Pre-Match Briefing: Chelsea v QPR - part two Chelsea v QPR in all competitions Games played 53 Chelsea wins 20 Rangers wins 15 Draws 18 Head to head in the League at Stamford Bridge Games played 22 Chelsea wins 11 QPR wins 5 Draws 6 Biggest league win at Stamford Bridge for each team Chelsea 6-1 QPR 29/04/2012 Chelsea 0-3 QPR 28/12/1974 TACTICAL BRIEF Seven Chelsea players have been ever- present in the Barclays Premier League this season and Jose Mourinho suggested some less-used performers had not dislodged the regulars from his plans after the Capital One Cup match on Tuesday. Two players who have been absent recently, Diego Costa and Ramires, are available for him again, however. Ramires has not featured since the battering he took from Kolarov and Dzeko at Manchester City in September. Diego Costa, who has notched more than the entire QPR squad this season, knows he has a goalscoring rival following Didier Drogba hitting three in three. Saturday is too soon for Loic Remy to return from his groin problem. Rangers will be aware, though, that they have managed shutouts in three of our four recent league meetings, and won 1-0 at the Bridge in January 2013 thanks to ex-Blue Shaun Wright-Phillips. The Blues’ last two goals conceded in the league have come after 90 minutes (at Manchester United and Palace), and the two before that went in at 85 (Manchester City away) and 86 (Swansea home). The Blues have scored four times in the top flight between the 76th and 78th minutes but are yet to hit the net after then. Harry Redknapp has consistently experimented with personnel and formations – three or four central defenders, one or two strikers. A 4-4-2 set-up brought success at home to Aston Villa on Monday but Redknapp may also factor in how the much-changed Blues played against Shrewsbury’s three at the back in midweek. The Rs have dropped Rio Ferdinand at the back, Richard Dunne, 35, now partnering Steven Caulker in the heart of defence. Dunne is the only player in Premier League history to score 10 own goals but Caulker and full-back Nedum Onuoha have also put the ball past their keeper this season. Ferdinand is in any case now suspended for three matches for posting an offensive slang term on Twitter, his second such offence. Rangers’ best performance of the campaign came without him in the 2-3 defeat by Liverpool, though mistakes against counter-attacks still robbed them of all three points and the Rs may find the pace and trickery of Chelsea’s attacking midfield trio very troubling. Eden Hazard, in dazzling dribbling form again at Old Trafford, was rested for most of the cup match in Shropshire and will be fresh. Rob Green was restored in the QPR goal after illness for the ensuing game against Villa. The keeper generally looks to pump upfield to Bobby Zamora when in possession, something Filipe Luis will have to be prepared for while Cesar Azpilicueta is out for the last of his three suspended games. Branislav Ivanovic’s ban was completed on Tuesday and John Terry and Thibaut Courtois will almost certainly return. For QPR, with Onuoha hamstrung recently, left-back Suk-Young Yun and right-back Mauricio Isla are charged with supporting the attack, hugging the byline and quickly firing long crosses towards Zamora and leading scorer Charlie Austin (including set-pieces). They look a much better side when injury-prone Zamora, Terry’s childhood teammate at Senrab FC, is fit. The Rangers team as a whole look to play it long to those two forwards as much possible as they are combining well and their laying-off produced several goals against Liverpool and Villa. The full-backs provide width in what can be a narrow side. Their wide midfielders Eduardo Vargas and Leroy Fer (pictured below), ostensibly a box-to-box central player, like to cut inside for a strike at goal. Vargas’s subtlety is keeping the similarly-skilled Niko Kranjcar out of favour. Junior Hoilett is more of a runner who likes use his pace to take opponents on. For the last three matches Rangers’ central midfield has comprised Karl Henry and the unpredictable ex-Spur Sandro. More than a third of their passes went astray at home to Villa, many longer ones into the final third. That is in contrast to the counterparts they are likely to face in the middle, Nemanja Matic and Cesc Fabregas, who both reached a teammate with 84 per cent of their passes at Old Trafford. Former Cardiff midfielder Jordan Mutch remains on the absentee list along with Joey Barton and Clint Hill, but Shaun Wright-Phillips may return from the shadows. Redknapp has suggested he may consider picking out-of-favour forward Adel Taarabt after the Moroccan ‘admitted he needs to get fitter and work harder and told me he’s going to do that.’
Posted on: Sat, 01 Nov 2014 03:53:26 +0000