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Blackburn boss Sam Allardyce, who has thankfully on the mend from his angioplasty operation. The 55 year old naturally won’t be at Ewood Park for their quarter final match against Chelsea on Wednesday night. Blackburn are not on a great run at the moment, drawing 0-0 with Stoke on the weekend, which followed a 3-0 trouncing by Fulham. Chelsea boss Carlo Ancelotti fielded a few players from outside the main starting bunch in the last round, which saw them cruise past Bolton 4-0 at home. Even Chelsea’s non-starting team is stronger than most other teams can cope with, as Ballack, Joe Cole, Malouda and Deco were all present. Even without the likes of John Terry, Frank Lampard , Michael Essien, Didier Drogba and Nicolas Anelka, Chelsea are still a handful to contend with.

It will probably be abbreviated version of Chelsea which takes the field, and they will be confident that they will be able to keep up the challenge for honours on all front. Gael Kakuta, who was part of the Champions League squad for the first time last week, could make a start as Daniel Sturridge is out injured, and Ancelotti takes into consideration the heavy fixture schedule the best teams in the country have to contend with.

Blackburn will remember their fixture against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge earlier in the Premier League this season, when they left with their tails between their legs after being hammered 5-0 by the Blues. Chelsea are unbeaten in nine matches and have fallen back into the groove of accumulating clean sheets. The London side will of course start as very strong favourites, even being the away side, and are a good bet to make the semi finals of the Carling Cup.

The Carling Cup does offer some kind of respite from the pressures of the league, especially for the teams in the lower half of the Premier League. Portsmouth have shown that, as have Blackburn who have been banging in the goals in the competition this season. At home Blackburn are a much different prospect than the one that takes the road. They have lost 6 out of 7 matches on the road in the Premier League this season, while only having lost one at home. As Chelsea demonstrated on the weekend again against Arsenal, they are supremely confident in their abilities at the moment.

Chelsea have now disposed of Manchester United, Arsenal and Liverpool in the league, and are finding goals fairly easy to come by, scoring 28 times in a current sequence of nine games. There could be more goals on display at Ewood Park on Wednesday evening. Chelsea have the full game, strength, passing ability, creativity and the ability to tough it out and catch teams on the counter attack to. Blackburn, who will be missing David Dunn in midfield, will need to compete hard in that area to try and contend with the powerful Blues.

Blackburn to win: 6/1 at SkyBet
Draw: 3/1 at Bet365
Chelsea to win: 8/15 at BetFred

Betting Advice: Chelsea are favourites to progress and win the tournament too. Current evidence of form, it is difficult to see where they will fall down in the Carling Cup. But Blackburn will remember that Chelsea have lost twice away from home this season, and a win for the Lancastrians would ingite their season, and give Allardyce an extremely nice get-well gift.