With Chelsea unable to breakdown a resilient Blackburn last season - both games ending in goalless draws, tonight’s task will not be an easy one! Chelsea’s 41 previous visits to Ewood Park have only resulted in 8 victories.
Of course the Blues are keen to end this trend of drawing games that perhaps they should have won and William Gallas - as reported on Chelsea Mad earlier in the week- had spoken of his worries and frustrations with the team in blue.
“Basically, we feel just as if we were reliving last year's events,” he said.
“We always feel we're able to win, but we end every match in a draw. We can't figure out why.”
Despite Chelsea not losing a game this season and who are currently sitting 6th in the league, but with a record of 3 draws and 1 win from the first 4 games (albeit two of these points were taken from Arsenal and Manchester United) Gallas is still unhappy with his teams performance and inconsistency in recent games.
“We could have secured three points (against Arsenal) because we were 11 against 10 after Vieira had to leave the game in the 48th minute,” he said.
“We weren't able to really take advantage of that. We still haven't lost a single game but still, I just can't do with draws.”
However, despite William’s concerns, he has been keen to express his love for the club and the good understanding that he is building at the back with Chelsea captain Marcel Desailly.
Speaking on his website today he said, “This is the best thing that could ever happen to me, I really love playing with Chelsea.”
“Marcel Desailly and I are getting along, we communicate more now, it's going fine. Really fine.”
Contrary to reports John Terry will not be included in the squad that will face Blackburn this evening, so the partnership between Desailly and Gallas will again pick itself.
With Blackburn likely to be missing key players – Damian Duff is being ruled out after failing to recover from an injury sustained at the weekend – and the determination to succeed displayed by players such Gallas, Lampard and Zola, let’s hope tonight Chelsea finally overcome a fixture that proves to be one their toughest of the season.
stevefurlong@chelsea-mad.co.uk