Birmingham vs Chelsea | 19-Jan-08 @ 15:00 UK
To play a relegation battler at this juncture is what we exactly need. We have a couple of new players who are very eager to show their class. We are just 4 points off Man Utd and Arsenal who travel to Reading and Fulham.
We will play 4-3-3. Anelka should play 90 minutes I guess. SWP has been successful (for all of 2 matches) playing in a central role. So, I think he would pair with Ballack. By last match performance, Joe Cole and Malouda should start as well.
If there are discussions between Chelsea and Liverpool on Wayne Bridge, we would see less and less of him. If we are going to lose him, let’s play him against these lesser oppositions while Ashley Cole can prepare for bigger matches.
Dispatching Birmingham should not be too difficult for two reasons. (i) I just cannot see them scoring (ii) I just cannot see how they can stop us from scoring, but this is what I thought when we played them at home in the first leg. It was a great match. we should won by a bigger margin but came out with a very respectable (for Birmingham) margin of 3-2.
Last season we lost three matches in all, this season we have already lost three as of now. Last season we failed to score in 4 matches and this time already we haven’t scored in 5 matches. Same time last season we were No.2 trailing by 6 points and now we are at No.3 trailing by 4 points. All other things being equal, if our second half of the season is going to match our first half, we will fall short. I don’t think Arsenal can last the race despite their brilliant form. Man Utd are too strong to be toppled from where they are. Remember Man Utd had the worst start to the season, of all top four clubs, and they have slowly eclipsed their rivals to assert their superiority.
Here is a fantastic preview (which is much better than my post!) for the Birmingham vs Chelsea match. There is a nice build up for the match along with statistics of recent form, home/away form, league standings of both the teams. Very valuable information if you’re willing to bet.
Prediction: 2-0 to Chelsea.
not a bad formation but i dont think swp an cole plays good on the same side. and i would like to se the new guy branislav, maybe at the end just to se hes game
My Team Line Up
——- ———- ——- —Cech—– —— ——- —— ——
Belletti————–Alex————–Calvaho——-Cole
———————–Makalele——————————-
———–Swp————————Ballack————–
JoeCole———————————————-Malouda
———————–Anelka——————————-
Subs: Cudicini, Ivanovic, Pizzaro, Lampard and Sinclair
My Prediction – 3-1 in favour of Chelsea
Kick SWP out for godsake!
Playing him in central role would make Ballack more defensive, that’s bad.
Knowing Grant, I see this formation:
Cech
Belletti Alex Carvalho Cole
———Makalele/Mikel
———–Ballack
Malouda ————Cole
–Kalou/Sheva —–Anelka
Kalou+anelka should be interesting – quick, tricky and strong enough. Hope Drogs is out and Pizz and Sheva get more chances – unless of course there’s another new striker signing.
Swp and Ballack will be changing their positions often and that will be causing a lot of problems for the opposition. Hoping Makalele will reproduce the kind of performance he did in the last game. We need to be winning our matches now because I can feel it Assnal will drop some more points soon and we’ll be comfortably sitting below manutd in the second place waiting for them to have problems as well. Hopefully .
Up Blues
sumesh, kalou and mikel are in africa. i wanna se a 4-4-2 with joe and anelka up front.
………….cech…………….
bel/fer…..alex…..carv……..a.cole
swp…..maka….balack…..malouda
……….joe.cole……………………….
……………………anelka…………….
sumesh @3 kalou and mikel hav gone to african cup of nations. and the exact formation above was exactly wat i was thinking. i still believe malouda needs to be dropped though, in every game i see him play, he does hardly anything and i hardly ever see him with the ball. since it is against birmingham, i would play sinclair on the left instead. lampard should be on the bench and subbed on later to see if the new ballack-lampard pair link up.
Why working out all those formations?
You could field the reserves and birmingham still
lose, they are crap they ahve no chance.
up the blues
“they r crap”, are they? look at what happened to Arsenal when they took them lightly even at the Emirates. Let’s just play our game. Go Chels
The last thing we need is to field a weakened team. Every single point counts when we’re so close. It’s a better position to be than leading, I suppose. More pressure on Man U.
I don’t think Arsenal can go the distance, either, but I’m starting to think that’s just wishful thinking… Who thought that without Henry they’d have a much better year than the last?!
Anyways, tomorrow’s team should be a straight-forward 1-3 or 0-2 win for the Blues, to send Arsenal a message.
I think Arsenal have already sent the whole premiership a message by showing all the clubs they don’t need Henry to be succesful, they are above Liverpool, Chelsea and Tottenham, same points as United and hav been leading since mid september. Even if they don’t win the league or even come below Chelsea, Arsenal have proved something to themselves and although they slipped up at Birmingham last week, they will wipe the floor with Fulham. They will all be saying they have come so far to let this title go and I don’t see them dropping much points from now til May.
——–Cech——-
—-Belleti——Alex——Carvalho——-A.Cole
Makelele
—-SWP——J.Cole——Ballack——Malouda
—Anelka—
Subs: Cudicini, Pizzaro Ivanovic, Sinclair, Lampard
……………..cech……………….
belleti…alex……..carvalho..bridge
……………..ivanovic……………….
cole……………………….malouda…
………..ballack………………..
……………………..swp…………….
………………Anelka………………
ivanovic can play deffensive midfield makelele only plays the big games because of his age
cole and molouda could swap sides which would make them cut into central positions this would free bridge and belleti to attack.
give swp a free role with long balls going towards ballack, lampard would also come on as a sub as he is just returning from injury.
when we have all our players back i would go for this
………………cech……………..
…belleti…carvalho..terry…cole.
…………….essien………………..
molouda………………………cole
……………….lampard……………..
………….ballack………………….
…………………..drogba……….
I beg to differ with Sumesh. Leave SWP in the middle again! Don’t screw around with success, especially when Chelsea clearly needs to keep pace with Man U (do I have to pull for Reading Rugby Club this weekend?) and Arsenal. I like BC’s suggested formation. Anelka can handle the lone striker role. As for Sheva, he can revive his career with DC United or Toronto FC.
The Priemership Preview Show over here suggest that Birmingham may be playing Chelsea at the right time due to their injuries and players gone to Africa. I see Birmingham getting beaten nearly as bad as Newcastle at Old Trafford.
Johnarejr
Yes i agree Birmingham is going to have a football lesson
from Chelksea with the corespondant score
0-3
1-1 at arsenal we lost 1-0
0-1 at united we lost 2-0
i am not negitive but it will be tough i think we will sneak through 1-2 prediction anelka scores both
today’s match will not be telecast live in India . . grrrrrr
My team for today:
—————cech——————–
belletti—-alex—-carvalho—-bridge
—————maka——————–
———Swp———ballack——–
—-J.cole—————-Malouda—-
————–Anelka——————
If we are winning comfortably i say to bring on ivanovic as right back or defensive mid.
I expect a 0-2 or a 1-3
it would be an interesting match because of the team we’re playing and i just hope we dont dropped silly points here….i cant wait for the match to start because i want to see anelka in action and i think SWP and Malouda would have a great game…i know makalele would be up to the task as usual and J.Cole would be outstanding….Ballack would stand tall and the back four would do their job….
Aint no stopping us now……we would….hope the gap goes to 1 ponit
rohan its at 11.00 pm IST its not live
used2gonwatchcfc : 0-3 :)) this birmingham is not that birmingham
god damn, chelsea should bring in Sidwell , and out Maka . we have to win
manchester is winning.
we have to win.
YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSss
PIZARRRRRRRRRRRRRROOOOOOOOO
Fulham 0-3 Arsenal , it was predictable .
joe cole sidwell goood change
chelsea are rubish there nothink to arsenal
chelsea is a very strong team just cause threy lost off barnsley doest’t meen that chelsea are rubbish there the best and i was in st andrews watch in Chelsea vs Birmingham with my friend, we came with a chelsea coach!!!