Chelsea V Bolton : Preview

Carlo Ancelotti has decided to name his starting 11 way ahead of the game tonight which is unusual and he has also taken the step of giving complete rest to John Terry, Petr Cech and Nicolas Anelka whereas Frank Lampard, Michael Essien and Didier Drogba will be on the bench. He said before tonight's game:

"If I have the possibility to give rest to all the players who also have to play in their national teams, it is better,' 'In this moment Terry and Anelka are in a very good condition and we want to maintain this condition.
They want to play every game but in the season, for them and for the team, it is better sometimes to rest. It depends on injuries but if we have a squad without injury, you can give the players some rest"
'This is the difference from 20 years ago when I played,'That was work, work, work, every day, every day - then fatigue! 'Now the system has changed because you have to work hard with intensity but also it is important to give the players rest to prevent injury. This is our way. We used this in Milan but also in Chelsea this has been the idea in the last few years. When I arrived here I found a very good situation about this.'

There again is a start for Joe Cole, Deco returns as Ballack keeps his place. Its a return to the starting eleven for forgotten man Paulo Ferriera and also Alex makes a start. Kalou comes back in up front and will start next to Daniel Sturridge.

You could say that its been a frustrating time for Sturridge since his arrival at the Bridge and we haven't really seen that much of him. But with Didier, Anelka and now Kalou scoring goals its a chance tonight to impress and a chance that he has to take to show all of us fans exactly what he can do. I know that there are some fans out there that aren't fans of Sturridge at all, but he is confident in his own ability, can use both feet and has pace to burn. So let's hope he shows what he can do tonight against a determined and organised Bolton side who will make it hard tonight.


The starting 11 tonight are:

Hilario
Ferreira
Belletti
Alex
Ivanovic
Ballack
Deco
Malouda
Joe Cole
Kalou
Sturridge

Subs: Turnbull, Bruma, Matic, Essien, Lampard, Borini and Drogba.

Its still a strong side we are putting out tonight. The midfield to me looks to have a nice balance. Its not certain if we will continue with the 4-diamond-2 formation or if it will be a flat 4-4-2. The key will be where Joe Cole starts the game as Deco is back in the side. For me Joe needs to play in the hole behind the front two. Ballack will play the holding role and its important that he gets on the ball and creates from there, Malouda will provide width on the left and as long as Kalou can stay onside we should have enough about us to create chances.

The strength in depth we have is second to none in the Premier League. If you think added to that not involved in the squad at all as mentioned before is JT and Anelka and added to that the injured players in Ashley Cole, Bosingwa and Zhirkov the future looks bright for Chelsea.

Bolton will come to the Bridge tonight with more or less their first team out tonight. In Kevin Davies, Alex and Ivanovic will have their hands full. Bolton always seem to give us a game at the Bridge and let's hope we can buck the trend. We need to keep an eye on Taylor aswell as he seems to get on the scoresheet alot from midfield.

As long as we get on the ball and pop it about and keep it away from Davies up front we should be fine. With 9 goals and two clean sheets in the last two games let's hope we bring our form into tonights game and make it through to the quarter finals!.

Come on the Chels!