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Blackburn vs CHELSEA: Preview

Venue: Ewood Park

Date: Saturday, 30 October

Kick-off: 1500 BST

This afternoon sees us travel to Ewood Park to take on a Blackburn side in 17th position, however, whilst they seem to be averaging less than a goal a game in comparison to our free-scoring form, Blackburn aren’t easy to beat at home and with us not winning in our last two away, Carlo Ancelotti is right to insist his players can’t take their foot off the pedal today if we’re going to keep p***ing off our rivals.

MANAGERS’ VIEWS

Ahead of the game, Sam Allardyce reminds us his side won’t rollover for us, stating “We managed a very creditable draw last year, I thought we were outstanding here last year to go 1-0 down against them and come back to a very very good 1-1 draw. Something that we deserved as well. So on our day we can give everybody a game at Ewood and get a result. It is obviously the result that I want more than anything. They are the biggest challenge at the moment, they are top of the league and they’ve had a fantastic start to the season.”

Carlo Ancelotti meanwhile, is clear what his players need to do to avoid a repeat of last year’s lapse, stating “We have started the season well but I think we can play better because we played very well in some parts of some games but not continuously. We have to play 90 minutes how we want to play. We have to improve our play and our intensity. We can’t just play for 45 minutes like we did against Wolves. We want to play well for the whole of the match and we haven’t been able to do that so far this season. I think now we are five points clear, and it’s important to maintain this gap. Man City, Man United and Arsenal are interested in our results and they would like that we lose some points against Blackburn. This is normal and I think for this reason it’s an important game – if we are able to win this game we can improve our confidence and give disappointment to the other teams.”

SQUAD NEWS

For Blackburn, Andrews, Grella (both groin) and Nzonzi (hamstring) miss out. Samba (suspension) and Nelsen (thigh) should both make a return and Jason Roberts is also back in full training.

For Chelsea, Lampard (groin), Benayoun (Achilles) and Ramires (ankle) are sidelined but Alex makes a return from his recent thigh injury.

TEAMS

BLACKBURN (from): Robinson, Nelsen, Samba, Salgado, Jones, Givet, Olsson, Pedersen, Dunn, Emerton, EH Diouf, MB Diouf, Kalinic, Benjani, Roberts, Chimbonda, Hoilett, Linganzi.

CHELSEA (from): Cech, Turnbull, Ivanovic, Bosingwa, Ferreira, Cole, Terry, Zhirkov, Essien, Mikel, McEachran, Kakuta, Malouda, Anelka, Drogba, Kalou, Bruma, Mellis, Borini, Van Aanholt, Sturridge.

LAST SEASON

Blackburn 1-1 Chelsea (March 21st 2010)

REFEREE

Peter Walton

PREDICTION

Blackburn have won just one of their last eight league games but then no other club in the Premier League has had fewer shots from open play, with just 41 from them compared to our 96. Add to that the fact that we’re unbeaten in our last eight games against Blackburn, conceding just one goal (if you ignore the fact we lost on penalties at Ewood Park in the Carling Cup last season) and you might assume the points are in the bag. But then remembering they came back from a goal down to get a draw against us here last season and we’ve failed to score in our last two away in the league this season, and getting three points doesn’t quite sound so straightforward.

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