Champions League/Group H/Chelsea v Paris St Germain: It is not unheard of for managers to rest players in the league ahead of European matches.
Chelsea are in the enviable position of being able to do things the other way round. Having reached the second round of the Champions League as group winners with two matches to spare, Jose Mourinho hopes to reap the benefit in his quest for the Premiership.
The Chelsea manager will demand that his team treat tonight's game against Paris St-Germain seriously, but the significance of already having nothing to play for has hardly escaped him. Physically and psychologically he believes his players should profit in the league. Most importantly, he can rest key personnel now and at Porto in a fortnight.
Petr Cech, Claude Makelele and Paulo Ferreira are not in the squad for a match which will mark the return of Didier Drogba as a substitute. John Terry will almost certainly not start and Arjen Robben and Eidur Gudjohnsen could be on the bench. When Arsenal are going flat out in the Premiership and Europe, Mourinho must be glad of such freedom.
He did not mention it, but his team go to Highbury after playing Porto in two weeks and ought to be fresher than the champions. "If I can rest two or three players (against PSG) and two or three players against Porto and two or three against Fulham in the League Cup (next week), I'm giving a little rest to everybody," he said. "Championships sometimes are not won in November or December but in January, February, March and if I can have legs with less miles it's better."
Mourinho also sees mental advantages to the situation. "From the psychological point of view, what sometimes makes you a bit tired is not your legs but what you think and the pressure you have," he said. "So it's really nice and easy for us. That doesn't mean we don't want to win. No way."
He promised CSKA Moscow's coach Valeriy Gazzaev after winning in Russia that Chelsea would still "fight for everything". He wants the second-best club to qualify and has emphasised to his players what he expects. "I told them we are a better team than Paris but, many times in football, motivation is the difference," he said.
Drogba's return after more than six weeks out is a boost. The striker will be eased back, getting perhaps half an hour tonight even if it is not alongside Arjen Robben or Damien Duff. "For me it's interesting to play with them," he said, "but the most important for me is to join the team again."
CHELSEA ( probable): Cudicini; Johnson, Carvalho, Gallas, Bridge; Parker, Lampard, Smertin; Cole, Kezman, Duff.
PARIS ST-GERMAIN (probable): Letizi; Pichot, Pierre-Fanfan, Yepes, Armand; Cisse, Cana, M'Bami, Mendy; Pancrate, Pauleta.
Referee: R Temmink (Netherlands)
