Preston Preview

[James 5,143]

With 3 absentees now from the Chelsea squad the good news is that Essien has returned to Chelsea but he is injured. The selection crisis he faces comes in the form of his formation. Does he continue with the Christmas tree formation or pair up Anelka and Sturridge in his 4-4-2 diamond midfield formation.

Preston who recently lost to Bristol City and have shown their leaky defense and this is what the team will be keen to exploit. Last weekend’s 7-2 mauling of Sunderland will have given the whole squad the injection of confidence that was needed. 12 goals in 2 games is extremely impressive. Joe Cole also seemed bright and lively and Carlo will look for him to keep shining. Another option that Carlo has is to play some of the youngsters and especially give an opportunity to Jacob Mellis. The youngster was recalled from Southampton and hopefully he will get a chance to shine.

Carlo has always been able to rotate at the back very well and he will be good at making the right decision this time around as well. At the start of the month he mentioned his hopes to allow the youngsters to have a go in the FA Cup. I hope that he gives players like Borini and Kakuta a chance with Sturridge.

Preston North End on the other hand have many problems to worry about. With 2 wins in their last 5 games and 1 win in their last 5 league games Darren Ferguson has got a lot to worry about. Even with the weather Preston had a good training session because Ferguson was able to use Manchester United training facilities in the build up to the game. Their biggest win coming in the form of a 7-0 victory over Colchester in the FA Cup 3rd round this will be a boost for the Preston team.

Come tomorrow Ancelotti will look to progress into the next round and try to get closer to another trophy. With United and Liverpool knocked out Chelsea should look at the FA Cup as a easier target but shouldn’t be distracted easily.

Below is Preston’s most recent line up from their 4-2 loss of Bristol City where they were 2-0 down in 12 minutes time. St. Ledger as we already know is a Rep. of Ireland starting CB and Jon Parkin scored a hat trick in Preston’s last FA Cup fixture. He will be very positive going in this game. The attitude of the team will be very different to their normal approach and Ancelotti needs to be wary.

Preston’s most recent line up;
Andy Lonergan, Eddie Nolan, Sean St. Ledger, Neill Collins, Callum Davidson, Chris Sedgwick, Richard Chaplow, Darren Carter, Ross Wallace, Jon Parkin, Chris Brown

One interesting fact is that Preston have always been knocked out by Premier League sides at their home stadium. Their home form is particularly displeasing. Chelsea on the other hand have not lost to lower division sides in the last 10 games in the FA Cup. The teams last loss coming to Barnsley in the 06/07 season.

History
The last time Chelsea faced Preston was in 2002, that also in the FA cup where we won 3-1, Gudjohnsen, Hasselbaink, Forsell getting the goals. However last time we tavelled to Deepdale was in 1981.

This game holds big important for all of us because we can see it being a tricky fixture. Going careful and treading on the water correctly is important. This is the formation I would like to see tomorrow.

———————————–Cech———————————-
—-Ivanovic————–Alex————-JT——————–A. Cole
———Kakuta—————–Lampard————————C. Clifford
————————J. Cole———–Anelka————————–
———————————-Sturridge——————————-
Prediction: 4-0

The game has to be won and a draw is unacceptable. Ancelotti shows that his team is not missing the Africans and needs to show it once again. With Clifford and Kakuta on either wing there will be pace and behind Danny Sturridge Anelka and J. Cole can also drop into or swap into Striking positions. The Christmas tree formation has given us 12 excellent goals, let’s hope for 4 more!

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