If you think CFR Cluj are some push overs, I’ll help you understand better. Couple of weeks back, they beat Roma at Stadio Olimpico, coming from behind. They scored two goals there. They had 17 shots of which 8 were on target. And all this with just 36% possession. Good enough reasons to take them seriously?

Chelsea will have no worries despite missing Deco. After this match, we have a home fixture against Aston Villa and the next match would be only on 18th October by which time Deco should be back. The team we might play tomorrow could be a very formidable one even in Deco’s absence. Here is my take:

Cech

Bosingwa    Terry     Alex       Ashley Cole

Mikel

Kalou      Ballack      Lampard      Malouda

Drogba

The team picks itself again. I don’t think if anyone come up with a better starting line up for this match. May be we can play a 4-3-3 instead of 4-1-4-1. We don’t actually need authentic 4-3-3 nowadays because oue wing backs are busy bombing crosses and that means the we can have the midfielders crowd inside or just outside the box, or support the wing backs in the attacks.

Felipao talks about our opponents and why we should respect them.

Every game is very difficult and tomorrow this team are more confident than before because they beat Roma in Rome. There are not big surprises, because all teams know all teams, all players. If you ask Petr Cech about the players from Cluj he knows the players, there is no surprise in the world, no small teams. They they arrive in this competition because they have good players, something different from the other teams in Romania, and they are champions. They need respect. We win many games in England now because we respect our opponents and tomorrow is the same, we respect Cluj and we had today a DVD about Cluj, many set plays to show to the players. If they win tomorrow it is because they are better than us on the pitch, but not a surprise.

Sounds quite similar to what I had written in the last blog about Chelsea never underestimating their opponents, isn’t it?

I want two things to happen in this match. Drogba should score and Malouda should score or assist. Drogba needs to get on the score sheet as soon as possible. In his department, he hardly has any competition for his place. Anelka is never going to replace Drogba, Kalou is always an understudy and there is no Shevchenko and the rest don’t even worth a mention as of now. So practically, Drogba’s place is unchallenged. So that also means he can play as awfully as he can and still find his name on the starting eleven for the next match.

That’s sad. I’m not saying he’s been so awful since his return, but he has been very rusty. But he has now played enough matches to get out of his rustiness. If he still shows his rustiness on Wednesday night, the adjectives would change. He needs show that the 30-goal season was not an one-off. Last season he was bogged down by injuries, among many other things. Now this season, he can’t have any excuses. I don’t mind if he doesn’t score but he should at least make a very good contribution to the team. But as JM once said, strikers live by scoring goals. That’s the only thing that makes and keeps them happy. No matter how many assists they provide, they need to score goals themselves. I hope he resumes doing that from this match.

Malouda’s form has been constantly on the rise. He needs to score some very convincing strikes to take him to that next level of confidence. With increasing confidence, he’s become more pacy, more skillful and heck, even more creative. Unlike Drogba, Joe Cole has a serious competition for his place and that should continue that way. Malouda and Kalou should play so well that Joe Cole should be waiting for his opportunity and when he does get it, he would know he can squander it.

Tonight Zenit gave a scare to Madrid and Bate almost shocked Juve. Zenit were particularly impressive. They don’t play like first-timers and they treated Real Madrid just like any other opponent. In fact, at times, they humbled and ridiculed them.They had 60% possession and 18 shots, against Real Madrid!!

Upsets are no longer as rare as they used to be. May be we would stop calling these results as ‘upsets’.  All this in mind, a decent win would do. We need to progress, so we need to win. Then, we have these sub plots of Drogba’s goal scoring, Malouda’s continuin form, Bosingwa’s surge to ‘player of the season’, Alex’s fine performance, Lampard’s unbelievable consistency etc. But the main plot is, three points.