
Venue: DW Stadium
Date: Sat 26 Sept
Kick-off: 1500 BST
Wigan away today – and yes before we have any rival supporters saying it – another club in the bottom half of the table!
I’m sure Wigan supporters aren’t exactly relishing the prospect seeing as they haven’t managed a win against a top four side in 34 attempts. And they definitely won’t want to see Didier Drogba near the pitch, bearing in mind his form this season and the rate they’ve leaked goals already. As for us, irrespective of who our opponents are, I’ve no doubt the lads will just want to maintain their 100% start to the season for as long as possible.
MANAGERS’ THOUGHTS
Ahead of the game, Wigan manager Roberto Martinez acknowledges their poor start to the season, although points out “The Chelsea game means we have played five of last season’s top six teams in our first seven matches.” However, obviously prepared for a battle, he goes on to say “It will be a recipe for disaster if we go out just concentrating on a clean sheet. You have got to hurt them as much as they hurt you.”
Despite us now being unbeaten in our last 23 games, Carlo Ancelotti says “Records are not the motivation for us – I just want to work with the team and enjoy the atmosphere around and inside the team. We have won all our games this season so that is normal but records do not matter so much. I don’t need supplementary motivation, I just want to do my best for this team and maintain this atmosphere. At the moment there’s a very good atmosphere around this team. We have won all the games, so that atmosphere isn’t unusual. Wigan like to play football on the ground, they don’t use a lot of long balls and we have respect for this team because they have very good players.”
SQUAD NEWS
With a fully-fit squad to choose from, the only absentee for Martinez is Scott Sinclair who’s ineligible to play against us.
Whilst for Chelsea, Deco (calf) and Alex (groin) are joined by Sturridge (calf) on the injured list, although Drogba’s fit to start and Joe Cole and Zhirkov both returned from injury midweek.
TEAMS
WIGAN (from): Kirkland, Melchiot, Scharner, Bramble, Figueroa, N’Zogbia, Thomas, Diame, Koumas, Gomez, Rodallega, Edman, Boyce, Cho, Scotland, King, McCarthy, Pollitt.
CHELSEA (from): Cech, Hilario, Turnbull, Belletti, Bosingwa, Carvalho, Terry, Ivanovic, A Cole, Hutchinson, Borini, Bruma, Lampard, Ballack, Obi, Kalou, Malouda, Anelka, Drogba, Zhirkov, J Cole, Essien.
LAST MEETING
Chelsea 2-1 Wigan (28 february 2009)
PREDICTION
Current form plus our recent history over Wigan points to an away win as long as Ancelotti returns to the starting eleven he disbanded for QPR. You know TheChelseaBlog by now though – an easy game is never expected, so I’ll just stick to predicting loads of candles on Michael Ballack’s birthday cake.
REFEREE
Phil Dowd