Chelsea vs Birmingham City: Are Blues unbeatable?

Third placed Chelsea face an obdurate eighth placed Birmingham at Stamford Bridge.

I reckon this is the first time that Chelsea have been as low as third since the league table settled down after three or four games, so the early return of Drogba and Kalou could offer the spark that Chelsea need to push past Man United and Arsenal. With Arsenal facing a very tricky trip to Villa Park and Manchester United playing in the League Cup there is a very good chance that a win will put Chelsea top - and given Chelsea's last two home games saw them record a 7-2 win over Sunderland and a 5-0 win over Watford, a win seems likely.

Birmingham remain on the fringes of the top four battle but have the games-in-hand to overhaul Liverpool so should hardly be discounted from a challenge. Especially when Birmingham have not now been beaten in the last 15 games in all competitions - the last reverse being way back on 17 October against Arsenal. So after over three months unbeaten Blues are either unbeatable or are due some bad luck!

Chelsea vs Birmingham City; Kick Off 7:45pm 27 Jan 2010

Prediction Panel
Our panel contains both Squarefootball writers and readers, the writers are marked: (sqf).

Dave Blackburn : 4 - 0
Chris Cox : TBC
Graham Enwright : 2 - 1
Sue Gardener : TBC
Chris Goodwin : 2 - 1
Paul Grech (sqf) : TBC
Colin Illingworth (sqf) : 1 - 1
Hugh Larkin (sqf) : TBC
Peter Lee : 3 - 0
Don McMahon : TBC
Antony Melvin (sqf) : 2 - 1
Paul O'Meara (sqf) : TBC
Dave Nash : 2 - 0
Stephen Orford (sqf) : TBC
Tony Ratton : 2 - 1
Peter Rendle : 2 - 0
Dan Taylor : 2 - 0
Andy Wakeman : 2 - 2
Isaac Williams : TBC
Mark Williams : 2 - 1

Panel Verdict
The panel is expecting a 2-1 Chelsea win

Home: 10; Draw: 2; Away: 0; TBC: 8.

* Do we have it right, or do you know better? Please don't bother with derisory comments on the predictions after the match - unless you also pulled us up before it!