Ricardo Carvalho is hoping for a more enjoyable day on Sunday than the last time he played at Craven Cottage while also anticipating a good test against an old colleague.
Fulham's new signing from Newcastle, Damien Duff, was part of the Chelsea squad that won back-to-back league titles with Carvalho and our central defender, who is looking to return this weekend having been rested at Sunderland, rates the winger as still a threat.
'It will be difficult because Duffer has got quality and he can change a game,' Carvalho told Chelsea TV's Inside Cobham programme, 'but you have to prove you are stronger than Fulham and fight them. After that our qualities come and you are better than them.'
Unfortunately last December Chelsea couldn't prove superiority over our neighbours who fought back with a late Clint Dempsey equaliser to draw 2-2.
'It was my first game after two months out injured,' recalls Carvalho.
'Alex got injured when we were losing already 1-0 and I came on and after that we scored two and were winning 2-1. Then in the last minute there was a corner and no-one was marking the man and it cost us two points.
'Afterwards Scolari was asking who should mark that man and I said I don't know, I was with my man.'
So far this season it has been early rather than late goals breaching the Chelsea defence, happily not costing any points.
'The goals have been a little bit lucky for the opponents,' Carvalho believes, 'but in the Hull game we also had luck because we scored in the last minutes but we deserved it because we created more chances.
'But of course we have to start the games better than we are.'
Chelsea TV will show the Fulham game in full from midnight on Sunday.
23 August 2009
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment