Today our lads make their annual pilgrimage to the land of grim, ready for physical fight in the now common battle ground of Ewood Park.
Chelsea welcome back Alex from injury, with the Brazilian likely to partner Terry in the centre of defence, which will likely see Ivanovic moved to right back.
Neither Lampard nor Ramires are yet fit, with the former expected to return for the Liverpool match and the latter for the Moscow match midweek, which should mean our midfield will remain Essien, Mikel and Zhirkov. The in form Malouda is expected to start alongside Drogba and Anelka up front.
Our last visit to Blackburn saw us come home with only a point, and Ancelotti will be hoping for an improvement on that, and our away form in general, having only taken a point from our last two away matches.
John Terry spoke of the challenge we face today; “Every game is tough, I think we’ve had a tough start regardless of what other people have said. Last year we went away to West Ham and dropped two points, last year we went to Wigan and dropped three points and this time we’ve gone to those places and picked up really good wins.”
The captain added; “Obviously we’re disappointed to lose at Man City, I’ve always said you can go to the top sides and win or lose, but the importance of it is when you do play the smaller sides, you give them no time to play, get a couple of goals early and kick on. Hopefully we can take a lead, and this year we can build on it. We’d had a really good run up there for the last four or five years but last year we found it difficult.”
Under no illusions what sort of match we’d see, Terry said; “First and foremost though you know you’ll get a fight on their hands, they’re out to get three points and will fancy their chances at home against anybody, so we need to go there and make sure we fight with them.”
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