wigan-vs-chelsea-fa-cup.pngWe will get to see the electric yellow jersey again as Chelsea gear up for the FA Cup fourth round against Wigan. For many seasons now, the hallmark of Chelsea’s progress in any competition has been the way they brush aside smaller oppositions. While Wigan can fancy an upset against other big teams, Chelsea would just get the job done with some ease.

I hope Avram considers FA Cup important in contrast to his views about League Cup. Avram earlier said that ‘Carling Cup is not his priority’. I don’t like when managers undermine any cup or competition. To feel so is one thing and to announce it is another. If Grant feels it is not so important for him, I wonder why he does not play the reserve team players like Arsene, who also feels the same way as Grant about this cup. I would like to respect every competition or at least not insult any competition in public even if it means nothing to me. I wonder what Grant would be saying about Community Shield!

Update: Here is Avram Grant’s clarification of his earlier statement on League Cup.

Peter Kenyon passes on his compliments to the team spirit, after the team progressed to the League Cup finals.

What a great achievement. Going to Wembley is always special but I think given what we’ve gone through, it’s extra special. The players that have performed, the players that have come into the squad, I think have just excelled and that tells you the strength we’ve got at Chelsea and what a great spirit. We’ve seen the Chelsea spirit many times in the last four years but I think this season it’s come to the fore. I think it would have been too easy this year for everybody to talk down where we are because of the players we’re missing and I think that’s a great achievement for the players, for the management and for Chelsea as a whole because I think that makes tonight’s victory just that bit more special. I think we can go wherever we want because I think the spirit’s there, clearly the team spirit’s there, and the quality of players. We’ve got real quality in depth and that’s come through tonight.

This piece from Peter Kenyon said about the League Cup win against Everton applies to the Chelsea spirit in every competition, not just the League Cup. The team is hungry to win, very hungry to win, they hate to lose, they have this fire in their belly for achieving the common goal.

It is now confirmed that Chelsea has indeed signed Franco di Santo (don’t miss the video!). It is strange that the signing of Franco has given me more joy and excitement that any of Jose Mourinho’s signings. To say that I’m extremely excited about Franco would be an understatement. I’d love to see him on the pitch as early as tomorrow.

On the squad available for this match, there are no new injuries. We would be missing the African Cup lot and the known ones like Terry, Lampard and Shevchenko. Avram is just waiting to see if Ballack can be played tomorrow. I hope he plays.

I would expect Avram to field the same set of 16 players as he did for the Everton match. Ashley Cole might play for Bridge, Ballack can come in to replace Sidwell and the rest may not change.

I won’t be overly concerned about this match for three reasons. Firstly we have this habit of dismissing the smaller opponents without breaking a sweat. Secondly, Wigan are on a free fall though the cups are different thing. Finally, at worst we would get a draw which means a replay at Stamford Bridge. I don’t adding more matches to the already congested fixture schedule would help with our squad’s injury status. But I’ll take it, if there is no other go.

We have scored 30 points more than Wigan in the same number of matches. That shows the gulf between these two teams. It should be atleast a 0-2 with no trouble at all. And hey, there is something new to disagree! Have a look at the UEFA team of the year 2007!