Written by Lawrence Donaldson.
Two teams meet today that seem galaxies apart- Chelsea arguably one of the most glamorous teams in the premiership and Blackpool arguably the least. Chelsea’s Billionaires, special ones and recent success will have only the most optimistic of Blackpool fans taking the 25-1 odds on them getting three points. Yet this time last year Blackpool, 11th in the championship, 29 places below Chelsea who again led the premiership. Now they stand only too places below league leaders Chelsea. So why stop here!
Chelsea the premierships most dependable team of the year might be the team to halt this climb up the ladder of English football. Solidly winning all of their first four matches and scoring plenty of goals this will appear a text book day at the office for Chelsea. Last week against an energetic West Ham they barely had to break a sweat winning 3-1 and dispatching Zilna 4-1 with style in the Champion’s League on Wednesday. Having beaten West Brom and Wigan both 6-0 in a week, Chelsea shows how easily they can rip a team apart.
Didier Drogba (who will likely replace Daniel Sturrage) and Ashley Cole will be returning after missing Wednesdays champions league exploits, yet Frank Lampard will miss out, still recovering from a Hernia operation and Jose Bosingwa still a fortnight from return. Blackpool look unlikely to shuffle the team who were so energised and impressive against Newcastle last week- in fact eccentric and loveable boss Ian Holloway described the performance as “phantasmagorical”. Returning for the Sea-Siders is Alex Baptiste and possibly Gary Taylor- Fletcher, whilst Louis Almond and Billy Clarke remain sidelined. Alex Baptiste is available again, though, after shaking off a fractured hand and back-up keeper Paul Rachubka is over a knee injury.
Whilst Chelsea will look to build on their 21 victories in 23 home games at Stamford Bridge yet Holloway and his merry men have shown that expecting a hat-trick of 6-0 wins in September.
