West Ham vs. Chelsea | 20-Dec-09 @ 16:00 UK

Let’s start with the big news: Chelsea will play FC Internazionale in the first knockout round of the champions league.

FC Inter badly wants champions league success. Despite all their intra-league domination, they’ve been consistently underperforming in Europe.

Unfortunately for Jose Mourinho, in the first knockout round, he had to play Man Utd last season and Chelsea this season.

While Chelsea could be a bad draw for Inter, I don’t think getting past Inter would be such a difficult task. Chelsea have too much quality for Inter to progress.

But, as Samuel Eto'o has said, "a lot can happen in the next two months." Hopefully, Ancelotti will have his last laugh against Jose.

Milan vs. Man Utd is also a very good match up. No matter how they play in Serie A, Milan cannot be underestimated in champions leaugue. Arsene Wenger says that the tie with Porto could be tough. Oh yes, for you!

In other news, Hiddink seems set to continue with Russia. No technical directorship then. There are very strong rumours that Chelsea would sign Aguero and also that he has explicitly said that the wants to play for Chelsea.

I like Kun. I think he can be a great player at Chelsea but I don’t how and where he would fit in. We already have two strikers with whom we play a two-striker formation. I just don’t see this Kun rumour coming true unless we have other plans for Anelka.

Back to premier league. After a disappointing 3-3 draw against Everton, we did come back and managed to win 2-1 against Portsmouth in the mid-week. Around the hour mark of the last game, I was just thinking I have jinxed us with my post on December games.

Thankfully, Lampard put his Man City misery apart to slot the penalty. That win has eased the pressure a little bit. Luckily, we get to play the struggling West Ham at this stage.

Drogba would be back for this game. I think we could see Essien again only in February. Bosingwa is still out injured. Carvalho and Joe Cole are available for selection. As much as possible, I’d keep the Africans out of the playing 11.

While they can be on the bench to bail us out if needed, we should see how we fare with non-Africans. Essien is anyway out.

If Carlo does not use Mikel and Drogba, that would pretty much be the team that we will use during January. Oh well, I’m assuming here that we aren’t buying anyone in January.

West Ham’s three consecutive defeats have put them firmly in the drop zone. They badly need a good result. Zola says that they would continue to play attacking football despite their situation.

Also, since they are at home, they need to really put on a good show. Matches involving West Ham generally have plenty of goals in them. Maybe, from all those points of view, they are a very ideal opponent for Chelsea.

At this stage, it is the "11-men-behind-the-ball-all-we-need-is-a-draw?" kind of teams that would give me goosebumps. I’m happy that we’re playing West Ham.

There will be some good football on the pitch and when that happens, we have a greater chance of securing three points.

Here’s expecting a 2-0 win. Hope we don’t concede. Really hoping that we defend our set pieces better.

Lampard to score plus a Drogba brace. Arsenal, Liverpool, Man City, Man Utd and Tottenham to lose. Chelsea to win! Have a very good weekend, folks!