Right, just to distract myself a bit from Saturday, with Roy Hodgson announcing his England squad yesterday for the 2012 European Championship, I thought I’d take a look at the Chelsea contingent and what their inclusion in the squad might mean.

The obvious talking point initially was the selection of John Terry – clearly at the expense of Rio Ferdinand.  Whatever may be going on privately, according to Guardian.co.uk Roy says this is a  footballing decision so clearly he believes JT is the better option on those grounds.  Yes, Rio has had a good season but aside from possibly 2 games, so has John Terry, what’s more JT has performed consistently – without being plagued by injuries – for years. He’s also more likely to withstand the tournament than Rio and for anyone who wants to argue that, Fergie said himself he didn’t think Rio could cope with a game every few days across the Euros.

Of course, with John Terry though, it’s always about more than just the football, it’s about presence. Whether for Chelsea or England, armband or not, he’s a leader on the pitch – I know there’s plenty out there who’d dispute that but that’s more to do with his personality than his character, and for me, that doesn’t warrant an England manager cutting his nose off to spite his face. So, what we can expect from JT in this tournament, is what we can expect from him in every tournament, he’ll give absolutely everything he’s got and he’ll be pushing everyone around him to give exactly the same.

Of course, another reason John Terry may have been the preferred centre-back could have been to do with the inclusion of Gary Cahill. They’ve started to develop a good understanding at Chelsea and the much more mobile Cahill’s style suits John Terry’s game. If we ever needed evidence of what this partnership is capable of, we don’t need to look any further than the first leg against Barcelona in this season’s Champions League and as long as Terry doesn’t rough anyone up, we should have a formidable pairing for England.

England’s defence being dominated by Chelsea, of course, it stands to reason Ashley Cole has been selected to take up his left-back position. That one was a no-brainer anyway. He consistently performs for his country, and his recent form against the ‘best team in the world’ could easily see him walk into Barcelona’s back four, nevermind England’s.

Probably the bigger surprise for me was Frank Lampard. Not because there’s anything wrong with having him in the England side because there’s not. For all the slating he takes – and if I’m honest, he isn’t the same Frank Lampard for England as he is for Chelsea (largely due to what he has to play with) – he’s always as committed as they come. Who else would take the sort of barracking he does and still feel proud every time he pulls on the shirt to represent them? No, the surprise for me was him being picked when Steven Gerrard is captain. I mean, what’s the point? It’s not as if we haven’t seen what happens when they share a pitch and since Gerrard is captain, you’d assume he’ll be getting a game, so it’ll be interesting to see Roy’s plans for Frank in the set-up really.

Finally, the ‘standby’ Daniel Sturridge.  It’s a shame really because he showed so much promise earlier in the season but has been a source of frustration of late – something Hodgson obviously paid attention to before shoving him in the queue marked ‘back-up’. I guess we’ll wait and see what happens, maybe Carroll will come a cropper with a hairdryer and he’ll sneak in?

Whatever happens, the Chelsea contingent – and England – will have my support even if they have no-one else’s.

Right, you all know the new kit has been released now – and a cracking one it is again too – but did you know that with every shirt you buy, you get to enter the ‘Ultimate Chelsea Experience’ competition with prizes including:

• Watch the first team training at Cobham
• Training session with the Chelsea coaching staff
• Sit on the bench at a home game
• 5 vs 5 tournament at Stamford Bridge – field a team
• Lead the team onto the pitch at Stamford Bridge

Didn’t know that? Well now you do, so there’s even more reason to go and get yourself the new shirt.

On the final day of the Premier League season, Roberto Di Matteo told us the fight for David Luiz and Gary Cahill to be ready for our Champions League final would probably go right up until Saturday. Well, the good news is they both trained today.

I fact, not only did they both train, but they both looked pretty up for it in spite of being out for nearly a month with hamstring injuries. Di Matteo suggests he’s been trying out other options ‘just in case’ but fingers crossed, it looks as if they may be ok.

News on Malouda mmeanwhile is that he’ll be ‘touch and go’, with Di Matteo saying “Flo, we’ll still assess and it’s going to be touch and go for him to be available for Saturday.”

Like a lot of you, I’ve tried pretty hard to push our last Champions League final aside and concentrate on the here and now – but it’s imposible. It has its relevance, whether it’s because we still have some of the key players who played a significant role that night at the Luzhniki Stadium or whether it’s the emotional connection to that night, it’s all relevant. That night still haunts us. The players, the supporters, the club as a whole.

So, this Saturday night, whether we’re lucky enough to have Champions League final tickets or not, when the players step out onto the pitch at the Allianz Arena, we’ll have to hope it’s our time.

But what might be different this time? Well, a large part of the line-up for a start. In spite of the general consensus being that we still have more or less the same players, that won’t really be the case. Players like Ricardo Carvalho, Claude Makelele, Joe Cole and Michael Ballack aren’t around anymore and if I’m honest, even as I wrote that, it unnerved me. I mean, these were big players for us, less so Joe Cole but Ricky at the back formed such a tremendous defensive partnership with JT – and we don’t even have him available this time. Makelele likewise, such a general in midfield and one we’ve never been able to truly replace and as for Michael Ballack, you just don’t replace solid, experienced midfielders like him that easily either.

The other thing we had going for us then was our incredible fighting spirit. Yes, it was borne out of a sense of injustice to an extent, The Special One had instilled that ‘Chelsea against the world’ mentality and having gone and left us, there was a lot of anger left behind. The press were on our case, we were clearly the underdogs again but that only served to help us retain that ethos of never knowing when we were beat. So, add that to what was a pretty decent looking squad and it’s not so surprising we took that game to the very last kick of the ball.

Was it really as straightforward as that though? Of course not, because football never is. Yes, we had Carvalho and John Terry in defence and to be fair, penalty slip aside, John Terry was an absolute rock for us – as he always is in this sort of game – and we’ll miss his leadership sorely on Saturday, no question. Carvalho though, had a dodgy game by his standards and I’m sure United supporters would suggest he was lucky to have stayed on the pitch once he’d showed his studs to Ronaldo’s left leg. What we hope to have on Saturday, is David Luiz and Gary Cahill – and even if that’s what we get, we know they’ve both been out injured for weeks ahead of the game. Having said that, Di Matteo is quite right to remind us it’s weeks they’ve missed rather than months and they’ve both shown us, with progressive improvement this season, they’re more than capable of doing the job.

At left back we still have Ashley Cole, who had a fair game against Hargreaves in Moscow and whilst there have been plenty of times where his form has been called into question, if you look at our biggest Champions League games this season, particularly the two legs against Barcelona, his performances have been outstanding. I guess our area of concern will always be at right-back though with Jose Bosingwa because we just don’t know what we’ll get and this season in particular, he seems to have gone from the ridiculous to the sublime and whilst the sublime was against Barcelona, its notable he seemed to go up a notch once he’d moved from right-back to the centre of defence. And just to alleviate any residual concerns, we should remember that in 2008, our makehift right-back in Michael Essien had Cristiano Ronaldo to contend with.

In front of that defence then, in 2008 our midfield general in Claude Makelele was another one who struggled a bit. To be fair, he was coming towards the end of his reign for us in the position they named after him and his usual composure gave way to involvement in a few niggles. Together with the Champions League experience of Essien, this Saturday, with Meireles suspended, Di Matteo may opt for Mikel, who more than adequately covers that position with an increasingly strong phyical presence, and of course Lampard. Frank Lampard is another player who makes it back for a second Champions League final, this time as our captain for the night and we shouldn’t have any worries about getting a performance out of him on a stage like this.

Looking across our midfield, the one we really miss from Moscow is Michael Ballack, we just haven’t replaced him in this side. Always a threat either on his own, or supporting Drogba and such a strong, physical presence, a real boss in the centre of the park. Mind you, from the right and left on that night, it was Joe Cole and Florent Malouda and to be fair, both of them struggled to make much of an impact against United. Whilst Malouda shied away from the physicality, Cole had plenty of committent but very little in the way of penetration.

So what have we got in comparison this time? Well, again it depends how Di Matteo chooses to set his side out really. Ramires will be a massive miss for us, Florent Malouda tweaked a hamstring on the final day and we’ve yet to see whether he’s recovered or not, although alongside our defensive strength in midfield set out with Mikel’s presence together with Essien and Lampard, creatively we have Juan Mata – and he’s the sort of player we didn’t have in 2008. If you like, Mata is our bonus ball for this game and could be the player to unsettle Bayern. We also have either Daniel Sturridge or Fernando Torres, and whilst both have their critics, at times this season, they’ve both shown sides this game will be crying out for. My preference would be Torres, given his desire to play in this competition, and that goal against Barcelona (along with the QPR hattrick) was a timely reminder of exactly what he’s got in his locker.

You might have spotted by now there’s two players from that game in 2008 I’ve missed out, two players key, both in attack and defence – and that’s because for me, they’re the make or break players on Saturday – Didier Drogba and Petr Cech. Both given the tag as our most important players at one time or another and at opposite ends of the field, both more than capable of filling the leadership void created in John Terry’s absence.

Whilst Petr Cech, in 2008 had come into the game having been plagued for a while by injuries, he undoubtedly kept us in the game and put in his usual, solid performance. Didier Drogba, on the other hand, wasn’t entirely at his best and the sending off just about summed up his mood on the night. This season, Cech has re-established himself as one of the very best in the business, never more so than against Barcelona with his outstanding form against the very best in the world.

Didier Drogba meanwhile, was an absolute rock against Barcelona over the two legs. What’s more, he’s clearly up for this game. Whilst 2008 saw him sulking in the wake of Mourinho’s departure, AVB’s exit seems to have lifted his spirits and his game. Obviously he’ll feel this is a second chance, not just for Chelsea but for him as well – and if it is to be his last game for us, Didier Drogba would like nothing more than to go out in style.

Looking at Chelsea’s morale now in comparion to 2008, yes we had a fighting spirit about us then and we still had the belief in ourselves, so vigorously instilled by Mourinho – but we had Avram Grant on the touchline. This time, it’s Roberto Di Matteo, another manager with his job on the line although not one who appears to be letting that bother him too much.  Di Matteo is all about the game in hand, the here and now – there’s no agenda – and the players have responded incredibly well to him.  Where we looked punch drunk under AVB, under Di Matteo the players have that refusal to be beat about them again – whatever it takes. And all we need them to do now, is get back in the ring for one more round.

Of course, the other thing I’ve neglected to mention is that whilst back in 2008 we were up against Tevez, Rooney and Ronaldo, this time out it’s Ribery, Robben, Schweinsteiger and Gomez. So, erm….bring it on eh?

By the way, if you’re still trying to get your hands on tickets for the final, you could try having a look at Ticketbis , an online tickets exchange that specializes in helping football fans buy and sell tickets online.Worth a shot.

Football eh?

I don’t know how many times I saw just those 2 words tweeted yesterday, even said them myself when the sheer enormity of what had transpired over a 3 minute period actually sunk in.  “It’s a funny old game” they say – although I doubt there were many United fans thinking that last night to be honest.  Not that I was laughing either.

Maybe I should have been, I certainly have enough reason to want to see them  hurt but in a bizarre way, one of my reasons for hating them so much was the very reason I couldn’t find it within myself to celebrate their suffering yesterday.  You see yesterday, their ‘City’ was my ‘Moscow’ – and as we get ever closer to another Champions League final, the memories of the pain I felt that night are hanging around again like an unwelcome aunt who won’t take the hint.

I’m sure they’d tell me it’s not the same thing, City are their direct rivals, their desperately despised and for so long, derided neighbours, but for me, those moments of pleasure, heart-rending hope followed by heartbreaking pain, brought back memories of the gamet of emotions we’d gone through ourselves that night four years ago.

I remember going into the game with my usual pessimistic ‘we haven’t got a hope’ suit on – but that’s just my armour, standard wear for a game to save me getting too badly bruised.  And in the first half, our players could have done with suits like mine as well to be honest because they were having their arses soundly kicked.  Second half though, we remembered that fighting spirit of ours and through sheer determination alone took it to penalties.

Now, I never expect us to win on penalties,  and I genuinely mean never, but when Ronaldo missed, my subconscious must have been playing tricks on me because for the most fleeting of moments, I thought we might do it. Obviously all anyone else remembers is John Terry’s slip but I can barely remember that – I’ve watched no footage since, refuse to read anything from the time and flick quickly past any pictures, in fact, aside from one gutless and pretty bitter post, I buried that night where it couldn’t hurt me  – what I do remember though is the utter look of defeat in every part of Anelka’s being, from his face to his hunched posture, as he trudged over to the spot. And I remember the gut-wrenching hurt as that split second of hope was ripped out of me.

In spite of my many disappointments through my years of supporting Chelsea, relegations included, that was the first time I’d been reduced to tears. And after I’d consoled both my heartbroken sons, telling them they should feel incredibly proud through the pain that will keep Chelsea at their very core, I cried some more.  It was more painful than any other defeat I could remember – and not something I ever want to feel again, well not Saturday night anyway!

Of course, any arsehole reds who want to take a pop at me are fair game, I’d happily rub their sorry noses in it and take pleasure in their pain but for the rest, friends, family (yes, even I have some in the family by default!), they’ll get no grief from me because this ‘funny old game’ has a habit of reminding us just how thin that line is between success and failure, pleasure and pain – and to be perfectly honest, with the potential for disappointment always just a game away and our biggest game of the season just round the corner – I’m giving no fucker any more ammunition than they need.

Munich here we come!

Cheers to @badgerwolf for the inspiration

So, that’s the Premier League over for another season – and a pretty forgettable one it was for us too. Still, we managed to finish it off with a win, so here’s what’s being said about our final day:

There’s a straight forward report from cfcuk.net

Video highlights from Football Talk

The Official CFC site looks forward with RDM after the last Premier League game

TeamTalk bring us Buck’s view of our sixth place finish

And Goal.com give us their player ratings