· Brian Judson's Preview
· Read my item submitted to CFC Net.
· A view from Chelsea.
· Last Year's Game - 1-1
· This week - last year
· What happened in the Premiership in Match 5 2001-2

Chelsea

Chelsea     1  1   Fulham
West Ham    1  0   Chelsea
Chelsea     2  1   Liverpool
Liverpool   1  2   Chelsea
Chelsea     2  1   Leicester
Chelsea     2  2   Blackburn

Spurs

M'brough    5  1   Spurs
Spurs       0  4   Blackburn
Birmingham  1  0   Spurs
Spurs       2  1   Leeds
Liverpool   0  0   Spurs
Spurs       0  3   Fulham

Pos           P  W  D  L  F-A  GD  Pts
 5 Chelsea    3  2  1  0  6-4   2   7 
15 Spurs      4  1  1  2  2-5  -3   4

Let's start with a positive! Spurs did not lose to Chelsea last season! They got a 0-0 draw at White Hart Lane, thanks to fantastic keeping from Cudicini, who I rate as the best keeper in the Premiership. Did you know that Cudicini COULD opt for English nationality next summer, and therefore play for England? I think he must be knocking on the door for Italy though. In the corresponding fixture played in February this year, Spurs actually had Chelsea on the back foot in the first half-hour, taking the lead through a close-range Sheringham goal, before little Zola scored a marvellous free kick goal before half-time. Thereafter, Spurs had to defend quite desperately, but came away with the deserved point.

Should Spurs get a draw this week (not likely in my view), it would be only the tenth point in 23 Premiership games against this opposition. Surely Spurs have the worst current record in the league as far as such a bad sequence of results goes?

Despite Mr. Abramovich's newly bought all-stars, Chelsea do miss the art and craft of Zola, and have not exactly dominated their home games to date. Leicester frustrated the Blues for so long and Blackburn scored an early goal to shock the home fans, whose broad grins at all that expenditure must stretch all the way across West London. Now they have Mr Kenyon as Chief Executive too!

Mr. Ranieri might be feeling the pressure as much as Glenn Hoddle for different reasons. Claudio has the spectre of Sven Goran Eriksson breathing down his neck, whatever he achieves over the season, whilst Glenn Hoddle enters a crucial 4 or 5 weeks. After a fine performance at Anfield, the Fulham result brought us back to earth with a bang, and the Spurs start has to be described as poor.

Let's be realistic - we are unlikely to come away from Stamford Bridge with even a point. The following week we play Southampton, who are just one of an ever-growing army of teams with a grudge against us. Then we go to Man City, where Keegan's men are full of vitality. In between there is an important trip to Coventry, whilst Chelsea entertain themselves in the Champions League proper. What I am saying is that Glenn Hoddle will not be judged on a poor result this week, but after that, his head could be on the block very quickly.

Significantly, we played 4-4-2 in last season's fixture. Sadly, I expect Glenn to stick to 3-5-2. Maybe Stephane Dalmat will replace Simon Davies in the middle. Otherwise I would hope that the team is unchanged from the last game. Hopefully Darren Anderton will start on the bench and not on the park, because we need the energy and skills of Spurs' August player of the month - Rohan Ricketts. Hopefully also, Chelsea's returning International all-stars will be knackered from their travels round the globe this last week or so!

Prediction? Even in my heart I can't hope for better than 3-1 to Chelsea. It could be a lot worse.

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