Aston Villa vs Chelsea | 17-Oct-09 @ 12:45 UK

My Vaio is back! May be it didn’t like my thoughts around a macbook. This was my first crash ever in my last 15 years of owning a PC/laptop. In the process of recovery, I’ve lost all my data which included a folder called ‘blog stuff’ where I had stored all the data, text, images, themes, templates, bookmarks related to BlueChampions since its inception. I don’t how that loss would affect this blog.

Hopefully, it would not. Okay then, let’s get on with the game this weekend.

Chelsea at Villa Park—never a comfortable game. In the last few seasons, Aston Villa have been a bogey team for us especially as Villa Park. It’s going to be a difficult match this time too. Same old story of Chelsea internationals being away on national duty while the Villans were resting for a fortnight and gearing up for this match.

Expect a tired bunch of Chelsea players playing with no purpose in the first half and conceding a cheap goal from a set piece and then picking up tempo in the second half to come back and win. It’s a routine, isn’t it?

Villa have been strong at home with a four wins and a draw in the last five matches. Their defence has been top class this season so far. All points to a very tough match. Tone down your expectations.

As long as we get the three points, we can just move on. Care less about how we play today. One good thing about this post-international-break match is, we are not playing a team that might park the bus. We play a team that plays ball. Villa can play an open and attacking game which could just turn out to be beneficial for us.

No Mikel. No Bosingwa. No Ballack. No Ballack because Zhirkov hacked him down in Russia vs Germany. Heck, we create injuries for ourselves!

Good news is Petr Cech is back from his suspension. When he was away, we beat Liverpool 2-0 which goes to show our strength. In terms of Villa team news all I hope for is that Heskey plays and plays in his England form.

Marko Lawrenson at BBC predicts a 1-1 draw. Not a worry because he just doesn’t get them right. I hope he’s not paid in proportion to the correct results that he calls. He does talk about the effect of internationals on the Chelsea team, but strangely he doesn’t bring it up for Sunbears or Tangos or for the ladies from North London.

But then, Chelsea might have more number of internationals in their squad than probably any other team in England. I predict Villa 1-2 Chelsea. If you notice, I don’t predict clean sheets anymore for Chelsea. But I’m very sure we’d win.

In other news, Salomon Kalou has signed a new deal with Chelsea. I know the house is always divided when it comes to Kalou. Given all this transfer ban drama, it helps to tie up any decent player with the club.

At least, we won’t debate if he is a ‘decent’ player or not. He has been playing in the premier league for the last three seasons and he has records to show that he can score goals and make them too.

He’s been played in positions unnatural to him but his returns have been pretty decent. On the pitch, when you’re watching him live, he can be very frustrating though. He is very Arsenal-ish, if you know what I mean. Poor decision making, that’s all I meant.

Alex has signed up as well which makes sense.

Carvalho does not seem to be a long bet. I think he’d be off to Serie A next season. Alex is not exactly a Carvalho but I’m happy to have him if Riccy is leaving. Alex is a superb squad player but his lack of acceleration and agility means he could really tested by the pacy forwards.

As I said earlier, we should tie up all our players without hesitation. I know Chelsea are contesting the FIFA ban but I don’t think it would go completely. We might only see the ban relaxed a bit. It’s too big a decision for FIFA to make in favour of the club that is the sum total of all things evil in football.

By the way, keep an eye on the fantasy league. Rooney and Liverpool (I mean Gerrard and Torres) are injured out. Make your transfers. If you need any motivation, I’m No. 92 in the 225 players in the BlueChampions league.

Important update: Football gaming is taking over my life. After a couple of weeks with FIFA 10, I’m eagerly waiting for PES 2010. All I expected from FIFA 10 was to hold my interest until PES 2010 is out, which it has achieved.

I’ve pre-ordered PES 2010 and I must get it a day before the release date, if all my stars are in the right place at the right time. More on FIFA 10, PES 2010 and more importantly FIFA 1o vs PES 2010 later.

The Blues have moved up in the FIFA rankings by 11 places to No. 138. If you hadn’t known, Team India (oh yeah, we have a football team) plays in blue colours. It’s not really a Chelsea blue, it’s more of Fiorentina kind but a blue nevertheless. So, we’re No. 138. World cup, here we come (WC 2022, that is)!

On this positive note, to all the Indians out there, Happy Diwali!