Chelsea Vs Juventus: 25-Feb-09 @ 19:45 UK

Look how things have changed! When the draw was announced that Chelsea would play Juventus, the Italian giants were looking like the real deal in Serie A.

On the Chelsea side, Juventus was not the type of team we should have drawn given our form and confidence then. Today though, Ranieri has conceded the Serie A title to dear Jose, while Guus Hiddink has given a new belief for the Chelsea team and fans.

Morale is high on the Chelsea camp after the Aston Villa win. The win against Villa was the most important win of this season. Nicolas Anelka, my favorite bunny, scored his most important Chelsea goal. That was a great finish, the goal that won the match, it was a key match and resulted in a win that could turn the season for us.

Chelsea are on a high. Juventus are on a slide. But this is the champions league.

We have seen teams ending up more than 20 points below the league champions and still winning the champions league. That shows that the league form and the European form does not have an impact on each other.

But we cannot ignore the fact that Chelsea, having beaten Aston Villa for the third place, has notched up a very very important win that could really turn it around for them.

This is a confidence game. They had to beat Aston Villa, somehow. That’s what good managers do. They get the wins in important matches which keeps the morale and confidence high. If the morale and confidence are high, the quality of players would see them through in most of the matches.

Drogba played very well without scoring a goal. But his presence, his work rate, and his support for the team was fantastic. Looks like he’s finally interested to play for Chelsea after his short absence under Scolari.

I was mightily pleased that Guus started with both Drogba and Anelka. These are two entirely different types of players, who, if we use appropriately, can cause tremendous trouble to the opposition. I’ve talked enough about this. That’s exactly what Lampard feels too.

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Nico’s finish was sublime. He’s a huge weapon, and we saw Didier looking like the player we know he can be. But, with Nico [Anelka] coming in off the left side and floating in, he was dangerous. He can pick the ball up and hurt people, so all of a sudden we’ve (got) options. Credit to Nico, he’s proven himself to be a world-class goalscorer—and he is certainly showing that this season. We’ve certainly needed far too many chances to score goals, and against Villa it was a little bit the same. But if you work hard, play with the commitment and spirit we did, then you make your own luck and things will come for us. Against Villa, we got the goal and held on but, at other times, with the pace and dangers we have in our team, we’ll score more goals.

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The win over Villa has set us up for this game and given us the lift we need. With the way we played against Villa, it can only give us a boost, and for the fans. We need that against Juventus, especially in the home tie. It’s imperative we get the right result to take over there. So we need to start and play in the same vein as we did at Villa Park. We need to hold the ball, keep it off them and move it quickly because Italian teams can get men behind the ball and defensively they can be very frustrating. So if you take your time on the ball then we won’t be able to break them down but, if we move it quickly, then we can be a danger, as you saw against Villa.

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Yes, "suddenly" we’ve got options. My stance has always been that we have a good squad and it is up to the manager to make sure that he gets the best out of his players. I hope Guus can do that in the short period he is at the job.

I have absolutely no clue or idea of which team to play and which formation to play. I think it would be a 4-3-3 and all the key first teamers in. That should pretty much resemble the starting eleven against Aston Villa. Most probably, he’s gonna start with both Drogba and Anelka. Guus said this after the Villa match:

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If we have such powerful players I like to use them. They have to be aware in their quality they must do a little bit more. It’s also about a good fight and tactical defense in their position. When they are willing to do that there is no doubt in my mind they can play.

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Very strong remark I must say. He says he does have a problem with playing them. It is up to them to give that little bit extra and be tactically aware and alert so that they bring in lot more value.

Both Drogba and Anelka are guilty of this. Drogba I know used to be a skillful, clinical and powerful striker and when he doesn’t have the ball he used to be a relentless workhorse that tries to help the team in every possible way. Drogba has played well in the last two matches and hope that he continues that way.

Anelka, while he has proved that he is a fantastic finisher, he does not seem to do anything more than those unbelievable finishes. He should work harder. When Anelka ends a match without a goal, it is almost like we played with 10 men. I know I’m being harsh I don’t know how else to put it. The only value that we get from Anelka is when he scores goals. It need not be that way.

Juve have an almost complete squad minus Zanetti. At the beginning of the Serie A season, I thought Juventus would be the favorites to win it. They have such a strong squad with enormous quality in every part of the pitch. They still have that formidable squad.

Amauri and Trezeguet as strikers and Del piero in the hole, can give you nightmares. Set pieces are always a danger against the Italian teams. With Juventus, who has some one like Del Piero, short free kicks are like penalties. Our new found defensive resolve will be put to test when we face Juventus tomorrow. In terms of the strength of the team that we have faced so far, I’d say that this would be the toughest opponent for us this season yet, even above Man Utd.

I saw that David Blaine has visited Stamford Bridge. I hope he’s left those magical boots for Drogba, Anelka, and Lampard. 1-0 for Chelsea. I don’t know what good that would be, but I think it’s a 1-0.

I end this with yet another inspirational, motivational speech from Super Frank Lampard:

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The attitude we showed in this game [Aston Villa], we need to show game-in and game-out. So this is only a start. There’s no way we can get carried away and say "we're back." We can’t relax and the manager won’t let us anyway. We will need more of a killing instinct if we are to win the Champions League or catch United. We have had a bad time here over the years, since I have been at the club anyway, but there was a feeling we would get the result we got. There was a little bit of the old Chelsea out there, that spirit, and the way we played. We looked a bit more like ourselves. You could see the commitment in the lads, that never say die attitude when Villa were throwing balls into the box. We also scored early and closed out the game, something we used to do regularly and it used to get on people’s nerves because we could get those 1-0 wins away from home. That’s something we’ve lost touch a little with this season. We’ve drawn too many games in a frustrating manner. We know we’ve not been performing to a standard we should have been of late and it’s up to us to put it right. We have to take the responsibility as players to improve and the change in manager has given everyone a boost.

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