Premiership preview: Charlton Athletic v. Chelsea
Saturday, 03 February 07, 11:44 AM · Comments (6)
John Terry is expected to make his comeback from long-term injury.
Suffice to say Chelsea have suffered in his absence.
Out since December 13th, the Blues have won just four of their eight Premiership games in that time.
Wednesday's impressive 3-0 win over Blackburn Rovers at Stamford Bridge hinted at a return to form. It was marred only by Ashley Cole's injury.
Jose Mourinho is also without Khalid Boulahrouz, Arjen Robben and Joe Cole who have knee, ankle and foot injuries respectively.
Alan Pardew will have to do without new signing Alexandre Song, who is missing after contracting a virus.
Fellow signing Madjid Bougherra is also out as he is struggling with a calf injury, while Andy Reid, Darren Bent and Luke Young are also injured.
The Addicks have not beaten Chelsea since a 4-2 victory on Boxing Day 2003. They have drawn one and lost five of their six subsequent Premiership meetings with the Blues.
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Well....a win is a win!
I'm looking forward to reading the press,now that the crisis has quite clearly moved on to Arsenal and Liverpool!
Good to see JT get on the park and I wouldn't swap Frank for any other midfielder in the world. His goals are vital and I dont recall any other midfielder ever scoring 20 goals a season for 3 years in a row.
We have done our bit.....Now it is all upto the Spurs!
Cmon you.....errrr....Spurs! ( Just off to wash my mouth out)
Actually Charlton played very well, I wish them luck next Saturday. And good luck to Spurs too just for today. We Londoners must stick together! :-)
Reminds of our first season, stilth defending with confidence, not too much of flair but always a win (1-0). My greatest joy is seeing that we can defend once again with absolute confidence and this was our hallmark during the last 2 seasons as we always soak up any pressures. missing is the flair of 'counter attack'. Obviously we don't have the fast players now J.cole, Robben that can support the play with either shevvy, lamppy or droggy.
believe it or not, things can only fall apart for those at the summit now, as the tide as i have this feeling the tide has changed.
as long as we get our wins (with or without flair) the confidence will come into the team.
With Essien coming back into the field we can have more reinforcement by pushing forward also. he has really raised his game level up and adjusted to the premiership.
And for Tott'nm look for no favours from them, as long as we keep winning and put pressure on Manure, they will wilt and self destruct. we only concentrate on winning our games. sefini!
The thing about playing a struggling team is that they have nothing to lose as they are already at the bottom of the pit. Well done Charlton that was a fight to the end...
I must say however that we kind of let them come at us by not...like TSO likes putting it...killed off the game. We had our share of chances to knock them down but a few glaring misses and well some good goal keeping as well.
People have talked this and that about Shevy...form, Chelsea format etc etc...I think this bloke is just plain unlucky this season...brilliant movement, lousy touches sometimes, but a football mind. He has had his chances but just ill luck in the finnishing.
6 Comments · Add yours
This was a less comprehensive win than I expected, but I'm pleased enough to see that we are starting to regain the consistency that we have missed since the end of November.
Liverpool are now seven points behind us again, so we have no reason to worry about them. JT should be back in the starting line-up against Middlesbrough next week, and Robben and Boulahrouz should be fit the week after, so we definitely have something to look forward to.
United dropping points tomorrow would be extremely nice, though, as the old saying goes, you can never rely on Tottenham. Therefore, I'm not getting my hopes up, which at least gives me the chance of a pleasant surprise.
I am happy with the win and frustrated by the performance in the second half. However, as Chris says it is great to have regain consistency back. After all 1:0 is still win and still the same 3 points as any other win.