Chelsea v Blackburn Preview

Chelsea will glad to be back on home turf as two recent away day defeats have allowed Manchester Utd to claim top spot in the table. They can turn that back around, for a day anyway, as Man Utd don’t play until Sunday. The Blues looked to have no hangover following the Wigan setback as they brushed aside Liverpool next time out at the Bridge. Next up was a trip to Villa Park and Chelsea were going the right way when Drogba opened the scoring for Chelsea after 15 minutes. The goal however only served to shake up Villa and they went on to score two of their own while managing to resist wave after wave of Chelsea pressure to secure a deserved three points. Didier Drogba returns after completing his Euro ban in the midweek 4-0 win at home to Athletico Madrid but Jose Bosingwa and Yuri Khirkov are definitely out, and John Mikel Obi and defender Alex will probably also miss out due to a lack of match fitness. It’s also likely that Chelsea will be missing Carlo Ancelotti on the touchline as he’s returned to Italy to be with his seriously ill father.

Blackburn come into this with two wins from three games where decent home wins against Aston Villa and most recently Burnley, sandwich a 6-2 disaster against Arsenal at the Emirates. Blackburn’s home form is definitely keeping them afloat this season as Rovers are yet to pick up a single point when on their travels. Their dismal away form stretches back further though, they lost their remaining five away games at the end of last season and you have to look back to March to find their last 3 points on the road. On loan Franco Di Santo, who was impressive against Burnley last week, is ineligible to play against his mother club. Di Santo's absence could mean a recall for Jason Roberts, but Pascal Chimbonda is unlikely to feature and Vince Grella also remains sidelined. Sam Allardyce has reported that a couple of his first team are showing symptoms of a virus so there could be a few more changes to last week’s side.

They may have suffered two surprise defeats lately but they were away from home. I can’t see the Blues having much trouble seeing off Blackburn back at the Bridge and I’d be surprised to see anything than a comfortable Chelsea victory.

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