Game on! Chelsea v Newcastle.
Welcome one and all to the penultimate 'Game On' match article of the 2010/2011 Premier League season.
This afternoon will see us take on Chelsea at Stamford Bridge for a match that, if Newcastle can upset the form book and win, would see the Toon propelled into eighth place in the league table if other results go our way. However, on the flip side of that, Chelsea will be playing for pride after losing their grip on the title yesterday and will be looking to make sure that they can nail their colours to second place in the league and avoid an early start to next season by gaining automatic qualification to the Champions League.
Now I hate being downbeat on our chances ahead of a match, but common sense would suggest that Newcastle would be fortunate to come away from Stamford Bridge with anything to show for their efforts. The bookies have Chelsea as overwhelming favourites, the form book is tipped very much in favour of the home side, we don't usually fare to well at Stamford Bridge and we have nearly a full team of players out injured or out through a self imposed suspension.
My main hope for today is that we can see a solid and committed performance from our lads. I don't want to see us not turn up again like we did at Anfield a couple of weeks ago. No less than 100% today please. If the lads give it everything they have then they can leave Stamford Bridge with their heads held high - win, lose, or draw.
The game is scheduled for a 1:30pm kick-off and will be broadcast on Sky Sports 1 here in the UK. However, if you can't get that either because you don't have Sky or because you are based outside of the UK then the good news is that there is a whole host of overseas channels that will also be broadcasting the match, which means that the chances of a stream are fairly good. Once again, if you stumble across a good stream please feel free to hoy a link to it in the comments section below.
That's about it I think. The match preview, if you haven't already read it, is here and the team news will appear below as and when I can get my grubby little mits on it.
Howay the lads!
Team news...
Chelsea: Petr Cech, Branislav Ivanovic ,Alex, John Terry, Ashley Cole, Ramires, Frank Lampard, Josh McEachran, Yossi Benayoun, Nicolas Anelka, Fernando Torres.
Subs: Ross Turnbull, David Luiz, Essien, Didier Drogba, John Obi Mikel, Florent Malouda, Paulo Ferreira.
Newcastle: Tim Krul, Danny Simpson, Steven Taylor, Fabricio Coloccini, Jose Enrique, Jonas Gutierrez, Ryan Taylor, Joey Barton, Shane Ferguson, Shola Ameobi, Peter Lovenkrands.
Subs: Ole Soderberg, James Tavernier, Alan Smith, Kazenga LuaLua, Sammy Ameobi, Shefki Kuqi, Nile Ranger.