In Singapore, StarHub used to have the rights for premier league telecast until last year. Most of the hotels and service apartments happened to have the StarHub connections. This season though, Singtel have the premier league rights but these hotels etc continue to have the StarHub connections. This means, every time there is a premier league match I want to watch, I need to find a pub or settle for unreliable streams or at worst, follow live text commentary on BBC.

I like watching live football in pubs. That’s always a lovely experience. Having been used to 40-inch television screens at home for football viewing and football gaming, the smaller size TVs are not big enough for me. There are a few pubs that show live football on big screens but there aren’t any around where I live here. No matter where it is, watching Chelsea is always fun. These are great times for Chelsea fans. We’re still on top of the table as we enter the month of November, despite some key injuries. We’ve got Bosingwa back after a long lay off. We’ve got youngsters breaking into the team. Man Utd are weakening – not sure if this is short or long term. Chelsea’s blue flag is really flying high.

Blackburn is now part of a unique piece of history. They have become the first premier league club to be owned by an Indian entity. Venkateshwara Hatcheries have taken over the club and that seems to have infused new life into the club. Venkys have made it clear that they are not going shower millions but you can’t deny that the morale is on a high at Ewood Park. In any case, Sam Allardyce’s team do make it tough for the top teams.

Lazy journalists keep highlighting how physical and strong Chelsea players are. The fact is, it is teams like Blackburn Rovers that are truly physical teams. They approach every match as a fight, use brute force as their primary method of winning the ball or interrupting the play. They can be dangerous with their reckless attempts. I’m not running them down, I’m just saying what a really ‘physical and strong’ team can do. Jose Mourinho said that teams surrender to Barcelona and give away cheap points. Such an approach just can’t be seen in premier league. Every team plays to get something out of the match. Blackburn are a good example of how teams in lower positions play in the premier league.

Alex is back for Chelsea which means Ivanovic might have to sit out. Ivanovic has been brilliant in Bosingwa’s absence but when the latter is fit and back, I doubt if the serbian would get the nod. I see that Ramires has improved since his run of disastrous matches. Still I’d be a bit concerned to see him start against Blackburn at Ewood Park (he is out doubtful for this match though). If he bottles up, it could turn out to be too costly for us. I’d fancy seeing Josh starting the game. In a tough away game like this, it’s not a tradition to start youngsters as the value of experience is a bit of overstated. Josh has already shown that he is no ordinary youngster. He is highly skilled and also seems to have a mature head.

Remember, when Mikel started playing in the defensive midfield for us, he was 19. It’s never easy to break into a team like Chelsea and that too at the age of 19 and playing a difficult position like defensive midfield. Mikel could do it (read his interesting interview here). He is an important reason why we control the games so well. For a young player like Mikel to be able to play such a pivotal role in a team of Chelsea’s stature, it’s quite an achievement. He was able to do this because we persisted with him and grew him in this new league and this position. I think we need to do the same with Josh.

The match is today and Carlo Ancelotti has not announced his team yet. He seems to have this habit of naming his team well ahead of the match. I don’t know if it’s tactically helpful but certainly Carlo knows more about football than I do. We should play our best team and take this match really seriously. We should show some improvement from our Wolves performance. I know that was on the back of a long travel from Russia but in today’s match, we should not make it too difficult for ourselves.

I’d predict a 2-0 win for Chelsea. I haven’t simulated this in Winning Eleven 2011 yet. If I get to do, I’ll post that update and video as well. You all have a great weekend! Cheers!