If You Know Your History

Why mention the above I hear you ask yourself. Well here goes. The year 2005. The date April 30th. The Club. Bolton Wanderers. The Venue. The Reebok Stadium. The history. A Chelsea win will see Chelsea win the Premiership title, fifty years after they won their one and only title way back in 1955. Ironic. Coincidence. Thats football for you. Two different centuries (twenty-two years apart) two different scenarios.

Bolton will not be easy. Bolton proved by coming back from 2-0 at The Bridge that they are a team with a 'different' style and with a manager in Sam Allardyce, who has a style of play and management that the opposition should not treat lightly. Although Jose was not impressed with Bolton and their style of play at The Bridge back in November 2004 Jose admitted that he wished that German International Centre Back Robert Huth was fit for that game.

Huth is now fit and has featured recently in an unfamiliar role of full back. I fully expect Huth to start against Bolton to counteract the strong ariel threat of Davies, who like Dickov at Blackburn is a complete and utter nuisance. Huth maybe one of many changes that Jose may make due to the fact that Chelsea have to play the second leg of the Champions League at Liverpool on Tuesday evening. The squad travelled to Bolton on Friday afternoon and do not return to London until after the Liverpool game.

Petr Cech knows that he is in for a tough four days as he said the following before the squad left for Bolton.

"We have a lot of possibilities to win the Premiership because we have got four games and Arsenal have four games and if they drop points it is finished. So we don’t have to think about pressure in tomorrow’s game. It is not the last game we have to win."

"Of course we want to kill the Premiership as quick as we can and this is the first opportunity," he added, mindfully that a single win is all that is needed.

"It is going to be good for our mentality if we can be concentrated just on the Liverpool semi-final. That will be better for us. We are fully focused for the game against Bolton."

Although not feeling stress in the overall title race, Cech is expecting to come under plenty of pressure himself during the 90 minutes at the Reebok Stadium.

"Bolton did very well against us the first game at Stamford Bridge and everybody knows they are a physical side. They have people who are very good in the air. They scored the first goal like that and the second goal they won a header in the 18 yard area and then scored from that.

"For me it is going to be a tough game and everybody is expecting me to help my defence because there are going to be a lot of long balls, a lot of crosses. They are going to try to win the game through set-plays and for me it is going to be important to do well. "It is always great if I can achieve some special things individually," he reckons, "but I have made two records when playing for Sparta Prague, the most clean sheets and the most minutes but I missed the league title.

"We missed by one point being the champions and it was one of the worst things in my career. This is my example. I am not looking for the individual achievements, I just want to win a title.

"In the end it is always the title with a team that counts in the career of a professional player.

"Because everybody at Chelsea has been waiting 50 years for the title and they are fantastic supporters, this club deserves to win the championship. We are happy that we can be involved in this possibility. For all the Chelsea players it would be the first title in England and it is going to be a great day if we do it. We need just one more step."

Bolton have no injury worries. Their only absentee is Ivan Campo who is suspended.

For those not travelling to Bolton, the game is being shown live on Sky Sports One and kicks off at 5.15pm and no doubt Stamford Bridge and the surrounding Kings Road and Fulham Road areas will be packed solid.