PL Preview: Wolverhampton v. Chelsea

By: Jack | January 4th, 2011

Another must-win. Fancy that.

Chelsea-vs-Wolverhampton-Wanderers
Hey, it’s Borini.

Who: Wolverhampton
What: Premier League, Round 22
Where: Molineux (29,195)
When: 5 January, 7:45pm local time (2:45pm EST)
How: Fox Soccer Channel (DirecTV 619, Dish Network 149)

Why: Because I hate to think what might happen should we lose. I think I’ll take a pop and say King Carlo will be king no more if we fail to get something from this visit to the Midlands. And, you know what, that’s not out of the realm of possibilities. Not hardly.

Wolves sit bottom and are missing their best striker (Kevin Doyle) and defender (Joey Craddock). You’d think this would be the perfect spot for one of those confidence-boosting, goal-plunding type matches for the pride of London. Negative. Confidence is shot, in the team, the staff, the support – everyone. It’s sick. Carlo attempted to quell the doubt by stumping for the bold rather than the bland this week, guaranteeing three points: “We will not lose. We will win. I’m confident.”

I wish I could share the man’s sentiment. We are now nine points astray following United’s win Tuesday against Stoke. A repeat league title out of our grasp? As hard as it is to say, it seems likely. More to the point, Wolves may sit bottom but they gave us a right run for the points at Stamford Bridge earlier in the season and have defeated Liverpool at Anfield, something we were unable to do. The loss at West Ham will have stung mightily. Expect a bounce back against us. Great.

As for us, I don’t think there’s going to be any gray area here. We either galvanize as a team and surge forward – while scoring loads of goals – or continue on as an isolated band of individuals and struggle to get anything out of the match. The excuses are no longer acceptable. We simply have not been of Chelsea standard.

Now, allow me to call out a few individuals. Nicolas Anelka, take a seat. Your identity crisis is killing the right side of our team. If you play, which I guarantee you will, stop muddling about in midfield, stymieing Ramires’ ability to increase his influence on our attack. Florent Malouda, grow up. The self-loathing must stop. You’re a good fucking player, start proving it again. Didier Drogba, has malaria in addition to robbing you off your form sapped you of a heart, too? Stop sulking and start pillaging. Michael Essien, or should I saw the artist formerly known as Michael Essien. Bring back the genuine Michael Essien you damn thief.

Team-wise, changes need to be made. Ashley Cole must get a rest or he’s liable to not only injure himself but possibly die of extreme exhaustion. Super Frank likely needs a rest as well. Could he possible play another 90 minutes after being out for so long? I’d rather not risk it. So throw young Josh in there; we need some real quality on the ball anyway. Daniel Sturridge deserves a run out from the start, too. It’s pretty damn apparent he’s unhappy with the lack of opportunities he has received. I’m pretty damn unhappy about that fact. Get him a game before we are forced to sell another promising talent. Bruma showed enough competence against Villa to retain his place alongside England’s Brave John Terry. That would allow Bane to move back out on the right, in place of a pair of woeful right-backs.

Of course none of that is likely to happen.

What I want to see
Cech
Bane-Bruma-EBJT-PVA
Ramires-McEachran-Essien
Sturridge-Drogba-Malouda

What we will see
Cech
Bosingwa-Bane-EBJT-Cole
Ramires-Essien-Lampard
Anelka-Drogba-Kalou

Alright. Enough with the doom and gloom. We’re still Chelsea Football Club. We’re still loaded with talent. And we’re still Premier League champions. Of our last three games, we’ve thrown away wins in two of them. We do what we need to do in those and we’re third right now. We’re not that far away. We just need some luck. And some confidence. Come on boys. KTBFFH

Some Related Chelsea Posts:

Category: Chelsea Team News, Fixtures, Match Previews, Player News, Premier League

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pfelds

Half time, and on the wrong side of a 1-0 scroeline. i lack FSC so im forced to stream it and the signal or whatever sux, but thats okay i guess or else i would b really pissed off at CFC right now. in reality tho im just pissed off and and confused by scratchy video........

bosingwa should probably have shaved the unobrow and he would have seen the cross, i doubt he even has full depth perception, a major blind, or "brow" spot seems to be rite
in the middle of his sight.

what can i say, im dispondent. if we lose, and carlo does get the axe, we aint got no ray to fill in, and i dont see the golden guus hiding in the shadows, with his mask, and cape, and trusty sidekick, waiting to swoop in and save our damsel in distress
pfelds

is mikel injured or banned?

regardless, we must choose either kalou or sturridge, not both, and i am all for DS taking the start over SK. i fear ramires will never contribute fully until we change his number, cause 7 is a bit cursed. we could also give a go at a 3-man defense. like a 3-5-2/ 3-4-3. defense line:
Bane, BJT, Cashley
then with 2 deep midfielders:
Essien, Ramires
the 2 wingers:
Malouda, Anelka/Kalou
Attacking mid/ low-lying forward:
Lamps/ drogba/ Anelka
Strikers:
Drogs, Sturridge/Anelka

chew on that indecipherabvle post, y'all!!!

with any luck, chelsea tear it up with a 3, no, 4-0 victory
COME ON CHELSEA!!!
Jack

Mikel is out for about a month with a knee problem. I hope you're right with that prediction.
Sharinganfx

i just hope we shoot more...looking for the killer pass is useless if the passes aren't great and the people aren't there. if cole were to be rested today, i don't even think VA will get a shot...probably Ferreira...god this is like AC Milan all over again for Ancelotti.
arn00b

I agree with what you say, but I think that Anelka`s sudden drop to midfield was a tactical decision by CA, not Anelka deciding to improvise and change position in the sunset of his career.

Though we`ll never know what was said, I`m assuming that Anelka was to drop in midfield to compensate for Essien, who was dropping even further back to aid the weak defense and especially Bruma. What happened was total organizational chaos, with Chelsea conceding 3 times. However, there is a positive - Chelsea also scored 3 times, which is a rare event these days.

It means that the defensive, clog-down-the-game style they were trying to play lately was abandoned in favor of a more loose, open and attacking play. The defense was weak, unfortunately, so it`s not a total success story.

But I hope that the lesson is learned and that Chelsea doesn`t revert to the crappy style they were trying to pass off as football...