Unfortunately Chelsea do not feature in this years competition anymore thanks to the Toon of Newcastle for dumping us out on our backsides a mere couple of weeks ago. Since then, Chelsea have lost in Barcelona, won the Carling Cup beating Liverpool, won at Norwich in the Premiership and finally beat Barcelona, not just only on the night but on overall aggregate to progress to the Quarter-Final of Europe's premier club competition. Perhaps not being in the FA Cup anymore doesn't seem to bad. Oh I forgot. Top of the League eight points, clear with a game in hand.

Talking about games in hand. Our game in hand is against WBA at home. This is due to be played at Stamford Bridge next Tuesday. Originally the game was scheduled to be played on the Wednesday, but our beloved JM and his staff looked at it, and with a game against Crystal Palace due the following Saturday, Chelsea successfully asked the Premier League and WBA to bring the game forward 24 hours. Why the game could not have been played tomorrow is anyone's guess. The only person who knows is JM himself. JM looked at the fixture list, already knowing that Chelsea would not have a game this Saturday and decided that he wanted to give the squad a full weeks rest before their next challenge. This, also knowing that whatever the result against Barcelona, would have taken a lot of effort and energy out of the players, which it did, by having a week's rest from games would enable our generous JM to give the players a couple of days off after the Barcelona game which he did. The players had Wednesday and Thursday off, plenty of time to glow in the sunrise of their achievement, before reporting back for training at Cobham today.

So no game for Chelsea. Not bad actually. We can sit back with our feet up and have a good old relax, either watching the feast of Cup football on TV or pursue other interests outside of football. More than most will probably watch the likes of Man Utd and Arsenal attempt to salvage some silverware from an abysmal season for both clubs as set out by their own high standards in previous years. Both clubs, dumped out of Europe this week. Utd by Chelsea...oops sorry AC Milan (Crespo 2 Utd 0) and Arsenal by Bryan Munich (thanks to Soccer AM). Both clubs trailing and lagging in the chase for the Premiership title, so all that remains is the FA Cup. Of course neither Man Utd or Arsenal won the Carling Cup this year, cos we/Chelsea did.

The days of 'the duology' are over. Welcome to the Tri-ology

COME ON CHELSEA!!