Nervy, nervy match ahead. Not sure when was the last time Chelsea lost the first leg of the champions league and had to come back in the second. Was it against Barcelona where we lost the first leg at the Bridge and drew the second leg? This recollection is not to mean bad luck for us, it’s just that this thought wouldn’t escape me. I think this match is so evenly poised that the odds have to be equal. Inter needs a draw and if they score a goal, all the better for them. Chelsea needs to win with a cleansheet. Can Inter get a draw? Certainly they can. Can Chelsea get a 1-0 win? Certainly they can. The crucial factor is ‘where’ this match is being played – Stamford Bridge. This is what tilts in favour of Chelsea for me.

This is a big match for various reasons – TSO’s return to Stamford Bridge, the Ancelotti vs Mourinho thingy, Inter’s progression at the expense of an English team, the crossroads of Chelsea’s season etc. I fear TSO. I truly fear him. I have this feeling that he would have this match played to his script. There would be only one thing on his mind – progression, it’s not goals or a win or the manner of win, it’s just the progression. While Chelsea is certainly superior to Inter in terms of ability and experience, no one understands the strengths and weaknesses of this Chelsea team than TSO himself.

Having joined Inter, he was asked if he would fancy facing Chelsea in the champions league for which he responded, “If I happened to meet them, I’d kill them”. He is a Chelsea legend so he will get all the respect and love, he absolutely deserves it. He has also said that he doesn’t lose at Stamford Bridge. You’re basically telling JM that all that he needs is a draw to proceed to the next round and give him a couple of weeks to prepare and expect him to lose? I’m worried.

Meanwhile, Ancelotti has something to prove. Since JM arrived in Italy, the managers of Milan, Juventus and Roma have been replaced. Now Carlo has a better chance to give one back to JM. With a team like Chelsea at his disposal, a win at home against Inter is a highly possible result. It could be a personally morale boosting event if Carlo manages to knock JM out of champions league.

On the other hand, I won’t be so heartbroken if Chelsea were to be eliminated. While that’s not the best thing to happen, it’s not the worst. With just 9 games to go in the premier league, we need our utmost focus and concentration on the league. If that has to come at the cost of a champions league progression, I wouldn’t mind it. Don’t get me wrong. I want a trade-off, not an excuse. If elimination from champions league means more focus on the league and the ultimately the league title, I wouldn’t think twice let champions league go. Let’s put this perspective. We’re slowly getting ourselves into an injury situation. In these times, with just 9 games to go, the lesser we play, the better.

If we progress, I’ll be absolutely thrilled (at the prospect of knocking out Man Utd in the next round). If we don’t progress, we would have only one thing in mind – premier league title.

It’s good to win. Some of the recent defeats have knocked our morale and confidence so much that any win feels good. Feels so good. After the recent defeats against Inter and Citeh, we had to beat Stoke to show that our season is not crumbling. This was a quarterfinal and this was against a team that had already despatched Arsenal and Citeh. But I wouldn’t call this a great performance or even a performance that gave me confidence. We were clearly superior and helped ourselves by finishing a couple of chances. Certainly, we displayed a sense of clarity in all parts of the pitch.

Hilario managed to strike a goal kick beyond half way line. He made a good save at the near post. His goal was not disturbed even after numerous Delap throws. He was not confidence personified but compared to his performance in the last home game, he has improved 200%. Alex was pretty good, made some crucial blocks and some smart tackles but I don’t think he was truly tested. Nobody in the Stoke team had enough pace to bother Alex. I was very very impressed with Ferreira’s performance. You can say he wasn’t tested too but I thought he was very good in defence as well as offence.

Ivanovic is a real ‘Mr.Dependable’. I’ve become such a fan of this guy that I’d get a No.2 jersey. He’s a perfect Chelsea player – determined, passionate, has great attitude and more importantly, he gives you this sense of assurance. I love him. Do we realise that he has an awesome throw, that could be second only to Delap. May be he should work on it consciously and make that a potent weapon for Chelsea. The highlight of the match was John Terry’s goal celebration. I thought that was a cracking one. If he had spotted Capello anywhere near, he could have thrown the armband on the Italian’s face. It would have been nice drama, right?

I’m struggling how to assess Anelka’s performance. On one side, he played really well – worked hard, held the ball well, created chances for himself and others but on the other side, he should have got a hattrick. He should get better. We’ve got 10 matches left in the premier league. He should get back in scoring form pretty soon. It’s been some time since Drogba’s scored some of his kind of goals. Kalou was decent. It’s just that his goalmouth awareness doesn’t seem to improve.

Malouda was at his consistent best but it appeared that Malouda did not want to score a goal. He was clearly feeding to Drogba, Anelka and Lampard but didn’t get into scoring positions himself. It was a relief to seem him in the midfield instead of defence. Our midfield of Lampard, Mikel and Malouda was very assured. Mikel was flawless and that goal line clearance (and how responsibly he got there in the first place) was very crucial. Lampard’s back on scoring form. He should have had at least one more.

The Citeh result was very painful. I wanted that result to be the positive turnaround. Before that, I wanted to know how the players felt about the result. Surely, they’re not going to talk too much about it. But here I have a comment that I was looking for, from none other than John Terry:

I thought we played well, bounced back from a disappointing result and performance last week. We needed to show the fans how much that defeat [to Manchester City] hurt.

Our FA Cup semi final would be at Wembley (not at Villa Park as I had incorrectly mentioned before – thanks!) and hopefully we’ll get past Villa in April. We play West Ham at the Bridge next weekend. Three points is what we need. The key is to not even think about the Inter match. Let’s hammer the hammers. KTBFFH!