Chelsea v Ipswich Town
After Chelsea's awful performance at Wolves on Wednesday night a home tie against a Championship team could be exactly what they need. More than a result, Chelsea need a performance to get some confidence back into the team, to make them believe that they are the same team that were routing teams at the beginning of the season. 9 of the players who played on Wednesday night played in Chelsea's first two games of the season where they routed West Brom and Wigan 6-0 and they somehow need to get the confidence and fluency back that they showed at the beginning of the season when they looked unstoppable.
Whether that performance will come against Ipswich is anyone's guess. It is likely that Ancelloti will play a number of the squad players (McEacheran, Kakuta, Van Aanholt), but I hope that he chooses to play some senior players as it is the likes of Essien, Drogba, Kalou and Malouda who desperately need to find some form from somewhere.
Ipswich will have nothing to lose, especially having sacked Roy Keane today and despite being in poor form themselves, will go into the game with confidence, mainly due to Chelsea's recent poor performances.
I don't think it will be pretty, and I cannot see the it being the end of Chelsea's performance slump, but I'm sure (hoping??) they will have enough quality to prevail.
IPWYMTS's Prediction - Chelsea 3 - 1 Ipswich
Reading v West Bromwich Albion
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| Jonas Olsson - Don't tell him his headband makes him look like a girl....... |
West Brom, like Chelsea, are on a terrible run of form and also face a Championship side in the 3rd round of the cup. WBA however travel to Reading, the team that knocked WBA out of this competition last year.
Unlike Chelsea however, West Brom have been playing well in recent games (bar Tuesday's 3-0 defeat at Fulham) and the usual reaction to WBA games of recent weeks seems to have been 'I CANNOT BELIEVE THEY LOST THAT.....'
The reasons that West Brom have lost those games though comes down to two simple facts;
Inability to put the ball in the net - Top scorer Peter Odemwingie has not scored since the beginning of December and his woeful penalty against Man Utd last week shows a lack of confidence the Nigerian international is suffering. It's not just Odemwingie..... Last year's top scorer Graeme Dorrans is yet to score this season.
Inability to defend set pieces - It doesn't halp having your first 4 choice centre backs either injured or suspended, but it seems since the loss of Jonas Olsson to injury back in November, WBA have had a soft centre and have conceded a large number of goals from set pieces and crosses into the box. Hopefully the return of the big Swede to the side tomorrow will see an end to the defensive softness and WBA can get back to winning ways.
IPWYMTS's Prediction - Reading 1 - 2 WBA
There are too many other games for predictions but I think the most likely shocks are to come from Scunthorpe (Everton), Doncaster (Wolves) and Sheffield United (Villa). And I would love Stevenage to beat Newcastle but I just can't see it.
Enjoy 3rd round day!
IPWYMTS
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