Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho remains confident that he will still be in a job following tonight’s Champions League group match at Stamford Bridge knowing that the Blues just need one point to advance to the knockout stage of the competition.
Good news for Mourinho is that club captain and anchor man John Terry is available for selection following an ankle injury that saw him miss the clubs last two Premier League games against Tottenham and Bournemouth.
The 35-year-old skipper returned to training this week as did Brazilian midfielder Ramires putting them both in contention for tonight’s match, although Ramires may find himself on the substitutes bench.
Former Porto, Atletico, and Manchester United striker Radamel Falcao is however still unavailable due to an unspecified injury.
Thibaut Courtois is a certainty to star in goal behind a back four of Terry, Zouma, Azpilicueta and Ivanovic.
Defensive midfield duty will fall to Serbian international Nemanja Matic, while Mourinho hopes that Spanish international Cesc Fabregas can at last discover the form that helped Chelsea win last season’s Premier League.
Attacking midfield will be made up of Pedro, Hazard, and Brazilian work-horse Willian, who out of all of Chelsea’s players continues to impress what has otherwise been some poor performances.
We say this each week when talking about Eden Hazard asking the question what has happened to last season’s PFL player of the year all hoping that the little Belgium can turn on the style that we all know he is capable of.
Short of attacking options Mourinho must put on the back burner any complaints he has with Diego Costa and inspire the Brazilian born Spaniard to put in the kind of performance we saw from Cristiano Ronaldo and Karim Benzema during Real Madrid’s 8-0 humiliation of Malmo at the Santiago Bernabeu last night.
This is a big match for Jose Mourinho with the former Porto manager still believing that the best way for Chelsea to qualify for next seasons Champions League is to win it now rather than worry about a top four finish domestically and while a draw would be enough for Chelsea to advance it would almost certainly mean them meeting Spanish or German competition in their next match which is why we are betting Chelsea to beat Julen Lopetegui’s side on Wednesday night at what we think are advantageous odds of even money with Bet365.
