Andre Villas-Boas will decide whether Frank Lampard starts tonight after he surprisingly left on the bench against Swansea on Saturday.
Daniel Sturridge should be fit, and Ramires is back following his suspension but Romelu Lukaku is ineligible as he was not on the initial list and the trio of Alex, Paulo Ferreira and Josh McEachran did not go to Spain with the rest of the squad.
It will be a big match for Juan Mata, having performed so well for Chelsea this season he is likely to start against his old club. He has already stated that he will not celebrate if he scores against his old team.
After one game the Blues have the maximum points, Valencia is not an easy place to travel to, but a win would put AVB’s side well on their way to progressing.
The provisional squad for the game is:
Cech, Turnbull
Ivanovic, Bosingwa, Terry, Luiz, Cole, Bertrand,
Mikel, Romeu, Ramires, Lampard, Meireles, Mata, Malouda, Kalou
Torres, Drogba, Anelka, Sturridge.
Previous Meetings
In the past there have only been two sets of games between the two clubs, both came in 2007. In April 2007, Chelsea had a dramatic victory in Spain when Michael Essien popped up with an excellent 90thminute goal which gave the Blues a 2-1 win.
Six months later and Chelsea were in Spain again, and like the last visit they ran out 2-1 winners thanks to goals from Joe Cole and Didier Drogba,
Betting
The Blues are just favourites at 6/4, with the home team a generous 15/8 to win and a draw is 9/4.
Juan Mata is 7/2 to score at anytime or 9s to score first against his old club.
By Scott Balaam
Twitter @AStamBridgeTooFar
Leave a Comment
You must be logged in to post a comment.