Eto’o to lead Chelsea’s title charge

Blues to face struggling Villa in Premier League encounter.

BIRMINGHAM:

Samuel Eto’o is expected to be handed responsibility for spearheading Chelsea’s Premier League title challenge when the leaders travel to struggling Aston Villa on Saturday.

Eto’o inspired the Blues’ rout of Tottenham last weekend after being drafted into the starting line-up at the last minute when Fernando Torres pulled up with a groin injury in the warm up.

Torres is hoping to return for the second-leg of the Champions League clash with Galatasaray at Stamford Bridge next week.

But in the meantime, Cameroon forward Eto’o, who turned 33 this week, should get another chance to demonstrate his continuing importance to Jose Mourinho’s squad six days after he celebrated his goal against Spurs with a celebration poking fun at recent comments from the Blues boss about his age.

Eto’o’s performance will be crucial as Chelsea aim to capitalise on their free week by maintaining their seven-point advantage over second placed Liverpool and third placed Arsenal.

While Mourinho’s players have enjoyed a six-day rest between games, Arsenal and Manchester City – currently fourth, nine points off top but with three games in hand – have both suffered the draining experience of exiting the Champions League at the hands of Bayern Munich and Barcelona respectively.

With the title race approaching its climax, the demands on all the competing squads will grow more intense and Chelsea goalkeeper Petr Cech believes his club’s strength in depth could prove vital.

Demba Ba has been little more than a fringe player this season, but the former Newcastle striker scored twice after replacing Eto’o as a late substitute against Spurs to provide a reminder of his goal threat.

“You need everybody because you never know what can happen,” said Cech.

“Two seasons ago when we played the Champions League final, we suddenly had all our central defenders injured and one banned and needed everybody to fill in and play.

“It’s credit to the guys like Demba who aren’t playing much because you can see that anything might happen and we need everyone in the team to be ready.

“Samuel came in just before the kick-off for Fernando and then Demba came on with 15 minutes to go and they both did really well.”

Nasri backs City to recover from Euro exit

Samir Nasri insists City will get their season back on track at Hull on Saturday after crashing out of the FA Cup and the Champions League in the space of four days.

City’s European adventure concluded with a 4-1 aggregate defeat against Barcelona on Wednesday, a widely expected result following their 2-0 defeat in the first-leg, but they were also shocked by a 2-1 home defeat in the FA Cup quarter-finals against Championship side Wigan last weekend.

However, French midfielder Nasri took heart from the performance in the 2-1 defeat in Barcelona on Wednesday.

And despite pushing so hard in four competitions for so long, he maintains that winning the league and the League Cup would prove to be a successful campaign.

“We can’t fear anyone,” said Nasri. “We saw that when we play we can compete with any team in the world.” 

Published in The Express Tribune, March 15^th, 2014.

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