Half time at the premier league. After exactly 19 games into the league, we are 4 points off the leaders who have a game on hand. They say things in football can change pretty quickly. Well, we’ve seen how it changed for Chelsea. After a great start to the season, two defeats – Liverpool and Sunderland – changed it for us. And now, a win against Bolton while Man Utd and Arsenal drew, looks to bring some positive change. Suddenly, just in a matter of couple of days, especially couple of days after the disappointing defeat at the ‘Emigrants’, I feel we’re right back in the mix.

Some would say that Chelsea were never out of the race. Honestly, the performance more than the results, did worry me quite a lot. I was fearing for our position in the table, leave alone being champions and all that. Even in the match against Bolton, by half time, I was wondering where our goal was going to come from. I was hoping for a win, no matter how ugly or undeserving it was. We had to turn this around. Once we got the goal, the confidence and the consequent fluency were back. We were knocking the ball around with so much ease. The players started moving into attacking positions so naturally and suddenly we were looking dangerous with every attack of ours. Bolton also had their moments after we took the lead but I must say that we were nervous and anxious and that showed in our defence.

So it’s no longer ‘a good time to play Chelsea’. Instead, it’s the perfect time to play Aston Villa. They are just one point above the drop zone and they have the worst goal difference in the league. Carlo is able to play his first choice team except Alex and Ivanovic. Anyway, Ivanovic in central defence has been a bit suspect. You can never doubt his commitment and conviction but he doesn’t play like a natural central defender. Terry doesn’t seem to have the same chemistry with Ivanovic as he does with Alex, which in itself was a notch down from the Terry-Carvalho pair. Ivanovic’s five-yellow suspension means Paulo Ferreira might get to play in central defence. I don’t see Carlo putting Essien in defence and playing a midfield of Mikel, Ramires and Lampard. Carlo is too conservative with team selection to do such a thing. Bruma can get a start but then again, will Carlo take such a gamble in such an important match?

Ramires deserves a start ahead of Mikel for two reasons – Ramires is very improved and Mikel is not on song. I know it’s very harsh on Mikel. He has been nothing short of brilliant for us. When the whole team was attacking and playing free flowing football, Mikel did a fantastic job in keeping the opposition in check. When the team is short of confidence, Mikel, occupying the central midfield appears to be slowing down the attack and being less useful. I think Mikel has been playing the same way all the time. It’s the form of the players around him that seem to generate different feelings about how much Mikel contributes to Chelsea.

Ramires is more attacking minded while the only thing on Mikel’s mind is defence. When Chelsea is winning home and away with 6-0 scores, you need a player like Mikel to sit back while the whole team is gone attacking in the other half. When Chelsea is struggling to create chances and badly wants to score goals and win matches, undoubtedly Ramires would be of better value. In his initial few weeks, Ramires was losing possession easily and was putting pressure on our defence. Sadly, Mikel is no different now.

The role of the defensive midfielder is unique because they tend to have so many touches and time on the ball in dangerous areas, they can’t afford to be error prone. They might be attacked anywhere, from any of the 360 degrees. In comparison to Mikel who is a little bit suspect now, Ramires seems to be settling down with the premier league style. Now he seems to use his body better to shield the ball and he seems to have learnt what works in this league to keep the ball. If you notice him now, you’ll see that he’s learnt the two phase method of keeping the ball (just like Essien) – (a) shield it using the body, first priority is to negotiate this oncoming opponent (b) dribble the ball to safety and kick on from there. Only that Ramires seems to dribble and pass better than Essien. I’m impressed with Ramires’ range of passing. And he’s got pace. He’s very ideal for the side midfielder role in Chelsea. Hoping that he gets a start.

I think we should see Lampard in full flow against Aston Villa. Coming back from a very long break, he’s done well without really getting to top gear. He showed his class quite a few times by making some brilliant passes. He passing is unpredictable and with this quality he can surprise the opposition. I’m very confident that he will have a great game on Sunday and he will just show all of us how to find Drogba. In just a few matches, you’ll see Drogba and Malouda scoring goals and finding themselves in fine form. It’s easy to not to notice that Lampard plays a big role in the performance of our forwards, but he is our midfield maestro.

Anelka will be back after his one match absence. He was sorely missed especially because he was replaced by Kalou. Anelka has that technique and also pace that allows him to play both the hold up play or the swift counterattack. Kalou lacking in both, is still unsure of his position and strength, after so much time at Chelsea. He’s lacks precision to be a striker, he lacks pace to be a winger, he lacks the intelligence to be an attacking midfielder and he lacks passing accuracy and range to be a midfielder. So what’s he? Probably, he could be a decent support striker behind Drogba. But we’ve been playing him in the wing which helps neither us nor him. Anyway, I’d welcome Anelka back into the playing eleven. Even Anelka is no winger but at least his physical and technical abilities come to his rescue.

Team selection wise, we should have no worries. It’s December and that means we need to be playing more matches than usual. Arsenal ‘rested’ their ‘young buns’ and paid the price. If players in their early 20s earning more than 50k per week can’t play 3 matches in a week, I don’t know what to say. I don’t think Chelsea would ever do that. We take the league much more seriously and our players demand more from themselves to win for the club. Try telling Drogba, Lampard, Essien, Ashley Cole etc that they are rested for the next match and watch their reaction. Rotating players to maintain their focus and energy is one thing but to make wholesale resting programmes is another. Happy that Chelsea won’t do such a thing.

Once again this season, the fixture list and arrangements come to our rescue. Happy that we’re not playing Man Utd at this stage and equally happy that we’re playing Aston Villa this weekend followed by Wolves, Blackburn and Bolton again. This January is the perfect period to resume normal service. It’s absolutely possible to notch 12 out 12 from these four matches. During this very period, Man Utd play West Brom, Stoke city, Tottenham, Birmingham and Blackpool. For some reason, I don’t see Man Utd getting 15 out of this 15. And Arsenal play Birmingham, Man City, West Ham and Wigan. While we gather 12 points in January, I’m looking for two favourable non-Chelsea results – Man City to beat Arsenal and Tottenham to beat Man Utd.

Much has been said about Chelsea’s confidence or the lack of it. Our morale is back – that’s what goals and wins can do for you. But I don’t think that our confidence levels are sky high yet. Don’t worry though, we don’t need a psychologist. We need a hypnotist. And what this hypnotist will do, is to hypnotise these Chelsea players at kick off to make them believe that it’s half time and that they are trailing by a goal. And then, you’d see the best first half performance by Chelsea in about 2 months. That would be one way to go for a big win. Worth trying I’d say :)

It’s a new year starting tomorrow. This can’t come at a better time for Chelsea. This indeed should signify a new beginning for Chelsea. 2010 was a great year but it could ended in a better way. But you know what we ended 2010 with a very important win. Let’s start the new year with a bang. The worst is over. Hope this year brings us a lot of trophies, successes, very good players, developed young players on the pitch and stability and sanity off the pitch. Wish you all a happy, peaceful, prosperous, exciting and fantastic year ahead! Cheers!