BlueChampions - The Blog of the Champions of England!

What’s Sky calling this match up? ‘Battle of the billionaires’? Fact is truly stranger than fiction isn’t it? Man City has been rubbing Chelsea on the wrong side with the snatching of Robinho, their interest in Essien, their subsequent claims of how they’ll do a Chelsea. There is also this billionaire’s ego spin to the whole story. It’s so strange that Man City vs Chelsea happens to be such a much-awaited contest. The press is rejoicing. They have one more club to tease around. The count of interesting battles are on the rise. At least it has gone up by four – Man City against each of the top four.

What’s at stake? For Chelsea, pride is one certain thing. At a club like Chelsea, dropped points in a ny match is a disaster. If that has to happen against Man City at the Eastlands, it’s even worse. While the Sheikh is trying to buy the moon for Man City, we need to beat them to let them know where they belong. By saying this, I don’t meant the reverse result has any significance. If Man City happens to scrape through with a win, it still would not mean much for them. Didn’t they have a great first half of a season last time? Didn’t they do a double over city rivals and subsequent champions Man Utd? All this still left them in the bottom half of the table.

If you think I’ve started respecting Man City more than ever, you’re right. I think there’s nothing wrong in it. They have a very good team, they have a very good manager in Hughes and above all, their morale must be sky high. They are the most talked about premier league club this month. They can righfully feel delighted and would be expected by the owners/manager to play their part on the pitch. Their fans would be more vocal than ever. You’ll see people flogging to the stadiums. You’ll see the long waiting lists for their season tickets. This is their little moment of glory. Let them have it. We’ll only spoil it a bit by beating them on their home soil.

In team news, the big one is Essien is seriously injured and could be back only after a few months. That’s terrible but we’ve got Mikel and a budding defensive midfielder in Belletti! Scolari is keen to sign Essien’s replacement meanwhile. I guess it could be someone like Stephen Appiah. If it’s Appiah himself I’ll be glad.

The best squad in the premier league is facing a litmus test now. Essien, Ballack and Mikel are missing due to injury. I won’t call it a crisis, no way. Don’t joke. Any midfield that has Deco and Lampard cannot be in crisis. You can put any two names along side these two players, we’d still have a superb midfield. Assuming Scolari would go ahead with a 4-3-3, Cech, Terry, Carvalho, Cole and Bosingwa should make the first third of the pitch.

The midfield could have Lampard, Deco and guess what, Belletti again. After all, he was used as a holding midfielder in that important match against Spurs. He did a good job, even if you don’t take his goal into account. Belletti as a defensive midfielder could very well be a Scolari masterstroke. I’ll surely observe how he develops there. I’m guessing that Mikel is not ready to play. If he is, he starts, undoubtedly.

The front three could be a bit tricky there. Drogba is still not fully fit and I doubt if he would be rushed back. On the other hand, if he is fit enough to play 60 minutes in the reserve match couple fo weeks back, he should be fit enough to play atleast 60 minutes on Saturday. Joe Cole could be on the right wing and Malouda on the left. I’d put Kalou as the only striker for two reasons. I think he can do a better job than Anelka. Second is, having played so rubbishly in the last two matches, I don’t want him to be the automatic starter for this match. Let him know that he was crap, so he is out.

Lot of you don’t believe in Kalou but overa 90-minute period, Kalou contributes more than Anelka. I have absolutely no doubts in this statement. Think from the opposition teams’ defenders point of view. Who would like to avoid between Kalou and Anelka? Kalou is much more dangerous than Anelka. Would love to see Franco too. It would be a cocky move to have Franco start and play for about an hour and then gets replaced by Drogba. In this case, Kalou can play in place of Malouda.

You might wonder why Malouda? Poor chap. Leave him alone. I’ve started to believe that he can come good. Scolari has a lot of faith in him. He thinks he can transform Malouda to what he was at Lyon. Sounds like he is sincerely working on Malouda. If that’s the case, Malouda needs a run of games. One more reason to pick him is that he was not picked for the world cup qualifiers. So he must be relatively fresh. Picking Joe Cole is again a gamble. If SWP’s ratio of bad games to good games was 15:1, Joe Cole’s ratio is about 4:1, which is still bad. But the one game he plays well, he’d be the man of the match by a country mile. I’d still play him because he is a maverick. You know never what would he do next. He can suprise in a flash. I hope Saturday is one of those days for him.

Man City might play a strong line up with Ronaldinho, Kaka, Fabregas, Ronaldo . . oh wait . . not yet. They have a good team even otherwise. Robinho and Jo are played in the world cup qualifiers and they could be back in Manchester only on Friday morning. There are doubts if Robinho would play. If hughes does not play Robinho, it could be a smart move. Remember how Gallas/Ashley Cole were withdrawn in the match after his infamous exit from their clubs? There was a reason to it. If Robinho is to play against Chelsea, against Bosingwa or Ashley Cole, and if he gets owned, there’ll be too much pressure on him in the next few matches. Hughes might want to protect him and have him make his debut against Portsmouth or in the UEFA Cup game.

Steve Clarke has submitted his resignation to join Zola at West Ham. It’s a sad move. Chelsea are still in talks with him. Hopefully, we’ll be able to hold him back. I’ll keep checking.

I gotta run now. Quick prediction. Man City 0-2 Chelsea. Sorry Sheikh!