Chelsea Preview

As the site is born, Charlton sit 12th in the Barclays Premiership, with two games in hand on most clubs, and a trip to the home of the Champions looming large tomorrow.

Is it too much hope for that Charlton could beat Chelsea at Stamford Bridge twice in one season?
The answer to that question will partly depend on how new boy Marcus manages to gel with his namesake Darren.

I wasn’t surprised that Curbishley went back to sign Marcus after an unsuccessful attempt last summer, but I was a little surprised at the fee. When and if Marcus fulfils whatever clauses are attached to the transfer, he could end up costing us almost as much as Darren did.

Whether or not this is good business will become apparent over the coming months.

Personally I think that Marcus can do a job up front for us. He was Evertons top scorer last season in the Champions League qualifying campaign, and although he didn’t bag a huge amount of goals in terms of other Premiership top scorers, Evertons system of play was hardly conducive for strikers. Much more of a nick-one-and-defend strategy.
Now that he has a capable striking partner, hopefully he can settle back in his native London, and start delivering the goals.

That’s the long-term hope anyway, in the short term however, I’m more concerned about the goals we are conceding on our travels.

Our last clean sheet outside of SE7 was at Birmingham back in September, 9 away matches ago.
Although revenge is not an issue according to Eidur Gudjohnsen, I’m sure this will be one game in particular that Jose Mourinho will want to win, partly because of what happened in the League Cup, but even more so because Arsenal lost today, and either Man Utd or Liverpool are going to drop points at Old Trafford tomorrow.

Chelsea are not normally spectacular at Stamford Bridge, but they certainly are well drilled, professional, and able to win games they don't necessarily deserve to over the course of 90 minutes play.

Not a bad habit to have.

Cynic Athletic’s Prediction – 2-0 defeat (Lampard, Crespo)