Chelsea return to Premier League action this weekend after the last international break of the year with an away fixture against West Ham.
DATE & TIME: November 23, 2013 at 12:30 EST; November 23, 2013 at 17:30 GMT; November 23, 2013 at 18:30 WAT; November 23, 2013 at 19:30 CAT; November 23, 2013 at 20:30 EAT; November 23, 2013 at 23:00 IST.
VENUE: Upton Park, London, United Kingdom.
TV/STREAMING NEWS: The match will be telecast live on Fox Sports 1 in Australia, SuperSport3 Africa in African sub-continent, TSN2 & RDS2 in Canada, Al Jazeera Sport HD1/HD6 in Egypt, Canal+ Sport in France, Star Sports 4 in India, Fox Sports HD in Italy, J Sports 4 in Japan, C+ Liga de Campeones/HD in Spain, Al Jazeera Sport HD1/HD6 in UAE, Sky Sports 1 in UK and NBC in USA.
The match is also available online on Sky Go in UK and NBC Sports Live Extra in USA. Chelsea TV will have live audio of the game.
WEST HAM UNITED SQUAD NEWS: Sam Allardyce will be seriously compromised during team selection as West Ham have quite a few injuries in Andy Carroll, Winston Reid, Razvan Rat, Alou Diarra, Mladen Petric, and Matthew Taylor. Joey O’Brien and George McCartney are doubtful as well. James Tomkins and James Collinsface late fitness tests.
Predicted Starting XI: Jääskeläinen, McCartney, Collins, Tomkins, Demel, Noble, Collison, Downing, Morrison, Jarvis, Nolan.
CHELSEA FC SQUAD NEWS: Fernando Torres, who has failed to recover from his injury acquired before the international break, will join long-term absentee Marco van Ginkel on the sidelines. Ashley Cole has recovered from his rib problem & is fit to play.
Predicted Starting XI: Cech, Ivanovic, Luiz, Terry, Cole, Ramires, Lampard, Mata, Oscar, Hazard, Eto’o.
REFEREE: Chris Foy.
FORM INDEX: West Ham – LWLDDL ; Chelsea – DWWWLD
THOUGHTS FROM THE ENEMY: Big Sam knows the Hammers will have to play their best football if they have any chance of usurping Chelsea this Saturday.
“Anything less than top form for all of our players would make life difficult for us. We will have to produce the end product because chance creation will be harder.”
FUN TRIVIA:
- Chelsea play West Ham for the 100th time in all competitions this weekend.
- Chelsea are undefeated in 14 of their last 15 matches against West Ham in all competitions.
- West Ham have failed to win 9 of their last 10 matches in the Premier League.
- Only Southampton and Tottenham have conceded fewer goals than Chelsea’s 10 in 11 league outings.
- West Ham have won four points from a possible 15 at Upton Park this season, with the only home win coming against Cardiff City.
- Chelsea are unbeaten in 6 London derbies in Premier League this season, winning 4 of them.
IN A NUTSHELL: The Hammers are in a terrible run of form as they are separated from the relegation zone just on the basis of goal difference at the moment. However, this has proved to be a tricky fixture for the Blues over the last few seasons. The Chelsea players have to be at their absolute best & cannot afford to be complacent, in order to bring their title challenge on course after the disappointments of the last two games.
