Finally it’s here, after a disappointing World Cup and a poor pre-season, we are now back to the main course of the countries top domestic competition.
Chelsea kick off the defence of their title with a late afternoon kick off at Stamford Bridge, hosting former crowd favourite Roberto Di Matteo’s West Brom, in what we’d normally assume to be a formality.
However with our form erratic thus far, and Carlo admitting our players are not yet 100%, nothing can be taken for granted and we must take this game very seriously if we’re to come away with anything.
Carlo spoke yesterday stating; “‘We know that not all the players are 100 percent but we are ready to defend the title, we have fantastic motivation to try to win again and I said last year that we had the possibility to open a cycle and we want to.”
Sadly, key player Frank Lampard is a doubt for the match due to an ankle injury, however Petr Cech and Alex have both been passed fit to return to the side which could see Ivanovic moved to right back in order for the Brazilian to play centrally with JT.
With new signing Ramires unavailable for the match, the line up is largely expected to be that which played against Manchester United in the community shield last weekend, but with Drogba starting up front.
With Chelsea now the team to beat, this season my prove tougher than the last, and Ancelotti has no doubts that we need to get off to a good start; “The start of the season every game is not easy because you don’t know very well the condition of the opponent because they have not played a lot of games, and also we have to pay attention, because maybe when you start the season you are excited and a little bit nervous. It is important to control our emotion” said Ancelotti.
He added; “Last year we had a lot of difficulties and won in the last minute. It is important to start well, one of the reasons last year for our victory was our good start, we won our first games, and for this reason we won the title – we want to do the same this year.”
Let’s hope that today’s match is the first step in doing just that.
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