Venue: Molineux
Date: Saturday, 20 February 2010
Kick-off: 1500 GMT
Chelsea will be hoping to improve their recent poor form away from home in the Premier League on their trip to Molineux today. After being fined £25,000 by the Premier League this week for not fielding a full strength team against Manchester United in December, there was never any doubt Wolves would be fielding a stronger side against us, and with McCarthy having already named an unchanged side ahead of this game, it’s clear he’s taking this one a bit more seriously. As for us, with United playing Everton in the day’s early kick-off, we’ll know exactly what’s required when we step out at 3 o’clock.
MANAGERS’ VIEWS
Ahead of the game Mick McCarthy is hoping his Wolves side can put in the same sort of performance they did against Spurs, although is still wary of our capabilities, saying “They beat us one week then went to Arsenal and beat them just like they were playing us. That stood out a little bit for me. I’d say they are the best in the business this year but I take comfort from our performance against Spurs and our performance against Liverpool. It doesn’t matter about anybody else’s away record if we are not playing well. It renders it irrelevant if we play well and we’ve had a good spell. Tottenham had little or no chances at our place. It is the most recent game so it is the best result and the best performance. There is a sense throughout the league that teams just aren’t invincible any more. I don’t think it’s because Chelsea, Manchester United or Tottenham are any worse. I just think that maybe the rest of us have got a little bit better, a little more street-wise and players know how to nick a result off people.”
Carlo Ancelotti meanwhile, with a tricky week ahead of him says “It will be a very difficult match because Wolves improved their performance in the last games, they did fantastic against Liverpool and Tottenham and we have to pay attention and do our best. I think nothing else, we have to stay focused on this game. We will arrive in very difficult matches, starting tomorrow against Wolves and every game is very important, so to the end of the season we have 90 days. It depends [on] us what will happen at the end of the season. If we do very well we can have a good result at the end of the season. Manchester [United] showed also against Milan they are in very good condition and we have to improve our attention because they are very close to us, we have one more point and we want to maintain this, maybe improve it after the game against Wolves.”
SQUAD NEWS
For Wolves, Edwards, Keogh, Kightly (all ankle) and Ward (knee) miss out through injury whilst Mancienne is unavailable for selection against us. However, with Mick McCarthy already naming an unchanged squad, there’ll be no surprises here.
Carlo Ancelotti could find himself without as many as eight of his squad members for this one, with Bosingwa, Essien, Belletti, Alex (all knee) and Ashley Cole (ankle) missing through injury. Frank Lampard misses out with a virus, whilst Deco and Joe Cole (both knee) are doubtful. John Terry returns after his romantic break.
TEAMS
WOLVES: Hahnemann, Zubar, Craddock, Berra, Ward, Foley, Henry, Guedioura, Jones, Jarvis, Doyle.
Substitutes (from): Elokobi, Milijas, Hennessey, Vokes, Ebanks-Blake, Mujangi, Maierhofer, Castillo.
CHELSEA (from): Cech, Hilario, Turnbull, Ivanovic, Carvalho, Terry, Ballack, J Cole, Malouda, Drogba, Anelka, Sturridge, Borini, Ferreira, Zhirkov, Kakuta, Obi, Bruma, Makuda.
LAST MEETING
Chelsea 4-0 Wolves (21 November 2009)
PREDICTION
So, a Wolves side we’ve met three times and racked up 14 goals against would have to look like a pretty easy fixture you’d think? But are any of the sides battling against relegation easy? Spurs certainly didn’t think so off the back of a 1-0 defeat at Molineux last week. Add to that just one win in our last six away and this maybe isn’t quite as easy as it first looks.
REFEREE
Kevin Friend
Blue is the colour
