Venue: Reebok Stadium

Date: Saturday, 31 October 2009

Kick-off: 1500 GMT

So, it’s our second game of the week against Bolton and in terms of precautions against the swine-flu ridden side, it seems the only one we’ll be taking is putting out a full strength squad after we rested a few for the Carling Cup mid-week.

That game saw a fairly comfortable 4-0 win at Stamford Bridge but whilst we might have tucked away 13 goals in the last ten days, all of those goals came at home. Today’s game sees us travel to the Reebok and it’s away from home we’ve lost two games already this season.

MANAGER’S THOUGHTS

The diamond might not have sparkled quite as much away from home for Chelsea but manager Carlo Ancelotti doesn’t seem to have lost any faith in his system on our travels, insisting “We want to maintain the same system.  I said before that for this season, we follow this way at home and away.  The last two matches away were not good for us, but we don’t want to change because of that. I think this system is very good away from home. Tomorrow will be a different game to the game in the Carling Cup. I think that Bolton can play different, but we want to play at the same level. We will pay attention to their quality, but we will put our best qualities on the pitch. Bolton will want to change something from Wednesday. We want to play the same, because we played well. We stayed compact over the 90 minutes, which is important against Bolton.  To win this Premier League is a very long race. If it’s possible to maintain being top of the table, as we are, then that’s good. It means we’ve started the season well. But the race is very long and will only finish at the end of the season.”

Still licking his wounds from the Carling Cup meanwhile, Gary Megson says “If we don’t approach it in the right manner, the same thing will happen again.  We have got to find a way to upset Chelsea, and I don’t mean physically.  We have got to play at a tempo that suits us because , Chelsea dictated that tempo (Wednesday) – they dictated absolutely everything, from minute one to 90. We have to give ourselves a better chance.  Hopefully it’s a better performance – hopefully we start in a manner which might cause the opposition a few more problems.  It will be difficult because the two teams will be different and theirs will be stronger.  The venue obviously changes as well, but we will be playing a team that 72 hours earlier gave us a lesson – and we have to learn that lesson.  If we do have to lose games, we want it to be like it was against Manchester United, where we gave it everything we have got.  Things might not particularly go right for us in terms of fortune, but at least we will know that we have put everything into it and really given them a game to remember.  I think from the word go against Chelsea (Wednesday night) we were just tame and didn’t give ourselves an opportunity to cause an upset at all.”

SQUAD NEWS

Bolton still have Joey O’Brien out injured.  Jaaskelainen and Kevin Davies are set to return.

For Chelsea, John Terry, Frank Lampard, Petr Cech, Didier Drogba, Ricardo Carvalho, Nicolas Anelka and Michael Essien should all return to the starting line-up.  Ashley Cole, Jose Bosingwa, Yuri Zhirkov, John Obi Mikel and Hilario are all sidelined.

TEAMS

BOLTON (from): Jaaskelainen, Al Habsi, Ricketts, Steinsson, Knight, Cahill, A O’Brien, Samuel, Robinson, M Davies, Basham, Muamba, Cohen, McCann, Gardner, Taylor, K Davies, Klasnic, Lee, Elmander.

CHELSEA (from): Cech, Terry, Ballack, Belletti, Ferreira, Essien, Ballack, Lampard, J Cole, Sturridge, Anelka, Drogba, Malouda, Deco, Kalou, Carvalho, Ivanovic.

LAST MEETING

Chelsea 4-0 Bolton October 28^th 2009 (Carling Cup)

LAST SEASON

Bolton 0-2 Chelsea December 6^th 2008

PREDICTION

You’d have to think the odds are stacked in our favour today – we’re unbeaten in 11 against Bolton and we’ve won our last six trips to the Reebok. Add to that the fact we’re going into this game with a fair few goals behind us and just one conceded at home since the opening day, and we could start getting giddy. Just a thought to keep us grounded though – our shortcomings this season have all come away from home!

REFEREE

Peter Walton

Filed under: Match Day, Preview