Chelsea to Battle Aston Villa Saturday

He must come. He must see. He must conquer.

That’s what is expected of Guus Hiddink and Chelsea on Saturday at the match against Aston Villa.

This weekend's 12:45 p.m. match is Hiddink's most important so far. Chelsea losing to Juventus over two legs or getting eliminated from the Cup competitions is not as bad as losing to Aston Villa at Villa Park.

Like we always say, for any premier league match, this is a must-win. To be very clear, this is the most important of all must-wins. A Chelsea win would put them third in the standings, one point ahead of Aston.

A loss means Arsenal gets even closer and threatens the Champions League spot; Arsenal plays Sunderland at the Emigrants in its next game.

Beyond these numbers, something has changed at Chelsea. The underperforming manager has been sacked. There is some widespread feeling that Chelsea’s top priority is the Champions League spot. Renowned magician Guus Hiddink, who’s known to be tough guy, has been brought on.

So, there is hope. Some serious hope. If we get another shot-less, heart-thumping draw followed by a "This is football" interview by Guus, many of us would completely lose any faith or hope. That’s why this is the biggest must of all must-wins.

A couple of weeks back, I was not looking forward to this match. It had a Chelsea defeat written all over it. A struggling Chelsea would play with no confidence or desire whatsoever. Aston Villa would play with determination, knowing that a win here would increase their Champions League chances vastly.

But now, with Hiddink’s appointment and Chelsea’s approach against Watford, I’m quite confident that we can beat Villa. As I said earlier, Hiddink can just list down Scolari’s blunders and ensure that he does not commit any of them frequently. That would be a big step forward.

Guus should do away with the 4-3-3, which is nothing but a 4-5-1 in disguise. The 4-5-1 is what congests our midfield, slows down our attack, and make us utterly predictable. If Guus wants to play 4-3-3, then that should be a genuine orthodox 4-3-3 with real wingers.

He can play Quaresma and Kalou on either sides or Quaresma and Anelka with Drogba as the striker. I was very impressed with Drogba’s work in the last match; he’s slowly getting back to his form.

He was injured, then he came back, played well, played like shite, got dropped, got out of touch, lacked match practice, played again, played OK, and so on and so forth. His performance in the last match showed that he can still be the match-winner as we know him.

Anelka is crying out loud that his partnership with Didier might have saved Scolari his job. Anelka and Didier have been very vocal about this. I’ve seen striker pairs not getting along with each other, having cold wars, playing selfish, and stuff like that. Here is a pair who wants to be paired, who want to play together on the pitch and also claim that they can be very successful. That’s half the job done.

They are confident and self-motivated. They have the required skill, talent, and fitness to perform the roles. What are we waiting for? I hope Guus takes notice of this situation.

Also, I feel Guus will have to shake up the team a bit. I won’t mind if Mancienne starts ahead of Bosingwa. Mancienne, for a youngster making his debut, played rather well, and now that his nerves have settled down he must be ready.

What does Bosingwa offer that Mancienne does not? Bosingwa, in attack, has long been castrated. He is no longer an attacking threat for the opponents. He’s one of the best-read right wing backs now. Defensively, of late, he looks like a disaster waiting to happen.

Why not Mancienne, then? Fergie plays Craig Evans even against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge and we can’t play a well-deserved Mancienne against Villa?

Didier Drogba has said this (from the Sun):

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"We all have to get that amazing feeling of invincibility back again. It’s something that summed up Chelsea. We would be in the dressing room and we knew before a game that we would win. Whatever happened, we just knew that. Call it pride or spirit. We felt well prepared and from that we were confident."

"

Fans are waiting to see those days back!

Aston Villa are on an unbeaten run of 13 matches. The result of this match is difficult to call. BBC calls it a 1-1. I say 2-1 Chelsea. Hiddink’s first official match in charge has gotta be something special. Players must play with some improved determination and hard work.

Some of the players have said that it is unfortunate that Scolari was sacked and that if they had played better, he would have kept his job. If they had meant it, Saturday would be a good time to step up and prove that.