On Tuesday night, Chelsea will get another chance to avenge their semi final defeats. Revenge is not on the minds of the players says Lampard and I don’t believe him. I simply need the bragging rights this time. Let me sound arrogant and call Liverpool our bogey team but I want the jinx to end now.

The last 6 meetings between these two teams in the champions league have produced only 3 goals. While the group league matches were terribly boring, the semi final matches have all been quite good, at least I think so. In the past two semi final meetings when Liverpool came to Stamford Bridge for the first leg, they came with the sole intention of getting a draw. They know that the fortunate lucky illusionary magic at the kop end would take them through in the second leg. I don’t want Chelsea to go Anfield with this approach.

Of course we need the away goal but I’d say a second away goal for Chelsea would mean one foot in the final. Knowing that, we should go for it. If Liverpool concedes two goals at Anfield their biggest trump card being Anfield would have let them down. For all the talk of Anfield being their fortress, isn’t it where Arsenal scored 6 goals in Jan 07? It’s now way a unbeatable domain like Stamford Bridge. Unbeaten in more than 100 games. How special is that!

Big news on the team. Lampard has joined the squad for the training ahead of this match whiel his mum is still in the hospital. Any emergency from now until the start of the match, he would be unavailable for the first leg. Hope his mom gets better, not just because I want him to play, just in the general sense. Essien is unavailable for this match as he picked up a needless card for a stupid pointless reaction for a bad refereeing decision. Ballack is still suffering from hamstring problem and could not be there for this match. Drogba is still a doubtful starter, but I won’t surprised to see him on the pitch as if he was never injured.

Other than Ballack, Essien, Drogba and of course Cudicini, we have a full squad to choose from. As I mentioned, I want to see us score two away goals. I don’t care even if Liverpool score four goals. You know that Liverpool have not scored in Stamford Bridge since 2004 in any competition. I don’t see them scoring even this time around with our stronger defence and Petr Cech. With this mind, I want us to score two goals at any cost. I’ll tell you it’s certainly worth it. Again, I’d gladly take 4-2 in favour of Liverpool.

In such a goal drought match up how can we see so many goals, is your question. Avram Grant has seen the last two semi finals and said this:

The last European games against Liverpool were too tactical. You need the freedom to play. I am trying with my Chelsea team to give them the freedom to think with responsibility. That’s why I have a good feeling about the games with Liverpool because I always like to be positive. We will not change the game we played until now, with a midfield that can score goals and go forward. I like a game with freedom but also responsibility and that’s what we need to show here. Sometimes a game develops not like you want - I don’t know if they planned to be tactical. We will try to create something of our own.

I have a commitment to style and said from Day One we will take it step by step. We played many good games, but when you come to the semi-final the result is important. I am very optimistic - I [hope] that the game will be not boring. I think they are a very good team but we also are a very good team, so it will be a good game between very good teams.

I agree with him that the last two semi finals were very tactical, both managers unwilling to unleash and waiting for an error from the other side. His response above kinds of sums up his mentality. He wants results, at the same time he wants to honour his commitment to style. He claims that he has brought changes step by step. I don’t know what he means by many good games. Each of the top 8 teams have many good games in a season where they play their opponent off the park. It’s my feeling that at times we are horrible to watch, not just boring.

So all this commitment to style stuff gets Avram few more months or years on the job that is too much for him. I remember the story Avram narrated. A chancer gets money from the king to make a horse speak in 10 years. When asked about how will he make it happen he says, “in 10 years, either the king or the horse will be dead”. Avram can keep on bullshitting about the style of play, but I have a feeling that he is waiting for either the horse or the king to be dead.

Just as I’m defaming Avram Grant with my poisonous words, John Terry comes in defence of him.

We are totally behind the manager. It is bizarre because since Avram took over, one thing we’ve done is that if any players are unhappy or has a problem, we’ve all got together, as you need to do, and speak our minds. We speak openly and things are sorted out there and then within the space of 10 minutes. There are no people walking out the door and talking behind each other’s backs. So all these suggestions are quite laughable actually. We get in a room, we talk and we solve the problems.

That’s like a good captain, hiding all under the carpet. I like and respect John Terry. He is doing his job. Read that line, “since Avram took over, one thing we’ve done is that if any players are unhappy or has a problem, we’ve all got together, as you need to do, and speak our minds”. Doesn’t it sound like this is some kind of a weekly feature in Chelsea FC, ‘getting together when players are unhappy’ thing? Will Terry explain why we had to start this new process since Avram took over? Why did we not have it or need it and why now?

Going back to the words of the chancer . . er . . Avram ‘monosyllabic’ Grant. So this would be an open game. While I want two goals for which it needs to be an open game, I can’t deny that there’s a massive risk in there. What if we play like we have been playing for many weeks that led up to this game. We keep creating half chances and quarter chances but never threaten our opponents seriously enough. If we play an open game and keep losing the ball near the box as harmlessly as we do, Liverpool can punish us on the counterattacks. With Gerrard, Babel, Benayoun and Torres and possibly Crouch they are one of the most dangerous counter attacking teams. I think Rafa would love to see Chelsea play an open game so that they can rely only on the counterattacks. No matter how we play, I don’t see Liverpool playing any differently they would have planned to do.

We must be wary of Liverpool, the champions league team. Last season they beat Barca and Chelsea on the way to finals. This time they have beaten Inter and Arsenal. As with Inter, the second leg was at San Siro. They won comfortably because they beat Inter 2-0 at Anfield. Such a result on Tuesday night would make them very firm favourites. Thinking of the Inter game, we should stay away from stupid fouls, running to the referee, arguing with him unnecessarily and stuff like that. No red cards. If we get a red card by first half, it will be at least 2-0 to Liverpool by full time.

While Benitez is playing little mind games by saying the current Chelsea team are less spirited than under Mourinho, Grant has been pretty quiet. Grant wants to project himself as the good boy of the premier league. Talking highly of rival managers and players, talking to them profusely while shaking hands before and after the match and stuff like that. This created image of him could not really allow him to play mind games. If he thinks his remarks about Gerrard are his type of mind games, sorry. I don’t think either Gerrard or Benitez would give a hoot about this. To Chelsea’s benefit, TSO from elsewhere still continued his taunts on Benitez. While saying that Chelsea will beat Liverpool this time, he said these familiar words:

Liverpool have to fight to win in all competitions and at least win a cup. If they don’t everyone will say the season was a failure. After the money Liverpool spent, they’ll understand that.

That’s more like it. Should Rafa read it, should make his blood boil. Job half done. Thanks Jose, for your continued service to Chelsea FC and your friends (players, Kenyon and Roman and the list ends there).

Before I forget, my team selection. 4-3-3 because we are missing 2-3 midfielders. Shevchenko with Joe Cole and Kalou. Lampard, Mikel and Makelele. Terry, Carvalho, Belletti and Ashley Cole. Why Shevcehnko, because why Anelka? I don’t think, by the merit of his performance, Anelka deserves a starting place in the champions league semi finals at Anfield. On Shevchenko lacking match fitness, c’mon he’s been training everday and has played some reserve matches. Shevchenko still has a personal score to settle with Liverpool after that dreadful final at Istanbul. While the Milan team have managed to erase those memories with a perfect revenge, Sheva would still be ruing that night, as it was his missed penalty that cost their team. If Sheva plays and does not click, (a) you can sub him in good time (b) just forget about it, anelka didn’t click against Barnsley, what did we do?

Fingers crossed on two things - Joe Cole’s performance and our set piece defending. I guess these two factors could very well be the most decisive things tomorrow. Joe Cole always finds that extra bit of energy when he plays Liverpool and I hope he continues to do so. While Liverpool has not scored in Stamford Bridge since Jan 2004, Joe Cole himself has scored quite a few at Anfield since then. He should lead and inspire the Chelsea attacks.

On set pieces, it so happens that our weakness happens to be Liverpool’s strength. We have concede a few goals due to poor defending this season but it’s not just the conceding part that concerns me. We appear so fragile in these circumstances that even if we play well on the attack, Liverpool will always win that dodgy free kick or corner and might make the best out of it. At best, we stick up Cech, Terry, Carvalho, Ashley Cole and Belletti. That’s our first choice world class back four plus keeper. What else can we do?

Okay, prediction time. Another chance for me to prove how poor I’m at predicting skills. Avram promises open game. So I see both teams scoring. There are reasons why we will score one more. Liverpool 1-2 Chelsea. Joe Cole and Shevchenko to score. If Shevchenko does not play, Lampard will score that second goal. I think Torres will score too. In his kind of form and our kind of defensive dilemmas, it’s hard to imagine him not scoring.

Of course I originally thought that we would win 1-0 and that’s why that option is in bold. But now I’ve changed my mind. Our recent form since I voted and the fact that Essien won’t be there have made me change my mind. We will win but we will concede. The vote on the opinion poll is very distributed but about 63% of you think that it would be advantage Chelsea after this first leg. Most of you seem to expect a score draw (a 2-2 will do nicely) and surprisingly a goalless draw seems to be the least expected result.

Something tells me it’s third time lucky for us. There’s some hidden message from the God of Football - Schalke, Rosenborg, depleted Valencia, Olympiakos with second leg at SB, Fenerbahce with second leg at SB and now Liverpool with second leg at SB. It is not a coincidence that we’ve been plotted to succeed. May be it’s our destiny to win it this time.