World Football in 5 Minutes

John Terry and Michael Essien will be back for Chelsea for their important match against Liverpool on coming Sunday. There were some speculations that John Terry may be injured owing to the fact that he remained on bench in Chelsea’s match against Spartac Moscow this week. But Carlo Ancelotti has told the club’s official website that Terry had actually been rested in that game. He said, “John Terry I rested because he played a lot of games and I want to maintain the players’ fitness.” Ancelotti added that Essien, who had a toe problem, will be fit for the game. Chelsea boss is also hoping Frank Lampard to be back for the match. On the other hand, Malouda will not play the game due to an ankle twist.

The returning player should perform well to make Chelsea move further towards Barclays Premier League title. A victory for Chelsea at Anfield means that their five point difference on top will remain in tact, if Arsenal and Manchester United win their respective games.

Manchester City made a very good squad owing to the money given by the owner, Sheikh Mansoor, which was in millions. It is thought that Mancini, City’s Manager, has been given a task of finishing at-least fourth in Barclays Premier league but thing aren’t going right for him in any of the competitions. Although Manchester City are at fourth spot right now, but if they do not improve their form, they will not be able to finish fourth for sure. First, they dropped points against Arsenal and Wolves in BPL, and now they lost to Lech Poznan in Europa League- all back to back. Moreover, reports say that City’s squad is in conflict with Mancini. All this makes one to conclude that Mancini’s reign may soon be over but he said, “For me it is totally clear, I will stay at City until they fire me.” He insisted that he has good relationship with both the owner and the president.

“As a coach I’ve taken teams that weren’t winning such as Fiorentina, Lazio and Inter (Milan) and I’ve won,” added Mancini.

David Gold, the co-owner of West Ham United, has taken all pressure off Avram Grant by insisting that Grant’s job is safe for years. Avram Grant was made Hammers’s manager in June, 2010 after a below par season for them. Although, Avram Grant is the man who steered Chelsea into Champions League final, League Cup final and made them to contest BPL title to the last day, but he is going nowhere with West Ham United right now. West Ham United is currently at the bottom of Premier League with only 6 points, but Gold has done the right thing by taking pressure off Grant. He said, “I’d be devastated if Avram Grant is not with us for three, four, five, six years.” When Gold was asked whether Grant would remain in charge if West Ham United get relegated, he replied, “We will remain absolutely resolute behind our manager.”