One way or the other, Chelsea boss Avram Grant insists, Nicolas Anelka and Didier Drogba are going to start firing…
It seemed like a good idea at the time. The Blues bought prolific striker Nicolas Anelka from Bolton for £15m, with the fitness and form of Didier Drogba in question.
When the latter came back from Ivorian duty at the African Nations Cup, Avram Grant assumed, he’d either have the greatest striking partnership known to man, or at least one would be in deadly form at a time.
Several months later, and Chelsea are looking good to make the Premiership title chase a three-horse race. However, they’ve done it without either forward finding the net consistently – just three goals between them in over a month.
Now, though, Israeli boss Grant insists that Anelka’s team ethic is an integral part of the Blues’ resurgence, and that both players can share the big stage – once he finds the right formula.
“I’m not worried as long as the team are scoring goals,” Grant said.
“Anelka, when he played against West Ham and against Derby, played like a team player. We won because of him and he played well.
“If he plays well and the team scores four or six goals, it’s still good - even if you do judge strikers by goals.
“I’m sure he and Didier will score goals. Our game is that we play with three forwards and the players behind come forward and provide goals. The team score, not one player.”
No mention of fit-again Andriy Shevchenko then.
Not Important
Chelsea take on London rivals Tottenham on Wednesday, but Grant insists that, far from being a grudge match, the recent Carling Cup defeat by Spurs at Wembley will have no bearing on the Premiership clash.
“In that game at Wembley, we didn’t play,” he admitted. “My team, even if we’d won the Carling Cup, would have wanted to win this game. It’s a league game. We have the mentality that we want to win every game we can.
“We take every game seriously, even in not important competitions. We’ve done a good job in the league and we want to win this game.”
The StamfordBridge boss didn’t identify which competitions were “not important”, but nevertheless says the recent Chelsea Premier League comeback has come as no surprise.
“We won many games at the right time,” he continued. “We’re back. We were in the race all the time, but now it’s more clear.
“I think it is an interesting season for us. It is a season when a few of our important players got injured after they’d been in very good shape.
“Then some others went to Africa. In that time, we actually won a lot of games to put us in a position where we can do good things.”
Duncan Robertson, Goal.com
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