Chelsea’s fixture against Newcastle tonight is a must for Di Matteo if he hopes to get the Blues back into 4th place and clinch the final Champions League qualifying slot.
However, with both star forwards Didier Drogba and Fernando Torres showing remarkable improvement in their form these past couple of days, the Italian tactician faces a hard decision in whom to start.
Reports emerging claim that Di Matteo could gamble by playing both Strikers, a decision Chelsea no 1 Petr Cech would love to see. In fact, Cech who believes a Drogba-Torres partnership could work, has pleaded with Di Mateo to give the pair a chance in tonight’s game.
The only bad things with gambles is that when you lose, you lose big. However, when you win, it is a big win. But with Di Matteo’s predecessors Carlo Ancelotti and Villas-Boas having abandoned the Drogba-Torres partnership idea after unimpressive results, would Di Matteo be willing to take the chance?
Carlo Ancelotti only started the pair four times before his was sacked, but even then, the results did not please him. Villas-Boas toyed with the idea and managed to start the pair only once before deciding that duo just could not play together.
However, Di Matteo believes that he could start the pair. This would mean changing his preferred 4-3-2-1 formation for a more attack minded formation. Speaking with reporters yesterday, Cech said that starting the pair was an option that cannot be ruled out.
‘I’d start both,’ he said.
‘I believe it is possible but I don’t know whether it would be done or if it would work. I am sure one day it will happen and there will be goals.’
That is the easy way for Chelsea to qualify for next season’s Champions League. However, the other way which is much harder will be beating Bayern Munich in the final later on this month. This is made harder as Bayern will be playing in their own home stadium.
‘We want to go to Munich and have the sense that the job is done and we can then easily concentrate only on the final.
‘That would be the ideal scenario but we still have to fight for that to happen.
‘We enjoyed the win over QPR because we scored six goals, it makes for a good goal difference, which could be important.’