CL PREVIEW: Chelsea vs. Valencia

Tomorrow's Champions League match against Valencia at Estadi de Mestalla should be an interesting one, to say the least. Not only will a win put Chelsea top of Group E, but Juan Mata, Chelsea's new winger, will be playing against his former team. He stated in a press conference beforehand: "I will try to be respectful and not celebrate if I do score." A nice sentiment, considering that it's only been about a month since he left the Spanish side.

Juan Mata makes his return to Estadi de Mestalla, but this time on the opposing team. 

Fernando Torres looks set to play in what will be his last game for about a month, after receiving a THREE-GAME SUSPENSION for his reckless challenge on Mike Gower in Saturday's 4-1 vicotry over Swansea. While we're all put out by the fact that he got his suspension just as he was beginning to get back on form, look on the bright side: At least it didn't happen a couple weeks ago, when Drogba was still out with his concussion. He seems to be quite ready to come back as a starter for the club, having come on as a substitute on Saturday and scoring a goal within 10 minutes. However, I think that he'll be left out of tomorrow's lineup, allowing him to rest up for his probable start next weekend against Bolton, in which he'll take the place of the suspended Torres. AVB has stated that he'll be switching up the lineup a bit, trying to rotate players in order to allot resting time. So it seems likely (at least in my opinion) that we'll be seeing the likes of Frank Lampard and David Luiz reinstated into the line, and possibly Alex as a substitution late in the game. According to reports, Daniel Sturrdige has recovered from his knee injury and could be a potential starter for tomorrow's game.
Here's my prediction for the Chelsea starting 11:

       Mata ------- Torres ------ Sturridge

   Meireles ------ Lampard ------ Ramires

Cole ------- Terry ------ Luiz ------ Ivanovic

                          Cech

Bench: Turnbull, Alex, Bosingwa, Mikel, McEachran, Malouda, Drogba

OFFICIAL MATCH TIME: 2:45 PM EST.

While Valencia is a tough team, my guess is that Chelsea will walk off with a win tomorrow, putting them at the top of Group E.
MY PREDICTION: 2-1 in favour of Chelsea, with goals possibly coming from Torres and Mata.

Good luck to us all.
Cheers,
~Matt