Venue: Molineux
Date: Wednesday, 5 January
Kick-off: 1945 GMT
So here we go again then, another opportunity to torture ourselves claw back points with a game away to Wolves. Whether or not we’re up for a midweek battle at Molineux remains to be seen but one thing’s for sure, whether bookies are refusing to write us off yet or not, if we don’t get our arses in gear and put some results together soon, the only thing we’ll have left to fight for will be our pride.
MANAGERS’ VIEWS
Whilst we might be hoping tonight is a chance for us to turn things around, Mick McCarthy certainly isn’t expecting it to work out that way, stating “I would think that Carlo Ancelotti’s looking at this game as one that they should win, if they are in any sort of crisis to change that and get an away victory. I don’t think, in the same breath, they’ll be thinking it will be easy. I doubt anybody is coming here thinking this is going to be a breeze because we’re bottom of the league. Nobody’s had it that way, and Chelsea won’t have it that way. It’s better than it was earlier on in the season, when they were slapping everybody. But I know what people will think – everybody’s expecting Chelsea to get better, saying ‘They can’t keep doing that, they can’t keep getting beaten and they can’t keep playing as badly as that’. So I think everybody will see this as the game that’s going to turn it around for them. I don’t particularly see it that way, it might be that for us it’s four wins out of seven rather than three out of six.”
Carlo Ancelotti meanwhile, despite yet again dropping points at the weekend insists “We can still win the title. We will win (against Wolves). We will not lose. We are improving and the team is very close to moving on from difficult moment. I have confidence the team is improving a little bit and instead of drawing in the last minute maybe we can win the last minute. We were a little bit unlucky in three of our last games. We won against Bolton, drew against Everton and missed a penalty against Tottenham. Then we conceded a goal in last minute against Villa. We have conceded six points in last minutes. It is true that we are not playing well. Sometimes you are not so lucky, but we have to keep going. I am sure we are moving from difficult moment. The performances are starting to be better. We are not able to play for 90 minutes as we want but I think it will be OK.”
SQUAD NEWS
For Wolves, Craddock (hip/thigh), Guedioura (broken leg), Henry, Kightly, Mancienne (all knee) and Mouyokolo (back) all miss out through injury although Kevin Doyle is back in contention after recovering from a thigh injury.
For Chelsea, Alex, Mikel (both knee), BBenayoun (Achilles) and Zhirkov (calf) all remain out, whilst Ivanovic returns after his suspension against Villa.
TEAMS
WOLVES (from): Hahnemann, Foley, Jarvis, Jones, Ward, Fletcher, Ebanks-Blake, Stearman, Mujangi Bia, Halford, Milijas, Elokobi, Hill, Hennessey, Hunt, Bent, Zubar, Batth, Doyle.
CHELSEA (from): Cech, Ferreira, Bosingwa, Ivanovic, Bruma, Terry, Cole, Ramires, Kalou, Essien, Lampard, Anelka, Sturridge, Drogba, Malouda, Turnbull, Van Aanholt, McEachran, Mellis.
LAST SEASON
Wolves 0-2 Chelsea (20 February 2010)
REFEREE
Mark Halsey
PREDICTION
We go into tonight’s game with a record of five wins out of five against Wolves in the Premier League although records seem to be there for the taking this season. And whilst they might sit bottom of the table, they’ve picked up more points than we have from their last games, whilst we haven’t won away since October. Not exactly confidence inspiring is it?
