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.
up chelsea 4eva
Admin, I think you should look for someone living in WAT to be updating on our time zone. The kick off time in Nigeria is between 17:30 to 18:30 not the 19:30 you wrote. That time is so very wrong, if you’re in Nigeria and you follow that time you will miss the whole of first and a greater part of the second. I have told you guys before that your UK time changed not ours!
e Bruyne leave the bridge before Jose ends your career prematurely.
With the way Jose is handling this squad, we are set to lose De Bruyne, Mata , Luiz and Courtois to other clubs, if his disposition doesn’t change.
He said it is a squad rotation but Cech, Terry, Cahill, Ivanovic, Cole, Lampard, Ramires, Hazard, Oscar are always so ever present. Leaving Azpi, Luiz, Bertrand, Mikel, Willian, Schurrle, Mata, De Bruyne on the brinks.Schwarzer Essien, Ba, Kalas Are not even in the team.
All these players are talented and should be used. Eto’o and Torres r used bcos Mou is still looking for A FALCAO to take their place. With this buying habit, Bertrand Traore, McEachran, Chalobah, Omeruo, Kalas, Ake, Bamford, Feruz, Piazon, Lukaku, Atsu, Aantholt, Wallace, Kane would never make the first team.
I can’t agree more. Well said.
Neri abayomi you have said plenty but said absolutely nothing..
And you clearly have no idea of what you are saying..
@Cruzz say sometin.
Cos u haven’t said much either.
Lampard for wat purpose leaving OBI out.
Starting XI: Schwarze, Ivanovic, Luiz, Terry, Cole, Ramires, mikel, Mata, schrulle, Hazard, Ba.
This a tough match.
the likes of lukaku can not be trusted as a striker in a more demanding team like chelsea.let him gain experience in thiz middle table teams.
@ okedi lukaku responded 2 ur baseles & biase critics,just as sturidge is doing as he is proving us wrong by scoring week in week out for liverpool.
Wow he needs to wake up
Lukaku would have to learn to score for a complex Chelsea play.
The best to have happened for both parties was for Sturridge to be traded. Bolton and Liverpool is not Chelsea fc.
As for Lukaku, too much talking isn’t the answer. Our immediate past strikers on loan Pizarro, Shevi etc did well on load but never did well for Chelsea fc. That being said we are keeping our fingers crossed, waiting for dear Lukaku to take his turn and prove it negative at the bridge not with his mouth and legs at Goodison park.
Lukaku is doing the talking with goals just like sturidge is doing for lpool.we must make our strikers 2 play without pressure.there is so much pressure on our strikers with litle or no support.if we put our confidence in lukaku when he comes back & play 2 his strength he will deliver goals.