Essien in midfield, finally!

Over the last six weeks, throughout the bad patch, we have been actually lucky that we had play mostly easier oppositions in the cup as well as in the league games. We have another easier match coming up against struggling Charlton. This should really help us in regrouping and building back the confidence in the team. The best news for a Chelsea fan now is that John Terry would play in this match.

Things getting back to normalcy everywhere. The Chelsea management has issued a statement backing Jose and Mourinho on his part has stated that he would stay until 2010. Jorge Mendes, Mourinho’s agent, has also denied the reports linking Real Madrid.

One good thing about the Blackburn win is that we stay away from Liverpool which is in fact better news than we staying closer to Man Utd. While I was worried to see Liverpool so closer to us before we beat Blackburn, Jose has attended my concern in his style:

I look up, I don’t look down. I look to Manchester United, I don’t look to Liverpool. Liverpool have a good team and they are winning matches but I don’t look back, I look up. We are currently on a run in which we have lost just once in 18 matches. We had a little spell with a lot of injuries in which we drew a number of games. Apart from that we have been doing fine and even with that, we have not been losing. So we have to feel good about the rest of the season. We will be trying to win in every competition. We must play a lot of football – maybe more than anyone else.

Did you notice that tongue-in-cheek “may be more than anyone else” in the last line?

The starting eleven that we have for this match is probably the strongest Chelsea line-up of the last six weeks or so. Bridge should start in place of unfortunate Ashley Cole who tore his ligament but is expected to play again this season. With Terry back on the team sheet, Essien should move to his much favoured central defence, where we see the best of him. Essien’s move to midfield means either Mikel or Maka or Ballack should be on the bench. It simply cannot be Mikel. He has been fantastic. It should not be Ballack too while the last match was one of his best performances of this season. I would put Maka on the bench.

Charlton are battling in the relegation zone and they way down in confidence. The fact is they fear Chelsea and I wont be surprised if they play all men behind the ball from the start. But, Alan Pardew wouldnt choose to take this route. With our captain back, I expect to see a great amount of enthusiasm and flamboyance in Chelsea’s game.

See the highlights of the home game against Charlton this season:

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsDxgoJdaWk[/video]

If we win against Charlton, we should hope that Spurs beat Man Utd at White Hart Lane. It’s not an impossible result. Well, Tottenham have beaten us there, they can do it to the Reds too.

John Terry knows exactly what to do:

We’ve got to make up six points on Manchester United in 13 games – seven really to go ahead. What that means is that we’ve just got to go on winning games because we can’t really afford to lose points. If we do go on winning games, they can’t afford to lose points. The race is on.

Jose, like me, is quite happy that even after this worst phase of three seasons, we are still just six points behind:

To be six points behind at this moment is very, very good. It’s a big achievement for a group full of problems, problems that look like they will never end. But the group is strong and will fight against the difficult situation. We need 11 players at least but with 11 we can do it. We need everybody together, fighting for the team and giving his best.

Let’s break up this 6 point gap now: (i) Chelsea should take 39 points from the remaining 13 games including a win at Emigrants (ii) Man Utd should drop points in three matches including a loss to Chelsea. If these two things happen, we do the hattrick.

Sounds simple . . eh?