It’s so relieving to realise that club football resumes this weekend after couple of weeks of mostly pointless and boring international football. With the crucial champions league matches round the corner, the so-called random fixture generator has done a great favour by pairing us with Watford. They are in No.19 in the table and experiencing a poor phase now. They’ve won 3 in 30 matches so far and they failed to score in 16 matches. This shows what you can expect on Saturday. Aidy Boothroyd should be happy if they lose with a 2-goal margin while I expect a 0-3 win for Chelsea.

The bad bad bad news is that Robben will miss rest of the season as he plans to undergo a surgery. Just when I was dreaming of Joe Cole and Robben playing in tandem in champions league, we get this blow. I share Jose’s concern on Robben’s injury. It is frustrating to see Robben playing two matches for Holland and returns injured requiring a surgery. When Robben was missing in December/January, our goals actually dried up and we couldnt really force through the defences as much as we did when he was there. Robben has always been Jose’s trump card that he would use his electrifying pace in the second half when the defenders are tired. I’d miss him badly.

Lampard would be playing on Saturday after some ‘out-for-four-weeks’ scare due to his fractured wrist. He should use this match to see if he is completely allright to face Valencia. Ballack, who’s been playing decently well of late, should also start. Essien is still not ready while that would give Mikel another chance. Mikel has been fantastic whenever he was played. His disciplinary concerns and his needless red card are now a distant memory. His playing well in the defensive midfield has now given us many options in the midfield. Geremi can get the nod in order to rest Diarra who has played twice for France in the last week. Would be interesting to see if Jose would play Drogba or Sheva. I have a feeling that they could play 45 minutes each while Kalou and SWP supporting them.

In the reverse fixture, Drogba scored a hattrick and set one up for Sheva.

[video]http://www.dailymotion.com/swf/6HkmPoTJHFEfi4sMe[/video]

We have been unbeated for two months now, in all competitions and we play an opponent who are down and out, who have won 1 in 15 home matches. With any eleven players from the Chelsea squad, we should be able to win this match without breaking a sweat. If we play like England did last week, we have only ourselves to blame.

Before we kick off, we’ll know the result of the Wealthiest Club in the World vs Blackburn match at Old Trafford. I’m too tired of praying for a Man Utd draw or loss. But, this thing called hope never dies. It prevails over statistics, practicalities and probabilities. I ‘hope’ that the gap would be smaller when we kick off.