Frsnco has started the season in breathtaking form, helping himself to eight league goals already. He is currently leading the pack in the goalscoring charts and I hope he'll be extending his lead with a couple more against Spurs tomorrow.
Spurs, like ourselves, have made a good start to the season and they appear to be playing their best football for years. But can they finally beat us in the league? In a word... no!
We are fnally living up to expectation and now is the chance to go on from that. If we win, we will go back up to third and that puts us in a Champions League place. That is where we must be at the end of the season.
Back to the game though, here is my team selection, and also why:
Cudicini in goal, safe hands as always. Mario Melchiot should play at right back, with Gallas, Desailly and Le Saux forming our best back four on current form and fitness. With no Zenden, Gronkjaer and Stanic, I would field a solid midfield of De Lucas, Lampard, Petit and Morris and I can see Ranieri doing exactly the same. Zola and Hasselbaink will start up front, unless Claudio has some sort of brainwave. They are both in-form and Jimmy also has a magnificent record against Spurs... He rarely fails to hit the net against them!
Alternatively, if Claudio is feeling adventurous, he may decide to play with three upfront, sacrificing one of the midfielders. Eidur and Franco could both drop back and help out in midfield when we are out of possesion... but I can't see him going with this, it's too big a game to experiment in.
The players should be in good confidence following last week's win at West Brom. Apart from a manic ten minute spell, we always looked in control and Jimmy took a magnificent goal, with Graeme Le Saux grabbing a deserved second. That was a game which, quite often in the past, we would have slipped up in and not taken a win. The players are finally realising that these games are just as important as playing against the likes of Man United and Arsenal.
Finally, I looked on in despair as Thursday saw the Uefa Cup second round ties begin. I made certain that I checked two results in the friday newspaper: Celta Vigo 3 Viking 0; Leeds 1 Hapoel Tel Aviv 0.
Typical Chelsea...