Middlesbrough V Chelsea Preview: Depleted Blues Hope To Maintain Momentum

Chelsea return to league action after the October break for internationals and Alan McGuinness has all you need to know ahead of the Saturday fixture, rounded off as always with a prediction.

Initial Thoughts and Points of Interest

Chelsea return to league action with an early start against Gareth Southgate’s Middlesbrough. The Blues will be hoping they can keep up the good form they showed against Aston Villa a couple of weeks ago and go into their clash with Liverpool in winning form.

However, that might prove to be more difficult than first thought after a number of players picked up injuries on international duty (see team news below).

The Blues will also have to be wary of Middlesbrough, who have a good record against the Big Four - Chelsea lost 2-1 at the Riverside stadium at the start of the 2006/2007 season.

Team News

Middlesbrough: Egyptian striker Mido is doubtful, while Tuncay, Pogatetz and Huth are also absent.

Chelsea: In a boost for Chelsea, John Terry has shaken off the injury that kept him out of England’s victories over Kazakhstan and Belarus. However, Petr Cech is doubtful and Ashley Cole, Michael Essien, Ricardo Carvalho, Joe Cole, Michael Ballack and Didier Drogba are all out.

Middlesborough (from): Turnbull, Jones, Hoyte, Taylor, Grounds, Riggott, Wheater, J Johnson, Aliadiere, Emnes, Digard, O'Neil, Shawky, Walker, Downing, A Johnson, Mido, Alves.

Chelsea (from): Cudicini, Ferreira, Bridge, Mikel, Ivanovic, Terry, Lampard, Sinclair, Mancienne, Belletti, Anelka, Malouda, Stoch, Kalou, Alex, Deco, Bosingwa, Hilario, Taylor.

Recent Form

Middlesbrough: The Teesside club sit comfortably mid-table after 7 matches, and most recently snatched a last-gasp win over Wigan at the JJB Stadium, after suffering a similar scenario at home to West Brom the previous week.

Chelsea: The goals and the style of play are flowing well for the West Londoners, who have set the pace in the Premier League so far, and face Liverpool next week in a match that will have potentially huge ramifications in the title race. Any sort of slip up here could hand the advantage to the Reds.


Quotes

Luiz Felipe Scolari has spoken about his side’s injury problems ahead of their first visit to the North-East this season, and has revealed that Michael Ballack will be out of action for up to three weeks.

"I had 19 players for training [this morning], all those players are in good condition. John has recovered very well, and is in good condition,” said Scolari.

“Deco is not ready 100 per cent but is better than the last two weeks. He will travel with me and I will see tomorrow what happens in the game.

“Ballack is out for maybe two or three weeks. I am not angry, I am happy because what happened is a test for me that I am a good coach,” he added.

Meanwhile, Boro boss Southgate hopes his side can continue their recent good form against the Big Four. Southgate has seen his team beat Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester United at home in recent years.

“In the past, big matches we’ve won like this have given us a real impetus for the season,” he said in an interview with Setanta Sports News.

“We know it’s a huge task and we have to be at our very best and hope they’re a bit off colour.

"But that’s happened in the past at our stadium and that will be in their minds as much as ours.”

Defender Justin Hoyte knows that he will be in for a tough time tomorrow, but believes that the Teeside club can pull of a shock result against the league leaders.

“We'll probably have to do some similar defending against Chelsea and so we know that we have to prepare for another tough game.

“But I've been very impressed with the quality in the squad since I came here.

“We've definitely got top-10 defenders here. In fact it's not just the back four, it's the whole team.

“We're capable of shocking a few teams this season and it would be great to think we could get a result against Chelsea.”


Prediction

Despite a seemingly ever-growing injury list, I think Chelsea will continue their good run of form and head into next week’s massive match with Liverpool on the back of a comfortable win. 2-0 Chelsea is my call.

Let me know what you think about the game. Leave a comment below.