Its Brums against Chelsea

I have reiterated time and again in this blog that I would try to be more regular with my postings. But as I see with little or no comments that I don't exactly have a far reaching audience but still it would be nice to know if there are one or two odd people reading what you are writing.

However getting back to what I feel most passionately about. Chelsea !! right ...
We are going over to St. Andrew's to face the second best club in Birmingham (I am sorry Brum fans but that is the truth. Anyone of you who think you are bigger than Villa must be living in opium eater's paradise). The last time we visited Birmingham we were defeated 2-0 by Villa so I am hoping this time around it would be a better result for us.

How ironic is that the last time the two clubs met it was different managers at helm at both. Mourinho was leading us in hope of another league title while Steve Bruce had just brought Birmingham up and was hoping to keep them safe from relegation however things turned out differently. Jose left the club by mutual consent and Steve Bruce moved to Wigan due to contract issues. In came Avram Grant at Chelsea and Alex McLeish at Birmingham. I have been impressed by how McLeish has gone about with this job. He inherited a good side from Bruce and the players have given strong committed performances in the recent games against United and Arsenal. Two new men arrived at Birmingham in this transfer window with Murphy signing from Hibernian and McFadden leaving Everton.

It would be interesting to see how we are going to lineup for this game. There has been news in some quarters that Pizarro had some injury but nothing is officially confirmed. However with Anelka having a full week in training with the rest of squad I see no problem with him starting the game. He looked good when he came on as a sub last time around against Spurs. It seemed that he was here all along. Shevchenko is also expected to be fit for this match so we may probably see him making a return. Lampard is another doubt however if he returns it would be a tough decision for Grant to leave him on the bench or start him in place of another player. The kind of 4-2-3-1 formation employed by Grant in the last match looked pretty good with SWP enjoying himself in the middle so I am hoping for a similar sort of formation for this game.

I expect a tough game from the Brums however I see us nicking this by a goal or two. 0-2 for me.

Go Blues!!(Chelsea not B'gham)