Then we have McClaren's England squad announcement which includes FIVE Chelsea players for the two Euro 2008 qualifiers against Macedonia at Old Trafford on Saturday 7th October and then away to Croatia in Zagreb on the following Wednesday.

The five players are; Wayne Bridge, Ashley Cole, Shaun Wright-Phillips, Frank Lampard and of course England and Chelsea captain John Terry. Joe Cole has been ruled out by his niggling knee injury.

Chelsea play Aston Villa at Stamford Bridge where Jose and Villa's new manager Martin O'Neill lock horns once again after they battled each other when managing Porto and Celtic respectively. 2001-2 in the Champions League, Celtic beat Porto 1-0 and Porto beat Celtic 3-0 and then again in 2003 when Porto beat Celtic 3-2 in the final of the UEFA Cup.

So what can we expect of Chelsea then? 100% effort and a rotated team I suspect. In will come Khalid Boulahrouz, and Ashley Cole at the back. Makele should return and in the absence of suspended Michael Ballack, there is no reason why Mikel shouldn't make his first start. Either him or Kalou.

Luke Moore became the first player to score against Chelsea last season at the Bridge and he could be the man to watch, or it could Villa's Petrov (ex-Celtic) or Villa's other striking youngster Agbonlahor but for me the man to watch is Didier Drogba.

The Drog is on fire. Four goals in six Premiership games and his midweek hat-trick against Sofia. if you are a betting person then put your money on the Dids to score the first goal and with that I have just cursed the Drog.

Last season at The Bridge Chelsea won 2-1 and tomorrow we will be looking for our 12th consectutive home win.

Team: Cech, Boulahrouz, Carvalho, Terry (c), A Cole, Makelele, Essien, Mikel, Lampard, Shevchenko, Drogba

COME ON CHELSEA!!!

41 YEARS A BLUE