Avram Grant is just two steps away from his first Chelsea trophy. Beat Everton tonight and see off Arsenal in February, you got the trophy! If his continues to carry his luck, the Spurs could have a famous victory over their North London rivals and meet us in the finals, only to get beaten by us.

Lot of us do have a second favourite team in every league, don’t we? For me, Everton is my second favourite in the premier league. It’s not that I follow them thoroughly but I just feel happy for them if they win matches, I like their players, more importantly their manager David Moyes.

Everton are fresh from a disappointing home defeat against Old Ham in the FA Cup. I’m sometimes surprised by these upsets of non-top-four clubs in the cup competitions. Their best chance and hope of something major is only in the domestic cups and to think that they blow it up like at home, unfortunate. They are in some mixed form winning three and losing three in their las six matches. Strangely, I thought they were the better team when they lost 1-4 to Arsenal. Luckily, I’m able to keep the scoreline away and still objectively evaluate on who played better, who controlled the game better. It was Everton. They played superbly against us too. Of course, we gifted them the stoppage time equaliser but they were there to take it and finish it. But Everton has not beaten Chelsea for many many years!

BBC reports that Chelsea’s 12 million bid for Anelka has been rejected by Bolton. I thought a 12m bid was very competitive and I’m not surprised to see Bolton reject it. They’re just doing a Sevilla. Are we going to end up buying Anelka for 16 million or so?

chelsea-team-everton.jpgDrogba, Essien and Kalou have already reported for duty with their national squads. Only Mikel, from the ANC batch, would be available for this match. With Sheva injured and Anelka not moving for now, the types of Sinclair and Sahar should play, at least as subs. For Everton, Arteta won’t play as he is still serving suspension for the red card he got thanks to a typical Fabregas playacting. Moyes has managed to retain Yakubu and Yobo and even possibly Pienaar for this crucial away match. After Everton’s push, we also followed suit and retained Mikel. I wish it was the other way round. Being a big club we should have our voices heard, instead of following the precedent from Everton.

My team would be a 4-3-3 again. Until we buy a new striker, it could be a 4-3-3 as the striker. Probably this is the first time, I would stick Pizarro as the lone man upfront. Petr Cech seems to have a chance of making it but I would not like to risk him in this match. Good news is, Carvalho has served his three match suspension. Mikel would play his last match before ANC for us. Sidwell faces a major test. If he doesn’t come good in this home match, he has no one else to blame.

Joe Cole has something to say about this match, our squad and the new signings:

On our squad:

It shows strength in depth at the club, a lot of clubs play younger players. We have players on the bench who are top class internationals. In this tournament we are always strong and give a good account of ourselves. I’ll play anywhere, I’ve always said that, as long as I’m on the pitch. But we have Scott Sinclair, Ben Sahar, good quality young players to play in that position as well. Ben himself is an international footballer, and Scott has done fantastic every time he has played for us. The young players haven’t had much of a chance, but those two can help out and show what they can do.

On Everton and this match:

I think they are a brilliant side, and they held us to a draw at Stamford Bridge. They have a great manager in David Moyes, and great players who can score goals from everywhere. It’ll be great to go to Goodison Park with any lead and that would put us in a healthy position, but they are a top side and it’ll be a cracking game. At the moment no one has won or lost the trophy, it’s all still to play for and no one remembers who is top of the league in December or January, or remembers third rounds of cups, people remember the finals and that’s what’s important. We have to keep picking up points in the league and keep winning the important cup games. Losing Drogba, Essien, Kalou and Mikel is going to be tough, but the players here are chomping at the bit to play. Pizarro is a top class striker and everyone has done a good job. It’s a great challenge for us and we are up for it.

On the new signings:

I’m not sure where the club stands with signing players, you welcome any top class player coming to the club, but we have a strong squad still and the atmosphere is good. There are loads of important games and the lads are looking forward to them.

Nice interesting comment from Joe. Look at that ‘but’. You welcome any top class player to the club but we have a strong squad still . . .

We got another piece of Avram’s man management in the QPR match. Ashley Cole started as the captain for us, and when Didier stepped in at the 60th minute, while Ashley was still there, he had to hand over the arm band to Didier, who’s gonna leave us for the next six weeks and also uncertain about the future with us. Ashley must have been terribly upset at this gesture. It’s common for the arm band to change hands, when the captain is subbed out, but to hand out the arm band because a non-captain has come in at the 60th minute, it is a strange decision.

Anyway, I hope for a win tonight. A defeat would not be a disaster but at worst I just hope we don’t concede more than one goal. In the second leg on Jan 23rd, we would have a better and stronger squad at the Goodison park. We’re playing with a near full strength defence with a reliable keeper in Hilario (much better than having Lehmann or Robinson now). I predict a 2-0 for us.