Venue: Stamford Bridge

Date: Wednesday, 16 December

Kick-off: 1945 GMT

Avram Grant returns to Stamford Bridge tonight, although fortunately not as our manager, as we take on troubled Portsmouth.

Bottom of the table Pompey are in a fight to stay in the Premier League – both in terms of their football and their finances it seems – although a draw against Sunderland at the weekend means they’ve taken four points from their last two games.

We, on the other hand, haven’t even managed that in our last couple of league games, with our defeat to Man City followed up by a disappointing draw against Everton. So, you’d have to assume anything other than a win for us tonight really would put the tin lid on a run of four games without a win.

MANAGERS’ VIEWS

Following some pretty disastrous defending of late, ahead of tonight’s game, Carlo Ancelotti says “We have trained and worked on the set-pieces.  We have conceded some goals in these situations and we want to improve on that. We can do better. We had some problems after the Villa game where we conceded from set-pieces but we did well to improve after that. We have to improve our attention and concentration in these situations. I think the reaction of some of the fans was normal. We are top of the league and this means our fans always want to see the best. We want to do the best. When supporters pay for a ticket, he can do anything, with respect, naturally.” Whilst of his opposing manager, the Chelsea boss says “I don’t know him.  I saw him take Chelsea to the final of the Champions League and for that I think he did a very good job in that season. He has arrived at Portsmouth and done a good job, so I expect a difficult game.”

The ex-Chelsea manager meanwhile, no less deluded these days it seems, suggests “At Chelsea I took over a team that was on the way down and the challenge was to bring them back to winning ways and we did it.  This is a different challenge, first to take the team away from the bottom and then for the future to make them an exciting team.  The challenge is bigger here because there are so many problems. Everybody said to me when I was offered it not to take the job, but for me it made me even more ambitious to take it.  Football takes you to many different places and situations.  I was at one of the richest clubs in the world. At Chelsea the resources were unlimited. I bought Anelka, Ivanovic. Money was no object.  Now I am at Portsmouth. Resources are limited. We have to make the best of what we have. We have only one ambition - to try and avoid relegation.  Chelsea was just a part of London but Portsmouth is the whole city. I love it for what the club means to the people. It was also the first club I came to in England. I feel a bond with them.  The job is always the same – to get the best out of the players.  It doesn’t matter where you are or if the quality of the players is different. The job of any manager is to get the best out of what he has.  I see similarities between Portsmouth and Chelsea.  When I took over from Jose Mourinho, I don’t think anyone expected us to finish the season as we did, one penalty kick away from lifting the European Cup and runners-up to United in the league.  It’s the same here. Nobody expects us to climb out of trouble and survive, and it is my intention to again prove people wrong.”

SQUAD NEWS

Jose Bosingwa (knee) and Michael Essien (hamstring) remain out although Alex and Kalou are both available after recovering from injury. Ricardo Carvalho is set to be rested, Daniel Sturridge remains doubtful and Didier Drogba, who hurt his back in training on Tuesday, will have a late fitness test ahead of the game.

For Portsmouth, Ward (groin) misses out through injury, whilst Kaboul sits the game out through suspension. Diop (hamstring) faces a late fitness test although both Boateng and Finnan could both return.

TEAMS

CHELSEA (from): Cech, Hilario, Turnbull, Ivanovic, Belletti, Alex, Terry, A Cole, Lampard, Ballack, Obi, Malouda, J Cole, Zhirkov, Drogba, Anelka, Kalou, Kakuta, Bruma, Borini

PORTSMOUTH (from): James, Begovic, Mokoena, Mullins, Kanu, Belhadj, Vanden Borre, Piquionne, Ben-Haim, Yebda, Dindane, Brown, Wilson, Hreidarsson, O’Hara, Smith, Boateng, Diop, Finnan

LAST MEETING

Portsmouth 0-1 Chelsea (3 March 2009)

PREDICTION

How do you even predict our games lately? Obviously, given our unbeaten record of 19 in the league at home and Pompey’s 11 points from 16 games so far this season, you’d assume this one was a no-brainer – but we’re not exactly predictable right now are we?

REFEREE

Mark Clattenburg

Filed under: Match Day, Preview