We’ve played enough of those ‘defining matches’ of the season and have mostly come second best. As much as I hate cliches, I need to say that this too, is in fact, is indeed, a defining match of this season. More than points, the pride is at stake. That of Scolari than that of Chelsea. Big Phil gets yet another chance to show that he can win a big match. Sad that a world champion has to prove this. But as they say, you’re judge by your results.

I’m surprised that no one has ever used ‘chokers’ and ‘Chelsea’ in the same sentence yet. Tomorrow, we get yet another chance to show that we still have it in us to beat the big teams. I don’t sound too optimistic, do I? Well, I can’t fake it. I haven’t seen anything since the Man Utd defeat that would make me optimistic. Let me say I’m not pessimistic but certainly not optimistic either.

Liverpool are in a mini-crisis. They have drawn the last four matches. Contrary to the opinion of the press, I think their poor run of form has nothing to do with Rafa’s outburst against Fergie. That’s just a coincidence. Liverpool are losing the plot because they’re just being Liverpool. They’ve been doing this every season. This time, it has coincided with Rafa’s attack on Fergie. Four consecutive draws is bad but they’re on an unbeaten run of 12 premier league matches. They ended our run of 86 unbeaten home league matches. We can claim a petty little revenge by ending their mini run.

Rafa is a cunning manager. There are very few managers in the premier league to whom I would use that adjective. He is very cunning. That’s how his team is too. They can be cunning and cheeky. They can be deceptive, both ways. Rafa has been preparing for the Chelsea match. He put first choice players like Kuyt, Riera and Alonso in the bench in the mid-week match. He subbed off Gerrard and Torres in the second half. He did not even let Robbie Keane board the bus. So that’s 6 first team players all set to unleash against Chelsea. And precisely, these are the players that win matches for them. On the contrary, we have played our entire first team in our mid-week game.

Rafa’s game plan could be that he wants to beat Chelsea and for that he can pay a price of a draw against Wigan. A draw against Wigan and a win against Chelsea is 4 points. Even the vice versa is also 4 points. But they are not the same. You never want to drop points against your direct rival. These head-to-head matches are exactly the best opportunities to put some daylight between you and your rivals. We’ve been playing our mostly first choice team for God knows how many matches! We played our full team even against Southend home and away, Ipswich and Middlesbrough in the mid-week.

We have the full squad available for selection except Joe Cole, Essien and Carvalho. Terry should be fit. Kalou had a niggle but he should be ready too. Scolari says Ashley Cole feels tired because he has been running around so much but not so much to miss tomorrow’s match. That’s exactly my worry. I don’t want tomorrow’s match to be the one where Cole’s fatigue shows up.

Last match, I think I did a fair job of predicting Scolari’s team selection. This time, I’d tell you whom I would play tomorrow. Cech, Bosingwa, Terry, Ivanovic, Ashley Cole, Mikel, Lampard, Ballack, Kalou, Anelka and Drogba. It is 4-4-2 and it’s gotta be 4-4-2 if we are looking to win. Both Drogba and Anelka should start. If we play any other formation, Liverpool would defend at ease all day all night. Bosingwa and Ashley Cole can cut down on their attacking runs a bit. Liverpool do have intelligent players who can use the space to deadly advantage.

Last time we played Liverpool, in October, Bosingwa was shut down by Liverpool. He made more than half a dozen intercepted crosses which also meant lost possession while we are attacking in numbers. In fact, Chelsea on the whole, made about 15 crosses that could not find a Chelsea player. In short, Liverpool won the aerial battle hands down. I do not think we have improved heavily in the air since then. For this reason, I’d hope Chelsea to cut down on the crosses and play it along the grass. We had 2 shots on target all match, one each from Lampard and Kalou. That’s another thing to keep in mind.

One thing we have been missing of late is the tempo. In this match, we should play with tempo. When we have the ball, we need to scare them, make them take cover. That’s how we can beat Liverpool. Slow build-up against Liverpool almost would never work. They are very strong side tactically. Indecisive passing around in the final third would not take us anywhere. We need to play with tempo and at right places we need to take quick decisions of to pass, to run or to shoot. Right or wrong, things should happen quickly enough to beat them.

As I always say, the efforts matter as much as the result. Sometimes things may not go our way, especially in places like Anfield but we should put in a 120% effort to win the match. What I don’t want to see is a repeat of home leg against Liverpool. I’m not talking about the result here. The perfomance. What I don’t wan to see is a spiritless, spineless effort with no clear cut chances created. I don’t want to see a repeat of Liverpool (home), Arsenal (home) and Man Utd (away).

This season I think most of my score predictions have gone wrong. That’s because Chelsea were exceeding my expectations for a shortwhile before surprising me with a serious mediocre performances with some disastrous results. With much experience and wisdom of this season’s Chelsea and Liverpool, I’d predict a 1-1 which may not really do us much favours as Man Utd keep winning. If Chelsea wins tomorrow, I’d put my money on Chelsea beating Man Utd for the title. Call me whatever, I’d even dare to say it loud.

I’d end with this simple quote from Super Frank:

Anfield is a very difficult place to win, but we have done it and we have done it quite well.

So that’s four in a row! A cleansheet, finally. I’m laughing at all those Kalou-bashers. 8 goals and 7 assists in 16 starts this season. He simply rocks. Too sad that he’ll remain to be an unsung hero among Chelsea fans. Credit to Scolari for playing Kalou ahead of Deco. That’s a very good move. I hope I don’t get to hear that Deco was dropped because he was injured or something. I’d like to think that Scolari dropped Deco for his poor performance and played Kalou because of his form. One thing though. I’m not sure how those 2 mins in the end would help Stoch’s career or Chelsea’s cause.

At half time, Chelsea were reportedly booed off. Which sums up the way we playing in the first half. It’s a shameful thing though, this booing off. There are various other ways to express your feelings. Second half was lot better and things did improve with Drogba coming in. Did anyone else notice that the Boro defending for the second goal was very similar to our defending against that Southend equaliser?

This was still not the most convincing performance against one of the worst teams of this season of the premier league. We had to get a win and we got it. There was nothing too stylish or efficient about the way we achieved it, though we improved after the first goal. I think we should drop this slow build-up style against the lesser teams. When we play high tempo, we can so threatening with the quality we have in the team.

Liverpool and Arsenal drew. I’d be too greedy to ask for more tonight. Goddamn goners nicked one in the last minute for the 100th time this season. Everton deserved a win. Something tells me that Everton will surely overtake Arsenal to leave them fight with Wigan. Nice. Liverpool’s fourth successive draw of the month puts us in the second place in the league table.

It’s a good set of results ahead of the Sunday match. Liverpool getting their fourth consecutive draw and Chelsea getting their fourth consecutive win. No doubts on who the form team is. Also, both Scolari and Benitez cannot afford to play for a draw. If Chelsea and Liverpool split points on Sunday, Man Utd would be flying high. So, to go into such an important match with a morale better than that of the opponent is indeed good.

It’s late already and I’m busy tomorrow morning. So, please help yourself! Cheers!

P.S: Check out Beckham’s freekick for Milan against Genoa. Capello was in the stands then!

Which is the more important match – Boro or Liverpool? Boro, because that’s the next match. In our anticipation and build-up for the Liverpool match, let’s not forget that we’ve got a no-so-easy fixture (well, nothing’s easy for us now) on Wednesday night. If we don’t beat Boro tomorrow night, Liverpool will beat us fair and square at Anfield. The confidence of the team is very thin. If we realise that we can’t beat Boro at the Bridge, that means our problems still persist and we have not improved and, more importantly, there are very less evidences to show that we can go to Anfield with hope and confidence.

Before we go into this match, some quick bits on the transfer scene. Carlo is gone and that’s official now. He’s gone on a free transfer. While this sounds too strange to be true, I can imagine why. Probably the club wanted Carlo to get a good contract at Spurs and the free transfer would certainly help him. That’s a very honourable and generous gesture by the club. If you thought that Scolari let him go because he would promote Rhys Taylor, you’d hear Ray Wilkins say nonchalantly that we are looking for replacements and if we don’t get one in this window, we’ll get in June. Rhys Taylor and the other kids, find another club or go out on loan.

Carlo was the last known penalty stopper at Chelsea. In the champions league final last season, when we were heading to penalties, I was even wondering if we could bring on Carlo for Cech because he was so good at penalties. Now it is Cech on his own. There are bets being taken that Cech would knock himself out in the first week of Cudicini’s absence. If it does happen like that, we’ve got Hilario, the silent killer, the Barcelona tamer. What we should also have is loads of good luck.

Just four more days to go for the closure of this window and no one seems to be coming in. Lots of rumours but there is no statement of intent from anyone from the club that we’ll bring in players, at least the replacements. There are rumours that Ivanovic is getting closer to Fiorentina and Juventus want Malouda. But there is no new on if anyone could come in. Lot of fans have expressed their desire to bring in Robbie Keane. That’s interesting and expensive. I’d vote for someone like Djibril Cisse. What say?

Okay, back to the match. On paper, this could be an easy match. On paper, Chelsea are the No.1 team in Europe. Now you know what the paper’s worth. Actually, this match could very well be a fitting sequel to our winning run that involves prize scalps of Stoke, Southend and Ipswich. You know why? In terms of form, they’re the second worst team in the premier league. They are going down. I’d put my money on them going down. They have not won a match since 9th Nov 2008. In their last premier league match, they lost 3-0 to West Brom. Surely, they must be easy to beat? Yep, we mauled them 5-0 at the Riverside when Scolari’s honeymoon was not over. That was one of the two 5-0 wins we’ve had this season. The other being the home game against Sunderland. Roy Keane’s gone already. Gareth Southgate is hanging on. The fact that we beat them so comfortably also goes to say how poorly they have been playing. This Chelsea team is struggling to score against even league one teams and Boro concedes 5?In fact, the last four times we played Boro, we beat them every single time with a overall scoreline of 11-0. With this kind of recent history it’s easy to be optimistic. If at all I’ve learnt one thing from Scolari, that’s never to be optimistic.

I can almost predict Scolari’s team 11/11. Here it is. Cech, Bosingwa, Alex, Terry, Ashley Cole, Mikel, Ballack, Lampard, Deco, Malouda and Anelka. John Terry is likely to be back. If he is walking, he must be playing. Carvalho is injured again. Ivanovic should step in, based on form and quality. But Alex would play based on nationality. Ashley Cole must be careful about his flying tackles. He is the only recognised left back in the team now. Mikel is back after his little mischief with the drunken driving? What kind of footballer you are, if you’re not caught for drunken driving? But what puzzles me is why was he driving around SW6 at 5:30 am? Way too dedicated, I’d say.

Ballack and Lampard would play. By the way, Lampard’s free kick against Ipswich was one of the best free kicks I’ve ever seen, if it was not a deflection. Some say it is, some say it’s not. Anyway, for a change, we scored from free kicks and of course, scored by the most competent and capable guys in the team. Deco would play because he is fit. Malouda will be the left wide midfielder as Joe Cole is injured and no one else might want to play on the left. Anelka is in because Scolari still wants to punish Drogba for that bad match that he had against Man Utd. Sorry Didier. You’re Ivorian and you did not play well in one match. You deserve this punishment. Deco, get in please.

Back in October at Riverside, we were leading Middlesbrough by 1-0 at half time. They had lost all the interest in the game by then. In the second half, they conceded 4 goals in 15 minutes. That was one of the worst performances I have seen. They simply were not interested in playing that game. They started counting down for the final whistle from the start of second half itself. If Middlesbrough plays better than the way they did in October, then it would be 2-1. If they still play indifferently, we might after all get our first clean sheet in God knows how many matches!

I’ll go for a 2-1. I still don’t believe that we won’t concede at home. Terry comes in and Carvalho goes out. Now there’s the excuse to let one in from a free kick. We will score two goals because Lamps is in form so he will get one and the other one could be a trademark Anelka tap-in. Remember, if we don’t beat Middlesbrough, we’d fall below Aston Villa, deservedly so.

Our winning run continues. After Southend and Stoke, it was Ipswich today. Like most of you, I didn’t see the match. But you need not have watched the match to understand/realise certain things.

1. We can’t keep cleansheets.
2. We still shamelessly concede from set pieces. This has become obscene now.
3. Scolari is not going to rotate his squad
4. Scolari has no intention of giving opportunities to young players
5. When Deco is not around, the combination of Ballack and Lampard works better

Scolari’s team selection has always been very disappointing. Today was no different. He started with the strongest possible eleven from the squad. The subs he brought on were Drogba, Ivanovic and Deco. The unused subs were Cudicini, Ferreira, Mancienne and Stoch. Strangely, I expected these were the kind of players who will get some playing time against Ipswich. We have premier league matches on Wednesday (Middlesbrough) and a big one on Saturday (Liverpool). While we have to these important premier leage matches on Wednesday and Saturday, why play the strongest eleven against Ipswich at home?

Scolari’s refusal to rotate is surely going to give us some serious problems very soon. One untimely injury to Ashley Cole and you’ll see Ferreira playing his first match in many months against Juventus. Or Ivanovic playing left back for the first time after more than a season. I think we have played all those matches where Scolari could have experimented, unless the further draws are kind to us.

This is the team Sir Alex sent out for their FA Cup match against Tottenham.

Foster, O’Shea, Neville, Vidic, F Da Silva, Welbeck, Carrick, Scholes, Ronaldo, Berbatov, Tevez. Substitutes: Kuszczak, Giggs, Tosic, Fletcher, Possebon, Chester, Eckersley.

Some second choice players in the first eleven – Foster, O’Shea, F Da Silva and Welbeck. The bench had Kuszczak, Tosic, Possebon, Chester and Eckersley! Cudicini is miles above Foster. Mancienne is much more recognised than F Da Silva. Chester and Eckersley!?

And Uncle Harry’s best chance of winning something is only in the domestic cups. Still, nothing stopped him from taking this team to Old Trafford.

Alnwick, Gunter, Corluka, Dawson, Assou-Ekotto, Bentley, Huddlestone, Zokora, Bale, Modric, Pavlyuchenko. Substitutes: Gomes, Gilberto, Giovani, Taarabt, Defoe, Rocha, Dervite.

And this is our line-up against Ipswich at Stamford Bridge.

Petr Cech, José Bosingwa, Alex, Ricardo Carvalho, Ashley Cole, Michael Ballack, Juliano Belletti, Frank Lampard (c), Salomon Kalou, Nicolas Anelka, Florent Malouda. Substitutes: Carlo Cudicini, Paulo Ferreira, Branislav Ivanovic, Michael Mancienne, Deco, Miroslav Stoch, Didier Drogba.

I rest my case.

The one thing fans should expect for this heavy team selection is a demolition of Ipswich or at least a less-nervy match. I thought our quota of conceding from set pieces was over for this season as well as next season too. The consistency at which we concede from set pieces is absolutely unbelievable. It does not require an AC Milan or Juventus to exploit our set piece weakness. Southend are Ipswich are too hot to handle for our once-famous once-rock solid defence. It’s dreadful to imagine how Juventus would do in set piece opportunities over a two-match tie.

Apart from the result, there were a few positives too. A brace to Ballack should mean that he is back from his injury and back to his form. Another goal to Lampard. It’s great to see that Lampard and Ballack are back among goals, that too in free kicks. It’s very important that Ballack and Lampard are in form and succeed in tandem. These are very passionate top class professionals who can win games on their own. When both of them play, Deco should be in bench. When Deco joins this duo, he makes the midfield ineffective, slow and vulnerable.

So we enter the four-week period which will define our premier league and champions league this season. We enter this period where our results should be like WWWWWW. If at all we are dropping points it should be in May or when all our rivals also drop. I’m neither confident nor convinced of our performances. If we can’t keep clean sheets against Southend, Stoke and Ipswich, surely there is very little to be happy about. On the positive side, one bad weekend for Liverpool and Man Utd would boost our chances, provided we make the best of their slips. Just one week more in this transfer window. I think Scolari would bring in a couple of Brazilian/Portuguese players. I’m sure we’ll have a new Chelsea player at Anfield.

By the way, since that terribly humiliating defeat at Old Trafford, we have now played three matches and have won all of them – Southend, Stoke City and Ipswich Town. In terms of performance, how have we fared since the Man Utd defeat?

How is Chelsea since the Man Utd defeat?

• Getting Better


• Getting Worse


• Just the same



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