Strike

especially when they are facin everton and fulham away

Are u a Bayern fan? Ribery can be handled. We kept Messi at bay. Ribery should be a piece of cake

wouldnt it be better if we rest them against Blackburn? That way they get their rest and tonight they get their match practice anyway i heard cech, mikel, meireles dint travel(?)

yeah. true. i would personally prefer bertrand over him in the final, for aforementioned reasons, although rdm may not

the confidence to go past his man has gone down recently. before he used to nutmeg evra, clichy etc but now he seems to be caught in 2 minds. i wonder if the recent criticism has gotten him

LIVERPOOL VS CHELSEA - 08-05-2012 - ANFIELD With the end of the season just around the corner, Chelsea go to Anfield tonight in the wake of winning their 4th FA Cup in 6 years having beaten Liverpool 2-1 in the final. Ramires gave Chelsea the lead after running onto a Mata through ball with 11 minutes gone. Drogba doubled Chelsea’s advantage 7 minutes into the 2nd half before an Andy Carroll-inspired Liverpool staged a comeback that was so nearly completed. But Chelsea held on with Petr Cech making a brilliant save on the line to deny Carroll and secure our 7th FA Cup trophy overall. Now, the Premier League takes centre-stage again as the race for the top 4 was blown wide open over the weekend. Newcastle, expectedly, lost at home to league leaders Manchester City while Tottenham and Arsenal were held to disappointing draws against Aston Villa and Norwich respectively. That meant that Chelsea could still squeeze in to the top 4 of the Premier League if they manage to win both their remaining games and results elsewhere go their way. Still a long-shot but not impossible.The first of those two games is a visit to Anfield. Chelsea come into this game fresh off the euphoria of winning the FA Cup against the home side. di Matteo might be looking to experiment, with the impending Champions League final being less than 2 weeks away, although he knows 4th place is still possible. A win tonight will take Chelsea to 64 points, 1 behind Newcastle (who have a tough away game at Everton on the last day) and 2 behind Tottenham (who face a trip to Craven Cottage on the last day) As for Liverpool? They are stuck in mid-table and have nothing to play for but pride Liverpool, after having spent over 100 million, ended up with only the Carling Cup. While everyone thought that the Carling Cup would spur them on in the final third of the season, it simply hasn’t happened. Actually, they have done well against the big teams, i.e – Chelsea, ManCity, ManUnited – but their repeated failure to bury teams in the bottom half has contributed to their fall from grace. This Liverpool team is a pale shadow of the team that finished 2nd in the league in 2009. Xabi Alonso, Javier Mascherano, Fernando Torres all left and their replacements – Jay Spearing, Jordan Henderson, Andy Carroll have performed under par. To be fair, Carroll did play well at Wembley but only time will tell if it is the birth of a successful Liverpool career or just false hope. Moving on to Chelsea and it doesn’t get much better for the Blues at the moment , FA Cup winners, FA youth Cup & Ladies FA Cup finalists and also the big one – Champions League finalists. From being the worst season in recent memory, this could turn out to be the greatest season ever for Chelsea Football Club. With 2 games to go in the season, will the Champions League final influence di Matteo’s team selection? I think it will. With 4 key players suspended for the final, I think di Matteo will use atleast the Blackburn game to prepare the team for the final. Gary Cahill and David Luiz, both nursing hamstring injuries, are ruled out and face a race against time to make it to the Champions League final. So the Chelsea defence picks itself although di Matteo may try out Hutchinson, Fereira or even Essien at right-back. Fernando Torres and Daniel Sturridge are both set to come in with Didier Drogba and Salomon Kalou likely to make way while Raul Meireles and John Obi Mikel are out injured. David Luiz - on his injury Form Guide Liverpool – LLWLW Chelsea – WLWWD Trivia Chelsea have conceded 9 of their last 10 goals in the last 15 minutes of the game The Blues have won only once in the last 8 away games Liverpool have won just 5 home games this season and only 1 in 2012 (3-0 vs Everton) If he starts, Steven Gerrard will captain Liverpool for the 250th time. He has scored only 1 goal in 33 appearances against Chelsea Steven Gerrard Players to watch Andy Carroll – The lone bright spark in the FA Cup final for Liverpool. Long balls to Carroll will give Chelsea something to think about tonight Daniel Sturridge – With his place in the starting XI for the Champions League final far from guaranteed and a point to prove to new England manager Roy Hodgson, Sturridge needs no further motivation going into the last 3 games of the season. The top 4 is still possible and a win here will transfer all the pressure on to Spurs and Newcastle. Torres to score at the Kop end, anyone?

he needs his confidence back. sturridge should play all 3 of our remaining games

^I dunno either. but whatever it is, its dead serious. Otherwise, BL wouldn't go all macho on us

why is sturridge out?

i meant Sturridge. ( his name is in bold in the quote) Sturridge on the right is suicide unless rdm gives him the hair-dryer and orders him to keep tracking back. even then, no guarantes

i think the UCL final team shud be tried out tonight except the CB's. blackburn is hardly a big threat and Bosingwa/fereira/essien/hutchinson whoever starts at RB for the final would get some practice facing Bellamy (?) tonight

Paulo should start tonight but Hutchinson or Essien, either one of them should come on later

If I were di matteo, i'd be thinking of the CL Final XI now itself. Decide who starts at RB and give them a go in the next two games or play all 3 - fereira, bosingwa, hutchinson at rb, maybe even essien and decide who was the best fit. It will be Ribery and Contento on Bayern's left side and I dont think the Right winger will be of much help to the right back because it will be either sturridge or kalou there

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/chelsea/9239819/Chelsea-defenders-Gary-Cahill-and-David-Luiz-winning-fight-to-be-fit-for-Champions-League-final-in-Munich.html Good news, Cahill said i will try to start training by this weekend

Axel Witsel played like a box-to-box midfielder for Benfica and it gives Mata a new option to pick a pass to. Right now when mata gets the ball, the striker is covered by 2 defenders and the wingers are covered by the full-backs. almost always the ball ends up with terry or cahill and they dump it long. Lampard used to run from midfield before but now he has tightened his game, cut down on his forward runs and become like scholes. axel witsel or even someone like Marek Hamsik or Clint Dempsey - who go forward wil be a good addition to our team

I dont know what you are talkin about

Ryan Bertrand will be MUCH BETTER than Sturridge OR Kalou (sorry Capri) on the wing. Left Mid I mean. Robben and Lahm on Bayern's right side will rip us apart with Sturridge or Kalou at LM. and also, we have seen that bertrand could go up and down the left flank all day, so its not like he doesnt carry an attacking threat

its shocking how there are only a handful of quality full-backs across Europe

Sorry, my bad then. I only read - "So i request u please dont be offended"

U r Funny

atleast,cut him some slack for being polite

Fair enough but with didi gone, we have no target man and i know we cant play without a target man. Torres may score a hat-trick vs QPR but against the Big teams (Barca, Bayern), we need a big player who holds up the ball and involves others in attacks. We wouldn't have had even 15% possession without Drogba against Barca. u Might say there are other great aerial players but who better than Didi? He controls almost every long ball.

Before the Napoli game, I admit that i wasn't thinkin about the final but I had maintained since December that we could go a long way in the CL especially after the Manchester jokers crashed out.

Not to mention the impending Champions League final. Cant believe ppl (some, even on this forum) were writing us off in March. KTF never seemed more appropriate.

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