It’s very rare nowadays. Jose Mourinho has all of his first choice players available. Mikel is suspended for another two domestic matches after this one. Diarra has made the right back a position of his own. I dont see too much value added by Ballack but still something makes me to put him in the playing eleven. Funny that I’m not able to reason my own thinking! And Jose says that he would pick Terry if possible. Remember, Henry was picked to play for 20 mins against PSV though he was not fully fit and now he is hopeful to start the next season. All I wish is that he doesnt do a Wenger who chose Henry to lose him at threaten their objective of the fourth place. But Jose is waiting for the experts to give a go-ahead:

He is training normally. He is doing everything like everyone else. He is heading the ball, so if it is my choice I would say yes he will play. But, I have to wait for a final report from the medical side and they will make that decision.

Tottenham are a very good side and they’ve already come back from a goal down to beat us. If you have that game’s video, keep it - it is a collector’s item. Makelele scored a screamer. Keane tormeneted Khalid in that match, who was in the right back and knew that Khalid was the weak link in the defence then. I hope Diarra shuts the door on Keane tomorrow. Later on in that match, Terry was sent off for something no one was sure of, but he didnt wrestle with the referee ala Adebayor. Talking about Adeb, he’s got his ban extended from 3 games to 4 games for his solo drama in the Carling Cup final.

Back to our match - Tottenham are in a dream run currently, they keep winning and more importantly they are scoring heavily in every match. They had a good 4-3 win against West Ham where they came back from 2-3. The fact that they allowed fainting West Ham to score three goals, gives me a lot of confidence. Even Braga scored two against Spurs this week. Spurs does not have any serious injury issues currently, except that Ledley King wont be available. Key men to watch on their side would be Berbatov, Keane and Lennon.

Jose holds Tottenham in high regard:

They are not a good team, they are a very, very good team. They are living a good moment and scoring lots of goals, defensively we will have to play well.

He can very well say that knowing that his back four could be Terry, Carvalho, Cole and Diarra. Off topic but some clarity on the Alex situation, thanks to wiki:

Alex started his career in Santos of Brazil in the 2002 Brazilian season. He was bought by English club Chelsea F.C. in 2004, but due to potential problems attaining a work permit, he was loaned out to Dutch club PSV Eindhoven. The joint contract of Chelsea and PSV states that Alex would play at PSV for two years, with Chelsea having a €1 buy-out clause.

You can see him join us at the end of this season. Nice addition, I would say. May be I’ve started liking him for his towering header that ousted Arsenal from the last possible competition for them and made William Gallas look like a complete idiot, being fit and playing the rest of the season for nothing at all.

Meanwhile, Shevchenko had to deny yet another piece of cheap journalism. Some Russian website made up an interesting paragraph and put it under his name. Looks like even I can publish something like ‘Shevchenko kills Drogba in a bar brawl’ and it could get you some million hits and sell some copies before you issue an apology for the mistaken identity. Anyway, Sheva denied with a statement that he needs to use more often in future:

This is complete rubbish. I have never spoken to this German website or to the journalist who claims to have interviewed me.

I know you cannot go about suing all these miscreants as you’ll have no other job to do. But, I wish either Andriy or Chelsea FC should knock down atleast one or two of such guys to prevent more such nonsense coming up. May be that’s what this statement from Chelsea means:

The only official comments from Andrei appear on the Chelsea website, his own website or in interviews organised by the club, his sponsors or official pre or post-match press conferences. Andrei and Chelsea FC will now be considering what further action to take.

Sheva is still looking for his domestic goal in about 8 matches or something. But there is no doubting that he gives all that he has for the team objective. To see that Drogba, Sheva and Ballack all worked together for that winning goal, was very pleasing on the eye. Hope that spirit continues.

When we have Cech, Terry, Essien and Drogba playing their positions, I think we are unbeatable! Didier Drogba would be playing his 100th Chelsea match and he must be waiting to score his 30th goal of the season. You can see that as we progress in all the competitions, the players’ hunger for success keeps increasing. Knowing that we are only a few matches away from more silverware should only make them stronger as the injured players are also returning.

Surely, we have the team to prevent a replay. With more matches coming up in all competitions, we should beat them at the Bridge not only for progression but also to avoid some more fixture congestion. I wish we play like we played Porto in the second half - holding the opposition by the sruff of their neck, controlling and pacing the game and creating chances at will and making the oppostion feel clearly that it is not their game. 2-0 for us.