Strong Chelsea side travel to Swindon with all eyes on Juan Mata

Juan Mata: Can he impress the Special One?

As per Jose Mourinho’s post match press conference after the victory over Fulham on Saturday, we can pretty much name the Chelsea starting eleven give or take a player or two. I predict that either Gary Cahill or Branislav Ivanovic will start at centre half as the only player tomorrow who has already featured more often than not so far this season.

The predicted Chelsea line up is as follows:

Schwarzer, Azpilicueta, Luiz, Cahill, Bertrand, Essien, Van Ginkel, De Bruyne, Mata, Willian and Ba.

Now you have to say (and I mean no disrespect to our hosts, Swindon Town), that is a really, really strong side and you expect us to progress with little problem.

For many of these players, it’s a real chance to impress the manager who, lets face it, has given many of them little or no game time this season.

All eyes will be on Juan Mata and rightly so after the public criticism from the manager. He has been issued with a challenge by Mourinho to “prove me wrong!” and I really hope that he does.

It seems really unfair that the Spaniard is being asked to prove himself at the club again after being named Chelsea’s Player of the Season for the last two years running. I have had my say on Mata here, and that hasn’t changed. None of us ever thought he would in a position at this club where he is now literally fighting for his future.

The problem with the game is that it’s a League Cup tie against a lower league opposition, so even if Mata and the others coming into the team play well and impress, it will mean little if we take what Jose has said about squad rotation.

With Tottenham coming up on Saturday lunchtime and the players, who played against Fulham being rested for a whole week, none of these players, who are expected to play tomorrow, would be in contention to start against Spurs.

Mourinho is asking the players to be professional with their approach to training, to the matches and even to the current team selections. But if they not are involved or haven’t been so far in the Premier League and Champions League, then knowing how the rotation is working, it must be hard for the players to lift themselves knowing they will be in and out this week.

I don’t know, maybe Mourinho is trying to find out more about his players and these past few weeks has been a real test of the character and attitude of the players we are referring to.

Whether its the right or wrong way to go about things is up for debate and I am interested in hearing your opinions on this.

However, one thing is for sure, despite the current situation with the “favoured” first team, all the players can do tomorrow is take to the pitch and do the best they can. Knowing the quality we have in our squad, we should win this comfortably.

Let’s see what happens tomorrow and can Mata be the star of the show sending a reminder of what he brings to a Chelsea team with him playing in it?

Carefree & KTBFFH!