So, the Blues travel to St.James Park in the aftermath after losing once again to Liverpool at home in a space of 9 days. And whilst Chelsea might have won their last league encounter against Wolves pretty convincingly, the next couple of days might turn out to be very significant in the club's recent history.
Newcastle will be entertaining the visitors knowing they haven't lost the last 10 matches at home, plus the Magpies managed to grind out a draw at Old Trafford last weekend. You might say that Newcastle might be in real-good form this season so far, but don't expect this match to be a walk in the park for them. Seems Alan Pardew's presence, along with the acquisation of their prolific striker Demba Ba, might be working fine for them at this stage.
As for Chelsea, not only will this match be of significant importance, but Tuesday's do-or-die home match versus Valencia in the Champions League will be the decider between playing a further part in the knockout stages of the European competition, or having to settle for a spot in the Europa League. A win or a goalless draw will ensure Chelsea go through to the Round of 16, however it's not all guaranteed they'll finish on top of the group. Should they finish 2nd behind most likely Bayer Leverkusen, the Round of 16 clash for the Blues could turn out to be a spicy affair, with the likes of Barcelona, Real Madrid and AC Milan being possible candidates to face the West-London side. And with the prospect of Chelsea possibly facing Barcelona in the Round of 16, it will surely spark-up a rivalry which has flamed up the last couple of seasons between these two clubs. I don't need to remind what happened in 2009, however before that the two sides met in the 2004/05 campaign, with Chelsea emerging victorious over the two legs(even if they lost the 1st leg at the Nou Camp).
As for tomorrow's match, Chelsea, and especially boss Andre Villas Boas, will see this as a do-or-die match in regards to the title race. Yes, Chelsea made up last weekend by being one of only two of the bigger clubs winning their matches, whilst Man City, Arsenal and Man United drew their respective matches. Chelsea are now 9 points behind the leader Man City, with the league leaders having a 5 point cushion between and second-placed Manchester United.
Chelsea's away record this season so far has been reasonable, with the club playing 6, winning 3, drawing 1, and losing 2. Their most impressive away match was the 5-1 drubbing of Bolton at the Reebok, whilst the two losses consisting of losing 3-1 versus Man United at Old Trafford, and the shocking loss versus QPR at Loftus Road on the same day Man City ran riot at Old Trafford.
Newcastle on the other hand, will be missing the services of Jonas Guiterrez through suspension. He's been quite a handful for the Toons in the past couple of matches, so they could be missing him dearly in tomorrow's match. As for Chelsea, the recent match versus Arsenal was the only game from eight matches where the Blues scored first where they didn't end up winning the match, so in terms of scoring first might be vital for Villas-Boas's side. In the last six matches in all competitions, Chelsea only managed to win two matches whilst losing three of the remaining four matches. Both these wins came versus English opposition. Frank Lampard and Daniel Sturridge currently lead the pack between the Chelsea players, having scored 6 goals each, including a penalty from Lampard. Frank has recently been under heavy criticism regarding his performance, but in my opinion he's been one of the stars for his club this season so far. Daniel Sturridge has been the shining star who seems to be adapting perfectly in this Chelsea setup. His loan spell at Bolton last season seems to have done wonders for him. Other players to watch out tomorrow is the likes of Juan Mata, Ramires, Raul Mereiles and David Luiz. Fernando Torres has currently 2 league goals for the season.
To be fair, Chelsea will need to improve on their performance, and tomorrow's match might be the perfect opportunity to replenish the form that made them a force to be reckoned with over the past few seasons. The Premier League has become significantly tougher this season, with six teams now having a major say in who will lift the trophy coming May. Man City may be on a roll now. They've got stacks of talent in the form of Mario Balotelli, Sergio Aguero, David Silva, who arguably is the best player in the league at the moment, and even Edin Dzeko. They might go on and win the league in May, however should they lose their first match this season, they might take a bit of a hard fall then. Who knows what might happen in the rest of the season. We're only a third through the season, so anything is possible. As for Chelsea, they were in a similar position last season, and nearly managed to make a shock comeback by almost winning the league. The good thing is that the current slump Chelsea has hit has come much earlier than last season, which indicates that the West-London side still has a major say in the title chase.
As for the team tomorrow, here's the team I would love to see playing:
--------------Cech--------------
--Ivanovic--Luiz--Terry--Cole-
-Ramires--Mereiles--Lampard-
-Sturridge--Torres--Mata-----
KTBFFH
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