16 points, they are breathing under our neck. They have kept 6 clean sheets out of their 8 matches so far, which is very impressive and also have conceded only three goals so far. So currently they have the best defensive record in this Premiership so far. They may not have won at the Bridge for the last 50 years but we gotta be careful with teams like Portsmouth. One thing to note is that their captain Dejan Stefanovic and Glen won’t play as per the loan terms.

I just hope the team that beat Barca is retained for this match too. Hilario should start on his 31st birthday, as Cudicini is still advised to rest. The reason why I have preferred Ashley over Wayne is that Cole played well in the second half against Barca and looks like he is slowly settling down and with some more matches he can give his best.

The same team would mean Joey and Robben might have to sit out even despite being fit. But I would love to see them play in the second half. Essien, who has played every single minute this season, would play his 50th match on Saturday. I hope he saw the videos of the Barca match and realised that he made a mistake of not passing to Sheva to his right or Carvalho to his left. Despite that he did give a performance that could be rated 9 out of 10.

“Sorry guys! I should have passed it!”

Essien says:

The pace of the Premiership is really fast, but as a player you have to keep believing in yourself and have confidence. Now I can read the game much better than before. I always work hard and I am getting better all the time. The more you keep playing, the more you keep improving. I am really happy with my performance. These things (referring to Ballack’s red card) happen in football and you have to forget about the bad ones and keep going, Now I am a little bit careful. My game is hard but I play hard and fair. At the moment, everything is okay. So far so good, no problems!

Mark Clattenburg officiates this match. He has shown a whopping 24 yellow cards in the 5 matches he has refereed so far. This is no good news but just hope the match does not end up a brawl night.

If Chelsea wins and Manu fails to beat Liverpool on Sunday, we’ll be back on top again.

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