Venue: Stamford Bridge
Date: Sunday, 17 May
Kick-off: 1600 BST
Ever present in the Premier League, Chelsea have an average finishing position of fifth, so I guess we shouldn’t grumble we look set to finish third this time around. Ok, so the season could have been better, particularly in Europe but it could also have been a lot of worse if we hadn’t got rid of Scolari when we did. And we’ve still got the FA Cup final to look forward to, so it’s not all doom and gloom.
And whilst our last home game, against Blackburn, with nothing but pride to play for isn’t what most of us would have hoped for back in the summer, it’s what we’ve got, so let’s get on with it.
On squad news, it isn’t much to get excited about for us either, with Deco and Ricardo Carvalho remaining out with hamstring trouble. Salomon Kalou (ankle) is also likely to miss out and both Michael Ballack and Juliano Belletti are a doubt with flu.
For Blackburn, Roque Santa Cruz and Jason Roberts are out but Andre Ooijer is fit again after his hamstring injury.
KEY PLAYERS
CHELSEA
Nicolas Anelka will be finishing this season Chelsea’s top scorer. He’s currently on 17 in the Premier League and with the usual speculation surrounding Didier Drogba at the moment, Anelka could be looking to cement his place in the side before the next manager arrives.
BLACKBURN
Stephen Warnock – a real favourite with Blackburn supporters, Warnock had a bit of a shocker at the start of this campaign although seems to have improved significantly as the season’s gone on. He’s set up some important goals for them along the way and his better games have notably been away from Ewood Park.
CLUB FORM
CHELSEA
We’re unbeaten in 11 games in all competitions, with 7 wins and 4 draws. In the Premier League we’ve won the last three and are unbeaten in six with 16 points from the last 18 available. From our home games, we’ve won seven of the last nine in the league and are unbeaten in ten. When we’ve opened the scoring, we’ve won 21 and lost just one from 23 games this season. We’ve already done the double over Villa, City, Stoke, Bolton, Pompey, Boro and West Brom this campaign and a win today would see Blackburn added to that list. We go into this game third in the table and a win in both our remaining games would give us a points total of 83 – two down on last season but on a par with the 2006/07 campaign.
BLACKBURN
Blackburn haven’t won successive games in the Premier League since September and have lost their last four away, scoring one goal and conceding 12. This is their longest run of successive league defeats away from home since the beginning of the 2004-05 season. Blackburn have also conceded more Premier League goals in stoppage time than any other club (8). Blackburn go into this game with 40 points – their lowest return since the relegation campaign of 1998-99.
HEAD TO HEAD
We haven’t lost to Blackburn in seven league and cup games, winning six of these. In fact, we’ve been beaten just twice in the last 17 games against Blackburn since 1998 and they haven’t taken 3 points away from Stamford Bridge since 2003. A win today would give us our third double over Blackburn in the Premier League.
Home and away
League (inc PL): Chelsea 37 wins, Blackburn 32 wins, Draws 26
Prem: Chelsea 10 wins, Blackburn 11 wins, Draws 8
At Chelsea only
League (inc PL): Chelsea 23 wins, Blackburn 12 wins, Draws 12
Prem: Chelsea 3 wins, Blackburn 5 wins, Draws 6
LAST SEASON
CHELSEA 0-0 BLACKBURN
15 September 2007 – Ref: Howard Webb
THIS SEASON’S REVERSE
BLACKBURN 0-2 CHELSEA
Chelsea scorers: Anelka 40, 68
9 November 2008 – Ref: Chris Foy
TEAMS
CHELSEA (from): Cech, Hilario, Bosingwa, A Cole, Terry, Alex, Ivanovic, Lampard, Mikel, Essien, Anelka, Drogba, Malouda, Lampard, Stoch, Di Santo, (Ballack, Belletti), Mancienne.
BLACKBURN (from): Robinson, Bunn, Ooijer, Khizanishvili, Nelsen, Samba, Warnock, Givet, Olsson, Villanueva, Tugay, Andrews, Diouf, Treacy, Mokoena, McCarthy, Pedersen, Grella, Doran, Blackman.
REFEREE
Rob Styles (Hampshire)
Blue is the colour
