Connect with us

Current Players

CHELSEA v QPR: Preview

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Venue: Stamford Bridge

Date: Wednesday, 2 January

Kick-off: 19.45 GMT

 

I don’t know whether I’m looking forward to this one or dreading it to be honest. Sounds mad I know, I mean it’s QPR so I should be well up for it – I guess going into any game feeling confident just unnerves me.

Why wouldn’t we be confident though? They’re utter pants and Liverpool didn’t totally floor them in their last game should be an indicator of Liverpool’s failings as much as anything. We, on the other hand, after a really poor start against Everton, came back to show the sort of character we’ve always been associated with.

So, on the face of it, this shouldn’t be too hard today. We thumped them in this fixture last season – in fact we got off to such a flier I hadn’t even got in the ground when the first one went in! But as bad as QPR are, I still think we need to come out with exactly that sort of mindset again if we want it to be quite that easy.

 

 

MANAGERS’ VIEWS

Going into tonight’s game, Harry puts a little pressure on his opposition number, saying “He has walked into a squad of players there who are Champions League winners – you’ve got a chance, haven’t you.  You’d have to be a real dope to mess it up with that group of players – (Eden) Hazard, (Juan) Mata, (Frank) Lampard.  He’s a clever guy. Even in the West Ham game that they lost, they could have been out of sight at half-time.”

Whilst on his own sorry side, he says “Since I’ve been here…I think they were all looking to blame each other for the horrendous start, but most have been fine and worked hard.  We now need to find that little bit of quality somehow that can make the difference to us.”

 

 

SQUAD NEWS

For Chelsea, Petr Cech misses out after coming off with an adductor problem against Everton, John Terry (knee) remains a major doubt, although Mikel (knee) may be available again after missing out at Goodison Park.

For QPR, Andrew Johnson (knee) and Bobby Zamora (hip) are absent, Park Ji-sung (knee) is back in training, but is still likely to miss out and Redknapp is playing silly buggers, refusing to name ‘3 or 4 players’ who picked up knocks at the weekend.

 

 

TEAMS

CHELSEA (from): Turnbull, Azpilicueta, Ferreira, Ivanovic, Luiz, Cahill, Cole, Bertrand, Lampard, Ramires, Mata, Oscar, Hazard, Moses, Marin, Piazon, Torres, Hilario.

QPR (from): Green, Cesar, Murphy, Cerny, Onuoha, Hill, Nelsen, Ferdinand, Mbia, Park, Fabio, Traore, Derry, Diakite, Granero, Taarabt, Hoilett, Faurlin, Wright-Phillips, Ephraim, Mackie, Cisse.

 

 

LAST SEASON

Chelsea 6-1 QPR (29th April 2012)

 

 

PREDICTION

QPR arrive without an away win in 23 league games over 13 months.  They’ve taken just three points from a possible 51 on their travels. They haven’t kept an away league clean sheet since November 27th 2011 and haven’t won a league game at the Bridge since 1983 – so if we don’t get 3 points today, we really need taking out the back for a good slap!

 

Categories

Archives

Blue is the colour

TheChelseaBlog.org is an honest insight to the World of Chelsea FC. Not always pretty, sometimes rather cynical, but always realistic.









Calendar

January 2013
M T W T F S S
« Dec   Feb »
 123456
78910111213
14151617181920
21222324252627
28293031  
Chelsea News



Chelsea Blog FaceBook Icon Chelsea Blog Twitter
Chelsea News

More in Current Players