Another huge Chelsea week

Article by e-Chelsea Correspondent Lee Beevor

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Thankfully, the chaotic nature of the football season precludes us from dwelling on the disappointing defeat at Villa Park. With a midweek win against Galatasaray in the Champions League, swiftly followed by a title eliminator against Arsenal, the players will have already moved on. This is certainly a good thing, as whilst we fans have a day or two to debate the various rights and wrongs of last Saturday’s defeat, the focus of the team will be on training and tactics for the weekend. Any potential damaging effects of last Saturday's loss can therefore be dismissed, expect of course for the suspensions.

I observed in my article “9 games away!” that in some respects it might be better for our Premier League aspirations for us to be eliminated from Europe. My feeling is that the team seems to struggle when faced with two huge games in quick succession. This I attribute to a mental weakness, associated with the youth and inexperience of many of our key personnel. In view of this and the proximity of Champions League fixtures to the major hurdles of Swansea and Liverpool away, continued participation could lead to dropped points. After the weekend, when City, Liverpool and Arsenal all won, we can ill afford a further slip.

Despite this opinion, I cannot describe how pleased I am with the victory last night. European nights at the Bridge have always been special to me, with memorable comebacks against Betis and Vicenza wetting my appetite for the stellar clashes we enjoy today. With due respect to the legend Didier Drogba, we eased past the Turks and now move on to a glamour quarter-final tie. Without seeding or country protection, this could bring another clash of the titans, or we could be lucky and draw the winners of Olympiakos and Manchester United! Either way, once again I would find it impossible to want Chelsea to lose.

Moving forward to the weekend, Arsenal continues to be a participant in what is a four-way race to the finish. Despite their injuries, these are only to midfielders, which is their strongest area of the squad. As could be seen against Tottenham, these arguably do not deplete them at all; the winning goal being scored by Rosicky, a player who would not have started had Ozil, Wilshere, Walcott and Ramsey been available. Make no mistake this will be a difficult challenge, notwithstanding the formidable record Mourinho holds against Wenger’s side.

The biggest shortcoming in our opponent’s attack is the lack of pace. Spurs were cut to pieces at times, with Arsenal breaking quickly, but this was more to do with the acres of space they afforded. No one doubts Arsenal’s passing ability and movement, which combined to hurt Spurs on the counter. Chelsea has a far more solid defensive unit and with Matic screening them, will not allow unguarded areas of the size Arsenal exploited on Sunday. As such, I cannot see any weapons to create opportunities for Giroud, who is the sort of forward JT and Cahill eat for breakfast.

At the offensive end, Chelsea will have plenty of pace and guile to trouble the visitors.
Arsenal has a well established weakness for defending set pieces, which given Chelsea’s line-up being certain to include three centre backs, will give us a strong aerial advantage. The suspensions of Ramires and Willian could easily result in this threat actually increasing, as both Luiz and Lampard are options sure to be considered for this fixture.

Finally, there is the factor of home advantage. Like it or not, referees give more 50/50 decisions to the home side during the cause of a match. This natural human frailty, allied to our almost unbeatable aura in our home stadium, will hopefully combine to giving us the edge. Our manager has built his career on winning this sort of encounter, a fact that is certainly not true of his opposite number. All the above should combine to give a comfortable Chelsea victory, which provided we score first, could be as heavy as 3-0. This will force Arsenal to go for broke when they host City in a fortnight’s time, hopefully resulting in a draw or home win!

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