Chelsea have served us very well this season, we previewed their trip to Steaua on Matchday 2....These two met last March in the knockout stage of the Europa League, ahead of the second leg I wrote .... "Chelsea completely outplayed Manchester United for the last hour of the match at Old Trafford last week and were unfortunate not to have come away with the win. Rafael Benitez made the tactical changes and Sir Alex didn't react, with his team clearly losing the midfield battle. The Blues were buzzing afterwards and I expect them to build on that momentum this evening and turn this tie on it's head. Steaua lead 1-0 from the first leg, but dispite a lacklustre display from Chelsea, the hosts created little from open play and it will be even harder for them to do so at Stamford Bridge, if the Blues are motivated to turn this around. Rafa will surely name a much stronger side than the one we saw in Bucharest and with the visitors already having conceded twice at both Stuttgart and Ajax, looking especially vunerable aerially in both and with Terry, Ivanovic, Cahill all poising a big threat from set pieces and having 15 goals between them this season, whomever starts from that trio ,will probably fancy their chances of adding to their tally at circa 7.5-8.5 to score at anytime. This is all about attitude for me, if Chelsea really want this they should win by two plus and with a degree of comfort."

The Blues won that 3-1 and missed a late penalty, John Terry scored with a headed goal (hey, nice preview !) and I see a lot of similarities tonight. After the home loss to Basle, Chelsea really need a win this evening and are also coming off a very good last hour showing against a big club at the weekend. Before the sending off of Fernando Torres the derby match at White Hart Lane was only heading one way, after Chelsea took control after the break and there was plenty for them to take from that performance and onto the plane to Romania. There will be no weakened line up this time, Steaua could not hurt them from open play last time and this match is so important for Chelsea and such a gulf in quality ( Cahill, Mata, Eto'o, André Schürrle, Willian , Lampard, Torres and de Bruyne have all been on the bench for the last two games, Willian did not even make the bench against Spurs !), that I just cannot see beyond the away win.

Hosts are decent enough, but did lose heavily to a struggling Schalke on group Matchday 1 and will have to open tonight, as they also need points and that can only benefit Chelsea. They lost Raul Rusescu (47-26-13 all comps last season... including the goal and assist... he won and converted the penalty against Chelsea here) to Sevilla and Vlad Chiriches ( who scored the goal at Stamford Bridge in the defeat) to Tottenham in the summer and do look weaker this time round. I expect a very competent, professional performance from the visitors and they really ought to win this.

The Blues won that 4-0 and have followed up with a 3-1 win at Norwich and 4-1 defeat of Cardiff City at the weekend. They are starting to hit their stride and I do not feel we will see any drop in intensity this evening, despite the London club having a vital EPL match with Manchester City at the weekend, they will surely want to keep up the momentum and with "only" three points in the bag so far, anything less than a maximum haul in Schalke is going to increase the pressure for the return leg. Ashley Cole trained yesterday, but did not travel, they have few other problems and meet an opponent, who are short on options, which I will come to shortly and who are already playing catch up in the Bundesliga and face a key match with Dortmund at the weekend, their biggest rival.

Hosts are without striker Klaas-Jan Huntelaar (35-16-6 in all comps last season), right winger Jefferson Farfan (35-7-10) and defensive midfielder Marco Höger ( Schalke have lost 6 of the last 11 matches he has missed) , their loss and also a long term injury to Kyriakos Papadopoulos has meant several youngsters being introduced to first team football, perhaps a little earlier than they would ideally have wanted. 18 year olds Max Meyer and Leon Goretzka have been called upon regularly in what, allowing for absences, is probably the youngest squad in the Bundesliga, average age of the starting eleven on Saturday was 23.8 and I think that lack of experience will be tough to overcome against an opponent as european savvy as Chelsea. Steaua came here on Matchday 1 and more than held their own for a hour and it is hard to make a case for Schalke putting out a stronger line up this evening, they do get a couple of players back, Timo Hildebrand in goal, Jermaine Jones and Kevin-Prince Boateng, but that does not compensate for the three missing. Away win. 1.25 units Chelsea -0.5 ball 2.26-2.28 asian line.

Good Luck.