Chelsea Preview

By Mark Heys
November 28 2006

Bolton hope to end the month of November in fine style as they welcome Premiership holders Chelsea to the Reebok Stadium tommorow evening.

A morale boosting win for the Wanderers against Arsenal last Saturday is the ideal preparation for a game of this calibre and Sam Allardyce will be hoping for more of the same when the Blues come to town.

It is nearly three years to the week since Bolton last recorded a win over Chelsea and over nine years since the clubs one and only victory against the Londoners at the Reebok so three points in the Trotters favour is long overdue.

For the last two seasons Jose Mourinho's side have come away from Lancashire with a 2-0 win, with both games effectively helping them seal back to back league titles.

The league campaign is still far from over this time around though and whilst Bolton where celebrating their weekend success much of the talk was down the road at Old Trafford where Chelsea managed to hold title rivals Manchester United to a 1-1 draw.

For tommorows contest Bolton manager Sam Allardyce has injury doubts over full backs Nicky Hunt and Quinton Fortune after both limped out of the last game against Arsenal so Ivan Campo and Tal Ben-Haim may once again be required to play out of position.

Jamaican wing back Ricardo Gardner is making steady progress in his bid to gain full fitness but fellow defender Joey O'Brien is still some weeks away from a first team return.

Visitors Chelsea are without goalkeeper Petr Cech who is out until well into the new year with a fractured skull so veteran Carlo Cudicini will once again continue in goal.

Midfielder Soloman Kalou has also had a knee ligament injury of late and is definately ruled out of contention for the trip to the North West. Michael Ballack, Ricardo Carvalho and Didier Drogba have all recovered from their recent injury concerns.

PREMIERSHIP RECORD

22/11/1995 CHELSEA 3 (Lee, Hall, Newton) BOLTON WANDERERS 2 (Curcic, Green)

08/04/1996 BOLTON WANDERERS 2 (McGinlay, Curcic) CHELSEA 1 (Spencer)

26/10/1997 BOLTON WANDERERS 1 (Holdsworth) CHELSEA 0

10/05/1998 CHELSEA 2 (Vialli, Morris) BOLTON WANDERERS 0

23/12/2001 CHELSEA 5 (Gudjohnsen, Hasselbaink, Zenden, Hendry (OG), Lampard) BOLTON WANDERERS 1 (Nolan)

12/01/2002 BOLTON WANDERERS 2 (Ricketts, Nolan) CHELSEA 2 (Gudjohnsen, Forssell)

23/11/2002 BOLTON WANDERERS 1 (Pedersen) CHELSEA 1 (Hasselbaink)

12/04/2003 CHELSEA 1 (C.Cole) BOLTON WANDERERS 0

13/12/2003 CHELSEA 1 (Crespo) BOLTON WANDERERS 2 (N'Gotty, Terry (OG)

13/03/2004 BOLTON WANDERERS 0 CHELSEA 2 (Terry, Duff)

20/11/2004 CHELSEA 2 (Duff, Tiago) BOLTON WANDERERS 2 (Davies, Jaidi)

30/04/2005 BOLTON WANDERERS 0 CHELSEA 2 (Lampard 2)

15/10/2005 CHELSEA 5 (Drogba 2, Lampard 2, Gudjohnsen) BOLTON WANDERERS 1 (Giannakopoulos)

15/04/2006 BOLTON WANDERERS 0 CHELSEA 2 (Terry, Lampard)

PREMIERSHIP FORM GUIDE:

Played: 14

Won: 3

Drawn: 3

Lost: 8

CONNECTIONS

Anthony Barness, Jack Bradley, Robert Fleck, Eidur Gudjohnsen, Gerry Peyton, Ian Porterfield, Emerson Thome, Danny Winter.

IT HAPPENED WHEN BOLTON PLAYED CHELSEA

Just over eighteen months ago two Frank Lampard goals gave Chelsea their first top flight title in half a century. Seven years previously the Blues had relegated a battling Bolton team at Stamford Bridge

Yugoslav midfielder Sasa Curcic scored two stunning goals for Bolton against the Blues in the 1995-96 season and both made Match of the Day's goal of the month competition.

The late Matthew Harding was tragically killed in a helicopter when coming back from Chelsea's Coca Cola Cup defeat at then Nationwide league Bolton in the autumn of 1996. Chelsea now have a stand named after their well liked former director

April 1983 saw a goal from the balding winger Clive Walker save the Blues from relegation against the Wanderers, but unfortunately for Bolton they eventually made the drop instead after a final day humiliation at Charlton Athletic.