Chelsea vs Wigan Athletic

Chelsea faces Wigan Athletic in a late kick off at Stamford Bridge, knowing that they must now win every remaining match and hope United slips somewhere. United tightened their grip on the trophy after they defeated Gunners at home on Sunday. Playing Wigan must be easy compared to what we have to do in a few days time, play Everton at Goodison Park. The Reds now have three away matches out of four and I believe there is still hope for an upset somewhere.

Coming to the Wigan match, which comes 72 hours before the kick-off at Goodison, the team selection for the match would be crucial. It would be interesting to see if any of the big guns are rested. Hilario will guard the net, and his record this season is something that will cheer up the fans. 6 matches, 6 wins. But I would still pray for the return of either Cech or Cudicini. The term 'third choice goalkeeper' doesn't sound good, no offense to the Portuguese goalkeeper.

There were suggestions that captain John Terry was unhappy with the performance of some of his team-mates during the 2-0 win over Fenerbahce in the Champions League on Tuesday. Terry was alleged to have spoken out about their lacklustre performances but Grant denied his captain was angry. Anyway the performance wasn't that convincing and the fans expect a far more better display against Wigan, who is now some distance away from the relegation doors.

Marlon King and Emile Heskey would try to destabilize the Chelsea defense, which looks strong with Terry almost back to his best and Carvalho, the best player for Chelsea this season I would say. Or will it be Marcus Bent upfront alongside Heskey? Anyway Steve Bruce would have noted the number of goals Chelsea are conceding from set-pieces these days, especially corners. Paul Scharner and party would certainly love to break Chelsea's unbeaten run in 2008, but I don't think that is likely to happen.

Guess at the team:
Hilario
Ferreira, Alex, Terry, A.Cole
Essien, Mikel, Ballack
J.Cole, Drogba, Malouda
subs: Taylor, Anelka, Carvalho, Wright-Phillips, Makalele

Referee: Andre Marriner

TV Timings:0024(IST), 14/04/08.

Scoreline prediction:3-0