JustChelsea.com

The new Liverpool coach Roy Hodgson is looking forward to getting his team back into the top four, and thinks it will be a lot easier than the time of his his previous appointment, when he only had five games to save Fulham from relegation.

He was asked if he thought it was impossible to get Liverpool back to their previous heights, and he answered confidently: “Impossible job? No, the impossible job was when I took over at Craven Cottage in December 2007.

It seems that Fulham boss Roy Hodgson is close to securing another excellent deal for his club after it was revealed today that he is in talks with Liverpool’s Brazilian defender Fabio Aurelio.

The 30 year-old is out-of-contract at Anfield, and despite being offered a pay-per-play deal by Liverpool, the Brazilian has decided to look elsewhere.

The Chelsea manager Carlo Ancelotti has played the media well by announcing that he is willing to let his African players leave “early”, at the same time as he agreed to let the Ghana doctors come over and assess the injury to Michael Essien.

“Michael had a scan and I think he will be out for between three and four weeks.

The Ghana Football Association want to get their team together for a two week preparation period before the African Nations Cup begins in January, and are not willing to take Chelsea’s word on the injury to their star player, Michael Essien.

They intend to send their own doctors to examine Essien before deciding when they want him to join up with the Ghana squad.

With a goal each in yesterdays game against Fulham, both Didier Drogba and Nicolas Anelka are pretty sure that that they can play together at last.

“There is no doubt we can play together,” said Drogba. “We are intelligent people who can play together well, we just needed some time.

“I was waiting for the last moment for Nicolas to deliver the ball [for the first goal], and I knew it was there so I waited until the right time.”

The Chelsea striker Nicolas Anelka is very happy to have scored his first goal of the season against Fulham yesterday, and says he loves the club and wants to stay for the rest of his career.

“Before I came to Chelsea, I have always stated I wanted to play in a big club,” he said in L’Equipe.

“Today I don’t want to move anymore. I am very happy here, to play and score for the club.

Didier Drogba believes that this will be Chelsea’s year. Having kept John Terry while all the other top clubs were losing a star or two has given him the confidence to believe Chelsea will win the Premiership back from Man Utd this season.

He said: “Every one of the top four sides has lost has lost at least one of their big stars this summer – apart from Chelsea.

The Fulham manager knows that his team will have a difficult job against Chelsea today, and he thinks that his opponents new manager will be very successful at Stamford Bridge.

He compared Ancelotti to the England manager Fabio Capello, who has engineered the national team’s 100% record so far in the World Cup Qualifiers. He said: “You are talking about two people who have been chosen for very prestigious and highly-paid jobs. Their success owes nothing to luck. It owes everything to their talent, hard work and ability.

The Fulham coach Roy Hodgson is under no illusion that their four-match 100% record so far this season is not under threat tomorrow when they take on Chelsea.

He believes that Chelsea will be challenging for the title, and are not likely to lose many games this year.

He said: “It’s a very tough game for us because it’s a local derby and they are a team who don’t lose very many in the course of the season.”

So Chelsea are aiming to keep their 100% record in this local derby. Most games between these two teams are close affairs but i have a feeling that Chelsea will continue their brilliant form with another emphatic win.

Fulham played on Thursday in the Europa League, and other than the tiredness that may affect them, they have also lost Andrew Johnson to injury, and this may make it a lot harder than usual. Johnson was expected to be their best striker this season.