Chelsea Look for Eighth 'Double' of the Season


By BlueBlood
March 19 2005

Chelsea continue their quest for Premiership glory today when they entertain Crystal Palace at Stamford Bridge.

As well as hoping to increase their lead at the top of the Premiership, Chelsea hope to complete their eighth double of what is turning out to be an extremely exciting and successful season. When the two teams met at Selhurst Park back in August 2004, it seems an eternity ago, Chelsea won 2-0 with goals from the new signings Tiago and Drogba who scored from a header from a salmon like leap.

Crystal Palace's manager Iain Dowie was at Stamford Bridge on Tuesday night to see Chelsea beat WBA 1-0 and even he must have been concerned at the ease that Chelsea created numerous goalscoring chances and although he witnessed Drogba missing half a dozen of those, he must have had nightmares knowing that Drogba is unlikely to miss the same amount again so quickly afterwards. Drogba came in for quite a bit of stick from the press after his performance of Tuesday and although JM didn't attend the post match press conference, Steve Clarke, JMs able assistant firmly supported Drogba despite his misses and pointed out that he did at least score the winning goal.

All and sundry speculated that Arjen Robben was going to return on Tuesday night and all and sundry got it wrong. So the news that Robben has been picked for the Dutch squad for the forthcoming World Cup qualifiers, gives hope that Robben will make some sort of appearance today, more than likely being one of the substitutes.

I suspect that JM will make one change from the team that started against WBA, with Carvalho returning in place of Huth. So to the probable line-up:

Cech, Ferreira, Terry, Carvalho, Gallas, Makelele, Duff, Lampard, Cole, Gudjohnsen, Drogba

After today, the Premiership shuts down for two weeks, to make way for the World Cup qualifiers. England play N. Ireland and Azerbaijan.

Chelsea return to Premiership action on Saturday 2nd April with a trip to Harry and Jim's struggling Southampton and a reunion with Chelsea Old Boy, Graeme Le Saux. For TV coverage, the game kicks off at 5.15pm.

COME ON CHELSEA!!

 

Jose's Premiership Record 2004-05

v Man Utd (H) W1-0

v Birmingham City (A) W1-0

v Crystal Palace (A) W2-0

v Southampton (H) W2-1

v Aston Villa (A) D0-0

v Tottenham Hotspur (H) D0-0

v Middlesbrough (A) W1-0

v Liverpool (H) W1-0

v Man City (A) L0-1

v Blackburn Rovers (H) W4-0

v WBA (A) W4-1

v Everton (H) W1-0

v Fulham (A) W4-1

v Bolton Wanderers (H) D2-2

v Charlton Athletic (A) W4-1

v Newcastle United (H) W4-0

v Arsenal (A) D2-2

v Norwich City (H) W4-0

v Aston Villa (H) W1-0

v Portsmouth (A) W2-0

v Liverpool (A) W1-0

v Middlesbrough (H) W2-0

v Tottenham Hotspur (A) W2-0

v Portsmouth (H) W3-0

v Blackburn Rovers (A) W1-0

v Man City (H) D0-0

v Everton (A) W1-0

v Norwich City (A) W3-1

v WBA (H) W1-0

 

P29 W23 D5 L1 F54 A9 PTS 74