THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
LONDON — Chelsea has to try to avoid the same mistakes Arsenal made last week when the Blues take on Birmingham in the Premier League on Saturday.
The Gunners lost the league lead to Manchester United when they could only draw 1-1 with Birmingham, showing Chelsea how hard it could be to get the victory it needs at St. Andrews to keep up the pressure on the top two.
Chelsea has lost just one of its last 15 Premier League matches to vault into third place, just four points behind United and Arsenal.
With United at defensively weak Reading on Saturday and Arsenal at lowly Fulham, Chelsea knows failure to win at Birmingham could derail its attempt to win back the Premier league title it last won in 2006.
Although Birmingham has not beaten Chelsea since 1980, it has managed to draw four of its last seven Premier League meetings with the Blues and troubled Chelsea on the opening day of this season before losing 3-2 to a goal by Michael Essien.
Essien, John Obi Mikel, Salomon Kalou and Didier Drogba are absent while they play at the African Cup of Nations Cup in Ghana, while striker Andriy Shevchenko is also missing with an ankle injury.
Chelsea has spent more than 20 million pounds (C$39.1 million) this month to cover its weaknesses, and striker Nicolas Anelka and defender Branislav Ivanovic could start for the first time against Birmingham.
"Chelsea is that big club with big players, playing in the Champions League and still in the race to win everything," Anelka said. "That’s why I am here."
Anelka has already shown he knows how to play against Birmingham, scoring twice in a 3-0 win for Bolton last month.
"We kept Anelka quiet and then gave him two gifts," McLeish said. "We shot ourselves in the foot."
Chelsea’s biggest boost, however, could come from the return of key midfielder Frank Lampard after four weeks out with a thigh problem.
Birmingham took advantage of a rare lapse to equalize at Arsenal just after halftime and, with McLeish organizing his team to show the same defensive strength that marked his time in charge of Scotland, then repelled the Gunners’ increasingly desperate attacks.
Chelsea will have to be especially wary of falling into a similar predicament, with captain and central defender John Terry still out after fracturing his foot against Arsenal last month.
Manchester United also has to overcome a team with which it has a history of draws.
Reading has held United in three of the teams’ past five meetings, but will have a tough time improving on that record against a team with the best defence and best attack in the Premier League.
"The way our defence is playing at the moment is really helping us," United winger Ryan Giggs said. "We have had so many clean sheets this season and you need that foundation to go out and play with flair."
United’s 6-0 win over Newcastle last Saturday took it to 44 goals in 22 matches, one more than second-place Arsenal and two more than mid-table Tottenham.
Midfielder Owen Hargreaves and defender Gerard Pique are fit to return against Reading, while Paul Scholes, Gary Neville and Louis Saha will miss out but could be back for next weekend’s FA Cup match against Spurs.
Arsenal will have midfielder Tomas Rosicky back for its trip to next-to-last Fulham, but will miss Robin Van Persie and Johan Djourou for several weeks because of injury.
Newcastle’s recovery from its rout at United started with the reappointment of fan favourite Kevin Keegan as manager on Wednesday and a 4-1 FA Cup win over Stoke hours later.
It hosts Bolton on Saturday, with more attention on Keegan’s return than the players on the field.
Keegan almost won the Premier League with Newcastle in his first spell in charge, but has to rouse a side languishing in 11th place and with the fifth worst defence in the competition.
Also Saturday, Middlesbrough is at Blackburn, Derby is at Portsmouth, and Sunderland is at Tottenham.
Manchester City hosts West Ham on Sunday, four days after beating the same opponent 1-0 in the FA Cup, while Everton is at Wigan.
Liverpool hosts Aston Villa on Monday.