Can We Stay in the Title Race? Brum Preview
By dixon9
January 18 2008
Alex McLeish is slowly succeeding in toughening up Birmingham City as he demonstrated at the Camel Dome last weekend with a credible 1-1 draw against the Woolwich. Despite a good record against them we obviously can’t afford to take the home side lightly – 3 points is the order of the day now that we are surprisingly back in the title race.
We have every reason to feel pleased about ourselves having got through a terrible period of injuries – true, we still have players out and those away at the ACN, but with a few players returning and new signings we can look forward to the engines revving with a bit more power now.
This is the first of three consecutive away games and our first time out of London for a while.
The Brum manager has made a few new signings and he may well give a debut to defender Murphy who has recovered from a hamstring problem.
The most important debut as far as McLeish’s side are concerned is that of McFadden, recently signed from Everton who rather surprisingly didn’t seem to be rated there. The Scot played very well against us in the League Cup semi-final at Stamford Bridge so whilst we won’t have to face him next midweek at Everton we do so tomorrow at Birmingham.
Club captain Johnson should also return after suffering from a stiff back.
On our side all eyes will be on Anelka who makes his full debut.
The Frenchman looked very sharp during the half hour he had last weekend against Spurs – what’s the betting he scores? I reckon he will do and probably set 1 up as well.
Personally I’ve been very encouraged by his comments in the press just before and after his arrival – he certainly seems to have matured and said that he’s just as happy to set goals up as score them (he even promises to speak to Drogba to get him to stay!).
Frank Lampard is back in training after his thigh muscle problem and knowing him he’ll want to play. I hope we give him a rest until the Everton semi-final or at most coming on as a sub.
Ballack is in excellent form so there’s no sense in overplaying our hand.
New signing Branislav Ivanovic has only just finished a season in Russia and was up to a week ago, in pre-season rest mode. The Serbian won’t be in peak condition so again, like Lampard, I hope we keep our powder dry with him.
I’m sure we’ll stick with 4-3-3 and our line-up could look something like this:
Cech, Ferreira, Alex, Carvalho, A Cole, Ballack, J Cole, Makelele, SWP, Anelka, Malouda.
Prediction: 1-3 to us. They’ll score first (McFadden) and Anelka will get a brace!
Oh, and by the way, referee is Rob Styles who gave us that controversial penalty at Anfield – hope he doesn’t try and “adjust” for his error in this game – we’ve been well and truly panned by refereeing decisions since then!
Previous Record:
Chelsea's overall record against Birmingham in all competitions is: played 88, won 40, drawn 24, and lost 24.
Head-to-head in the league at St Andrews: played 38, won 14, drawn 11, and lost 13.
LAST MEETING AT ST ANDREWS:
Birmingham 0 Chelsea 0Premiership, Saturday April 1st 2006 at St Andrews.Birmingham (4-4-1-1): Maik Taylor; Tebily, Martin Taylor, Cunningham (c), Sadler; Pennant, Johnson, Clemence, Campbell (Forssell 56); Butt (Kilkenny 87); Heskey.
Bookings None
Chelsea (4-3-3): Cech; Ferreira, Carvalho, Terry (c), Del Horno (Crespo 64); Gudjohnsen (Essien 68), Makelele, Lampard; Robben, Drogba, Duff (J Cole 64).
Bookings None
Referee Dermot Gallacher.
Crowd 26,364.
Utd, Arsenal and Liverpool still have to come to Stamford Bridge - 9 points for the taking!!!
Most importantly is the fact that we are only going to get stronger from here on in with players back from injury, new signings and players back from injury.
.
"It is born out of hypocrisy and fundamental insecurity. There have been two kids on the block for the past 12 years. Suddenly, there is a third and that one is threatening to be more successful than the others and they don’t like it." P Kenyon.
Reading
Liverpool
Derby
Arsenal
Middlesbrough
Wigan
Man Utd
Bolton
away game run in:
Portsmouth
Tottingham
West Ham
Sunderland
Man City
Everton
Newcastle Utd
Don't Gamble, Bet Risk Free
I reckon we are in with a VERY good chance of the league still - and probably a better chance with the CL.
.
"It is born out of hypocrisy and fundamental insecurity. There have been two kids on the block for the past 12 years. Suddenly, there is a third and that one is threatening to be more successful than the others and they don’t like it." P Kenyon.