What will Rafa Benitez priorities be for Chelsea in the last six weeks or so of the season ? I would say the Premier league might be the last of them.
Chelsea's season might not be the best they have had in recent years, but the fact still remains, they go into the final weeks of the season fighting on three fronts, the first front of course is the Premier League and although their chances of winning it are not great, in fact virtually zero, they still need to qualify for next season's Champions League, then there is the FA Cup where they have a 1/4 final replay and the Europa League where they must also fancy their chances of winning the trophy, in fact given that Man City face them if they overcome Man Utd in the FA up the Europa League is their best chance of a trophy.
But when assessing what will be their priorities this season, its perhaps pertinent to look at the position of their temporary manager Rafa Benitez, given that whatever happens in the next few weeks he wont be at Stamford Bridge next season, perhaps his priorities wont be the same as Roman Abramovitch might want them to be.
If Rafa is looking to get further gainful employment in future season's he will be looking to get a trophy or two on his CV this season from a very difficult situation, taking Chelsea to 3rd or 4th in the Premier wont be high on his list, but pointing to a cup or two will be. hat does Rafa care if Chelsea arent in the Champions League next season, he wont be around, in any case he will probably feel that although there is still speculation on who will finish 3rd or 4th Arsenal are five points behind them, he will feel confident of holding their London rivals off.
So this could all be of benefit for Saints on Saturday, Chelsea have a fixture backlog, not only have some of their players been away on International duty this week, where the bulk of the Saints team who are likely to start the game have not been, but they face an important FA Cup replay against Manchester United less than 48 hours after kicking off against Saints.
Therefore Rafa has a dilemma, he cant ask his team to play twice in 48 hours coming off gruelling travelling for some of them so he will have to prioritise and I feel that whatever Chelsea's main target and make no mistake for Abramovitch it is playing in the Champions League, Benitez will almost certainly make his main aim a trophy, this could mean that he will hold back his big guns for Monday lunchtimes showtime at the bridge.
Speculation that he might play a weakened team at St Mary's is also heightened when you look at the fact that starting with their game there they have to play four times in 8 days, Man Utd on Monday as mentioned, Rubin Kazan in the Europa League on Thursday at home as well and then Sunderland on the Sunday, fact is he is going to have to put out weakened sides somewhere along the line and its going to be all about where his priorities lie and i feel that they will be in the two cup games.
This might not be totally good news for Saints, after all sometimes fringe players have a point to prove and that might make it more difficult, as Man City showed us at St Mary's, sometimes when you get in a superstars face, he decides he cant be bothered as he has nothing to prove against the likes of Saints, for Chelsea's fringe it might be different.
Whatever side Rafa puts out its going to be hard, but lets hope that Chelsea's fixture pile up might just give us a helping hand here.