No chat about this game yet.

Essien back from suspension and you would fully expect him to slot straight back into the team with Ballack settling for a place on the bench again. Sheva is supposed to have picked up a minor knock agaisnt Liverpool and there is some doubt over his availability however I expect him to play.

Blackburn defensively wide open just now however I would expect them to be a far tighter ship than they were agaisnt Wigan - they approached the Wigan game as if they were bound to win it, something they won't be doing tomorrow.

Santa Cruz clearly the danger man however Ballack should be able to offer a few pointers on the best way of nullifying his threat.

I am expecting Kalou to start so I expect the team to look something like this:

...............................Cech.............................

..Ferreira.............Alex........Carvalho..............A Cole

................................Essien................................

...............Mikel.............................Lampard............

....Kalou.....................................................Joe Cole

..................................Sheva...............................

Although I would nto be all that surprised to see Belletti start ahead of Paulo.

The return of Essien is huge but again we lack firepower up front with Drogs missing. An issue that needs to be sorted quickly.

the one thing i disagree with in your predicted lineup, loz, is that i think Grant will slot Ballack in straight away.

-----------------Cech------------------

---Paolo-----Alex-----Carv-----Cole----

------Ballack---Essien---Lampard-------

----Cole-----------------------Kalou----

-----------------Sheva-----------------

Cech

Beletti

Carvalho

Alex

A.Cole

Lampard

Essien

Mikel

Joe Cole

Sheva

Kalou

Subs: Carlo, Ben Haim, Ballack, Pizarro, SWP.

Score: 2-1 Chels.

Alan, you and I have pretty much got the same team and bench! Which is pretty much the same as Loz's. I don't think Ballack will start, but I could see him coming off the bench

Never reveal what I think the score wil be, but I hope we make a strong srart to our holiday season (have to say holiday season, incase your audience aren't all Christian!)

Scott

the one thing i disagree with in your predicted lineup, loz, is that i think Grant will slot Ballack in straight away.

-----------------Cech------------------

---Paolo-----Alex-----Carv-----Cole----

------Ballack---Essien---Lampard-------

----Cole-----------------------Kalou----

-----------------Sheva-----------------

exactly. This is the best formation considering the players available. Essien wuld stay back allowing lampard and ballack to move forward. SWP shuld warm the bench until he learns how to cross. Although Kalou misses a lot of sitters but still his pace is high and his passing is good. I feel that our win rests on ballac's shoulders. The resat of the team doesnot know how to give Sheva a through pass, but ballack does. Sheva will only shine if he gets assists or otherwise his game will be sh*t. Also Ballack and Sheva should take the freekicks from now on.

What is the deal here? Everyone seem to be really positive about Ballack at the moment.. Just after he picked his injury people were crucifying him. Now he is supposed to save us.

I think Ballack looked okay against Lpool and he just might start.

Kalou is on a really good form at the moment and he should start.

What about Malouda? Is he close to match fitness?

I think the deal is that the people have posted so far are some of those that didn't crucify Ballack. Personally I am of the opinion he has not been at his best for Chelsea but he has been nowhere near as poor as some people think he has.

I'd like to see Pizarro given the lone striker role at some point, just to see if he can do it. I know his generally been more of a second striker (and to be honest has been pretty good at it), but I would like to see if he can carry the role.

Speaking about pizarro, the games I have seen him play, he looked really sharp, reallly good, holding the ball up to feed sheva + other players. I think alot of people are not as impressed by him as me tho, what do you guys think? i would love to see him as the lone striker with sheva playing behind him.

Now 8 points behind the Mancs and Arsenal 9...

We can't let the gap get any larger, nothing more than a win, otherwise I think we have slipped too fat behind.

I prefer Pizarro over Sheva at this moment. With Pizarro we can play similarly when we play with Drogs. With Sheva we need to change so much that I dont think we can afford to practice it in important games.

Pizarro looks to be in good form and it is just matter of time when he starts to score. He was very good against Valencia IMO. Cool, sharp and in control.

We should really give freekicks to Sheva and Ballack since Lamps tries always to shoot the ball with power and lately, by lately I mean the last two years, he's not been delivering.

In the past this has always been a hard game, but recently Blackburn’s form has hit a bit of a slump, so hopefully we’ll manage to get all three point out of it without too much trouble.

What a great day.

First Juventus, then Chelsea, then Real Madrid vs Barcelona and then Pittsburgh will play Boston in the NHL.

I think I can catch all of them on tv.

My dad hates sports (except boxing and cars crashing) so he's pissed off now

Chelsea are expected to line up in a 4-3-3 formation as follows:

1 Petr Cech

20 Paulo Ferreira

33 Alex

6 Ricardo Carvalho

3 Ashley Cole

5 Michael Essien

12 John Mikel Obi

8 Frank Lampard ©

21 Salomon Kalou

7 Andriy Shevchenko

10 Joe Cole

Subs: 40 Hilario, 22 Tal Ben-Haim, 13 Michael Ballack, 24 Shaun Wright-Phillips, 14 Claudio Pizarro.

Blackburn are expected to line up in a 4-5-1 formation as follows:

Friedel; Emerton, Khizanishvili, Nelson ©, Warnock; Bentley, Dunn, Tugay, Reid, Pedersen; Santa Cruz.

Subs: Brown, Savage, Mokoena, Roberts, McCarthy.

.... so hopefully we’ll manage to get all three point out of it without too much trouble.

hmmmmmmmmm, when do we ever do that, 'mon the Chels !!

not very enjoyable listening so far......under sparky's cosh !

now they've hit the bar !!!!!!!!!!

We have been just awful in the first 15 mins so far.

GOAL.............SUPER JOEY

Joe Cole!!!

Joey

Now they've hit the post, Cech great save !!!

now we've hit the post, great save Friedel !!!!

good shoot for blackburn above the stand:

http://www.d1g.com/video/show/1629673

amazing one for blackburn saved by the stand :

http://www.d1g.com/video/show/1629693

FIRST GOAL CHELSEA - JOE CLOE :

http://www.d1g.com/video/show/?id=1629698

amazing save for cech then hit the stand :

http://www.d1g.com/video/show/1629721

another one for lampard hit the stand:

http://www.d1g.com/video/show/1629724