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Should be no worries!

Now the morale is down. If not yet for the team, atleast for many of the fans, me for sure! We are trailing in the Premiership by only four points, we topped a difficult champions league group, we are in Carling cup semi-finals and in the third round of the FA cup. Not too bad. On the whole, with the absence of the first and second choice goalkeepers, we have done very well indeed. So, why is my morale down? Few months back, had you told me that Reading might get a 2-2 draw at the Bridge, I would have laughed it off. Now these things have become absolutely possible.

What worries now is not the results and points but the manner in which we get them, I would take an 1-0 win over a 3-2 win any day. Our excellent defensive records of the past seasons have gone. Now even the new boys of the Premiership can come to the Bridge and go back with 2 goals and a point. The important contributor to Chelsea’s success in the recent seasons has been the ‘fear factor’. Over the last few matches this is slowly fading away.

Drogba also realises this fact:

It is something we have to think about. We cannot give the other teams the belief that they can score, that they can win. Last season, and also two years ago, we were very strong when we scored one goal and they other teams could not think about coming back into the game

The match against Fulham at the Stamford Bridge is a new year gift to Chelsea. No disrespect to Fulham, but if their away form is any indication, they are in for a beating. Their only away win of this season was more than three months back and they have been shipping two goals for every goal they score away. But, this is a derby. Emotions can run high. Motivation levels can be different. In any damn case, we should wrap this up.

We should go for a high-scoring-clean-sheeter. To take full advantage of Fulham’s current form, we should opt for 4-3-3 and play Drogba with Robben and Kalou on either wings. I’m not sure if Robben is fit to play, I just hope. I wish both Ballack and Makelele are rested. If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you might have noticed that for quite some time, I have been dropping Ballack from my team. That’s the reason why a poll was also introduced in this blog to know who do you want to be dropped – Sheva or Ballack or both or neither. Below are the results of the most-voted poll of this blog so far:

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Until a fortnight back, most of the voters wanted to drop neither and even in the rest, only 13% were gunning for Ballack. Now, there seems to be a widespread anti-Ballack wave, which I support anyway. Ballack is a great player, a big match player, has been a champion all along his career. He has captained his club and country, he has been the through the best and worst of times. Like in the Sheva case, I have complete trust that Ballack will come good but I would not want him to play now as we have to play only our best possible eleven to pip Man Utd. Going by the half season’s performance, I would not pick Ballack.

We won the corresponding game of the last season from a Lampard double. The below is the video of the second goal which is a beautilfully set up goal involving 5-6 players and cleaned up by Lampard.

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Good news is that John Terry has undergone a successful back surgery and will be back in weeks and not months and Sir Alex’s time to utilise his bench has come and he would start using more from the bench now. May be, we can see some upsets, as long as Ronaldo does not come in for 20 mins and scores a double!!

For the confidence of the Chelsea defence, we need to come out with a clean sheet. That will take care of the game. By our track record in this season, we are the only team, yes only team, to have scored in all Premiership matches. That’s why I feel, a clean sheet would surely get us 3 points.

[tags] Chelsea, Fulham, Derby, Stamford Bridge, Drogba, Lampard, Premiership [/tags]