Stoke City is not your regular newly-promoted-but-going-down relegation battler. They can give you a good fight. They have scored in every single match this season except the one goalless draw at Anfield, which was still a great result. Especially at home, they have scored 5 goals in two games. On current form though, of both teams, Stoke City might have very little hope. They must be thinking ‘we drew at Anfield, so why not against Chelsea’ but they should also know Chelsea are a different animal.

Chelsea have only let three goals so far in the premier league. One lucky drop at Bent’s feet, one deflected free kick by Robinho and one by Man Utd. Now Stoke should know what it takes to score against Chelsea. On the attacking side, Chelsea has been full of goals this season – 18 goals in 7 games so far in all competitions. We are the team in form. Stoke manager Tony Pulis knows this:

As a manager you are always looking for chinks in the armour of your opponents, but Chelsea have all the answers to all the questions you could pose. The pace and power of their team is phenomenal and when you add technical ability in abundance, you know you face one hell of a task. They’ve got bags of goals from midfield, full-backs who bomb forward and cause problems, and also someone like Joe Cole who can drop off and open you up.

In team news, we might miss Joe Cole due to a niggle. It’s good that he gets a break and we get a break from him. Let’s see who takes his place and if his contribution is more than that of Joe Cole. I would play 4-1-4-1. My choice would be Cech, Bosingwa, Terry, Alex, Ashley Cole, Belletti, Mikel, Lampard, Ballack, Kalou and Malouda where Belletti is the defensive midfielder, Mikel is a regular centre midfielder and Kalou is the lone striker. Most probably Scolari would play 4-3-3 with Cech, Bosingwa, Terry, Alex, Ashley Cole, Mikel, Lampard, Ballack, Kalou, Anelka and Malouda. I don’t want to see Anelka starting but Felipao would most probably start with him. Before I wind up, there are some interesting non-match news.

UEFA Cup will be UEFA Europa Cup from next season. This is much wanted facelift for this competition which does not have the glitter of the champions league. Though the major difference is because of the difference in quality of the teams that participate in these tournaments, UEFA Cup needed a better marketing strategy to make this more attractive. Now it’s got a better name, a new logo and more teams in the competition. With improved competition in every league, the Europa Cup is bound to get more exciting.

Check out this interview by Didier Drogba in the club website. This is the longest ever interview I have seen from Drogba. He talks about various things – his indifferent feeling when he joined Chelsea, his relationship with Mourinho, JM’s leaving and its impact on him, his injuries, the champions league final, his stupid red card there – everything you wanted to hear from him.

To win titles you need a leader and the leader has to be the manager because the teams always follow him. Mourinho, Ranieri, Gullit, Chelsea always had a leader, that’s what we have now and we are back on our winning track.

It’s quite obvious that he does not even utter ‘Avram Grant’ all through his interview. Sometimes, as they say, silence speaks more than words. He talks about the leadership of Mourinho and Scolari and conveniently misses that old man who managed Chelsea between Mourinho and Scolari. This whole interview is ahead of the book release “Didier Drogba: The Autobiography”. Perhaps I’ll release my own autobiography. What have I achieved to deserve one? May be, nothing much, but how does it matter?

Back to weekend fixtures. Liverpool at Goodison park could be a great match. Expect pool to drop points. Arsenal take on another bottom of the bottom half team as they host Hull. I know Hull have been sensational so far but we need to see how they perform in these difficult away fixtures against top half teams. In our match, I would predict a 3-1 win. I don’t think we would keep a cleansheet. Strangely, I’m no longer very confident of our ability to keep cleansheets. It’s ok for now as long as we score three goals. So, 3-1 it is!