It's a big day for Chelsea FC today. Roberto Di Matteo is in charge of Chelsea on matchday for the first time. A win and Chelsea have a quarterfinal home date with championship side Leichester City. A loss and our hope of silverware this season rests entirely on the Champions League. It's a chance to take the focus off of AVB, although win or lose today will likely end up being all about him anyway for the tabloids. We struggled to draw Birmingham at home, a convincing win would go an awfully long way in my book.
There's also a few games going on in Europe today. Arsenal host AC Milan in what will likely be their farewell to the 2011/12 Champions League. Zenit will travel to Benfica in what should be a massively entertaining affair. I'm sure all of our eyes will be focused on St. Andrews though, as it's likely to be a far more meaningful game than our North London rivals will be playing. The Lineups will be as follows:
Chelsea lineup: Cech, Ivanovic, Cahill, Luiz, Bertrand, Mikel, Ramires, Meireles, Kalou, Torres, Mata
Subs: Hilario, Terry, Essien, Lampard, Drogba, Lukaku, Sturridge
Birmingham lineup: Doyle, Spector, Davies, Ibanez, N'Daw; Redmond, Mutch, Gomis, Elliott; Rooney, Zigic
Subs: Myhill, Packwood, Valles, Reilly, Burke, Jervis, King
A simple request from myself will be out there for this one. Let's not try to micromanage every decision Di Matteo makes. Our previous manager seemingly lost his job for too much micromanagement...let's not do the same. It's his first game in charge, we won't be able to form any conclusions about his thinking or preferences after 1 match and only 2 days in charge. Relax, hopefully enjoy, file your observations away, but don't jump to conclusions. Keep it clean, no links to illegal streams, and have fun. Let's get back to winning ways.