The England midfielder Frank Lampard has urged Chelsea to combat "the Shearer effect" at St James' Park tomorrow in order to keep their fading title hopes alive.
The Geordie faithful will provide temporary manager Alan Shearer with a thunderous reception when the former Newcastle and England striker takes charge of the Magpies for the first time. But Chelsea, who retain the best away record in the top flight, are used to silencing the dreams of the home fans and Lampard hopes they can do the same once more on Tyneside.
"We had the same scenario when we went and played Manchester City just after they signed Robinho," recalled Lampard. "But we have to react to the atmosphere and we have to try and get a result to put us back on track after the Tottenham game."
The Blues ran out comfortable 3–1 winners against Manchester City despite going behind to a deflected Robinho free-kick. But Lampard acknowledges there will be the Shearer factor to overcome as the former United striking legend steps out to a hero's welcome.
"You can imagine what the atmosphere is going to be like," said Lampard. "Alan Shearer is regarded as a god up there – and quite rightly so after what he achieved for the club. He will definitely get the Newcastle fans going and he will get the Newcastle players going."
Lampard's views are echoed by the Chelsea and England captain John Terry. He is determined to wreck Shearer's return. "The title race is still not over for us and we will be going there to hopefully upset him [Shearer] in his first game in charge," said Terry. "Alan Shearer is Newcastle through and through and him taking over as the manager is going to give them a massive lift. But it is down to us to go there, show what we are capable of, which we have been doing a lot of the time recently, and get a result."
Chelsea are hoping that their full-back Jose Bosingwa will be fit to face United after collecting a gashed leg while on international duty with Portugal, while his fellow Portugal internationals, Deco and Ricardo Carvalho, both returned to Chelsea on Thursday and joined in with light training. Deco has recovered from his hamstring problem and is expected to be in the squad for the game against United.
The striker Nicolas Anelka, still struggling with a bruised toe which forced him to pull out of the France squad, trained with the rest of the Chelsea team yesterday but is likely to miss out on the trip to Tyneside.
