I was just coming on here to say about how I felt we'd do really well today - I don't fear Chelsea too much as they don't have as much pace and as many dangermen as Man U, for example. They get results by being compact, not from attack after attack. They have good players, but they don't scare me as much.
However, having seen our team sheet I'm a *little* more cautious - I'm not saying Rafa has got it wrong, just that it was a surprise, and Diao has never looked good enough to me in the past (but I hope to be proved wrong). Traore can be brilliant or awful - but like Diao, he deserves to be viewed with a clean slate under a new manager, playing a new brand of football in a new system.
At least we'll have fresher legs, and Diao can do the running in midfield that Alonso and Hamann couldn't.
Spanish Red was right about Kirkland and Kewell up front just behind Cisse.