Champions league nights are back. Chelsea travel to Greece to play Olympiakos and have all their key players in time for this contest. The hosts must really worried about this fact.

If this match was played in January, Olympiakos could have really fancied themselves to get a good result and hope for some magic at Stamford Bridge. Now, with Cech, Terry, Essien, Lampard, Ballack, Joe Cole, Drogba and Anelka in the team, it can’t be anything less than a clean sheet win for Chelsea.

Olympiakos did rather well in the group stages to finish on level points with Real Madrid but still ended in second place. They can boast of certain records at home. They have been unbeaten at home for about a year and they have always done well against English clubs at home. When they play Chelsea tonight, they would be playing their toughest opposition for many many months. Yes, I consider Chelsea a tougher opposition than Real Madrid, by some distance.

They play tough and can be temparamental. They’ve collected the highest number of yellow cards in the tournament so far, which is 16 in 6 matches. Essien has collected 2 yellow cards and another one would mean he would be banned for the next match. I expect Essien to collect a tactical yellow this match and serve his ban when Olympiakos visits Stamford Bridge.

I would play a diamond 4-4-2. Drogba and Anelka as strikers. Essien as defensive midfielder. Ballack the as attacking tip. Joe Cole as the right midfielder and Lampard on the left. The defence would be Terry, Carvalho, Belletti and Ashley Cole. This is the strongest Chelsea line-up as far as I can remember.

In other news, we’ve drawn Barnsley in the FA Cup (how better can this get!) and Paulo Ferreira has signed a new 5 year contract with Chelsea. I like Paulo. Sometimes he shows this indifference in his efforts and performance which puts me off. When he is well motivated and fired up, he is a very good right back. It’s fair to say that Belletti has made Ferreira’s place very doubtful and I would not have been surprised if he left. Paulo is still young for a right back, and he can still improve and make right back, his own place.

This match is not telecast live. I’ve realised that I’m only wasting time and losing patience with the live video streams. So, I’ve decided to watch the matches featuring the Milan teams and supporting and cheering them to go through. Here are my predictions. Olympiakos 0-2 Chelsea. Arsenal 1-2 Milan. Liverpool 0-2 Inter. Lyon 1-3 Man Utd. Let’s get back here tomorrow to see how completely wrong I was!