The arrival of ex-Barcelona coach and architect of the Barcelona team of 2004-2006, Henk Ten Cate at least signals we now have some meaningful coaching experience along with Steve Clarke.  The cupboard’s been bare since the departure of Mourinho and his assistants and it will be interesting to see what other ingredients arrive in the future to fill the pantry at SW6.

The bad news has been two-fold (there’s always more bad than good news lately isn’t there?); firstly the injuries of John Terry and Ashley Cole who will both, according to reports, miss at least a month of football each and then secondly, the disturbing interview given by Didier Drogba to respected French magazine “France Football” expressing his wish to leave Chelsea.

More on these matters in forthcoming articles but I’ll just say for now that Drogba is a bit of a drama queen and has dropped a few clangers with the press in the past only to contradict himself shortly afterwards (indeed, this latest interview may have taken place a few weeks ago anyway – he has since been positive about the club). 

Lampard of course was booed when taking to the field as a substitute against Estonia as he apparently “gets in the way of Gerrard” (!!!!).  I’m not going to go too much into this at the moment – why bother?  Lampard´s been the best midfielder in the league over the last 3 seasons and his form for England has been no worse than Gerrard´s (for example) and if the plebeian herd that follow England at the moment need any more proof of their stupidity and blind bias against the player they can look at the last England match and then think again.

As for the injuries to Terry and Cole I think it’s probably for the best that Terry finally rests and cures the 3 injuries he’s currently carrying with his knee, toe and cheekbone. 

As for Cole that’s a blow that does complicate matters – his cover in Bridge is unavailable through suspension whereas at least with Terry we’ve got Alex.  No doubt Ben Tal Haim will cover at left-back.

Away to Boro hasn´t been a good fixture for us during the last 2 seasons (we’ve lost both encounters) and with the current atmosphere at the club and the injury situation it doesn’t look good for us tomorrow.  Still, knowing Chelsea, this is precisely when we’re most likely to win.  I wasn’t feeling optimistic before Valencia and look what happened.

Kalou has also been ruled out because of a knock so Shevchenko or Pizarro could both feature at some point alongside Drogba depending on the formation.  It will be interesting to see how Drogba plays tomorrow and how the Chelsea fans react to the news of his comments in his France Football interview. 

Who knows, maybe before then, he’ll have made some statement to the press to “clear things up” a bit more.   He’ll either play out of his skin or go into a hissy fit if he receives any booing – which could still make him play well or go into his shell – who knows!  He’s predictable in his sensitivity – it’s the just the outcome or his reaction which is unpredictable.  Really depends on what treatment the Chelsea faithful give him tomorrow.

Ah! There is some more good news!  Mikel Obi returns from suspension tomorrow.  Some of his performances are really reminiscent of a young Rudd Gullit and his inclusion in the side with a reasonably fresh Lampard will provide an important boost to the side.

Gareth Southgate’s side haven’t been in good form recently having not won in the last 5 matches and only picking up 1 point from the last possible 12 in the league although they have scored in each of their last 3 home matches.  Discipline wise they top the bad boys list with 27 yellow cards recorded so far.

Robert Huth will probably face us for the first time so we’ll have to watch out for his long range rocket free-kicks – wouldn´t it be typical that he scores against us tomorrow?!

Chelsea (from): Cech, Cudicini, Hilario, Ferreira, Belletti, Alex, Ben-Haim, Obi, Lampard, Essien, Kalou, Shevchenko, Sidwell, J Cole, Malouda, Drogba, Pizarro, Wright-Phillips, Carvalho, Sinclair.

Something like 4-4-2 to start:  Cech, Belletti, Alex, Carvalho, Tal Haim, Essien, Lampard, Malouda, J Cole, Shevchenko, Drogba….?

Anyway, I’ll go for a surprising 1-3 win with Sheva and Drogba both on the score sheet + a Lampard penalty for good measure!

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