With a relatively quiet transfer window and a disappointing performance against Swansea City, there's some worry that Chelsea will have some difficulty in finishing in fourth place this season and therefore securing a place in the 2012/13 edition of the UEFA Champions League. That's a perfectly reasonable stance - the Blues have had a fairly awful season so far and we could probably have done with reinforcements not named Gary Cahill - and I have to admit that I'm fairly concerned about our eventual finishing position as well.

Depressingly, our main rivals for fourth appear to be Arsenal, and we've been hearing for months how they'll obviously be much better once Jack Wilshere and Bacary Sagna are back in action (nevermind that Michael Essien is back from his ACL problem). Sagna might be back, but... well, there's some good news for us on the Wilshere front. And much as I loathe relying on the Daily Mail for things, it's still transfer deadline day where I'm writing from and so some of the rules are being bent.

Check it:

[Wilshere] was expected to return this month but broke down in training last week. Wilshere has since had a series of scans to determine the extent of the injury and the results indicate he has suffered another stress fracture in the same ankle.

-Source: Daily Mail.

Much as it's not nice to root for injuries, I sure wouldn't mind it if that report ended up being true. Arsenal are currently reliant on Mikel Arteta to run their midfield, and if Wilshere is out for the rest of the season will be entirely Arteta dependent for the rest of the year. It's difficult to take that as anything but good news.

Talk amongst yourselves while watching potentially dramatic mid-week action in England, Spain, and Italy.

First up (2:45pm EST / 11:45am PST on FSC), we have the 2nd Leg of the League Cup semifinal between the Lolloping Beatles and the Stamping Herd of Mancs. Thanks to Anthony Gerrard's cousin, Liverpool hold a 1-0 lead...but based on their performance over the weekend, that may not mean much. City will probably be without the 21st Century Cantona whose 4-match suspension takes effect immediately. But maybe he can go hang out and compare notes with Luis Suarez in the stands.

At the same time in Italy (and on ESPN3), we have the most frustrating team outside of Chelsea in action against the Tinkerman's latest project. While I do love me some Ranieri (and he has picked up the pieces admirably), I want Napoli to succeed...if for nothing else then to provide a bit of distraction leading up our Champions League matchups with them. The Italians run their Cup single-elimination style, so a winner will have to be determined today.

Last but certainly not least (4pm EST / 1pm PST on ESPN3), we have another Jersey Shore "Clasico" in Spain, with Barca holding a 2-1 lead. That first leg was a poor excuse for "football" and I'm guessing we'll see more of the same. Hair pulling, broken nails, petulance, handbags, simulation, stamping, cheating...football's finest teams! Over/under on Pepe's red card is 45 minutes...and I say he does not make it out of the first half.

I know most of us here will be watching, so I figured an open thread might be fun. Expect all sorts of diving, eye pokes, controversy, and complaining to the referees. There might actually be some brilliant soccer in there as well. Anyway, here are your starting lineups:

Real Madrid: Casillas, Altintop, Carvalho, Ramos, Coentrao, Diarra, Alonso, Pepe, Ronaldo, Higuain, Benzema

Subs: Adan, Albiol, Marcelo, Granero, Kaka, Ozil, Callejon

FC Barcelona: Pinto, Alves, Pique, Puyol, Abidal, Busquets, Xavi, Iniesta, Messi, Fabregas, Sanchez

Subs: Valdes, Corriea, Mascherano, Dos Santos, Alcantara, Roberto, Cuenca

I'm still debating whether to switch off this stimulating Wolves/Birmingham FA Cup draw, but to each his own I guess. Have at it...

I assume y'all want to talk about these games!

Just in case any of y'all have Wednesday Champions League fever, here's a game thread. The matches, for your enjoyment:

Benfica vs. Manchester United
Manchester City vs. Napoli
Villarreal vs. Bayern Munich
Dinamo Zagreb vs. Real Madrid
Inter Milan vs. Trabzonspor
Lille vs. CSKA Moscow
FC Basel vs. Otelul Galati
Ajax vs. Lyon

Have fun!

Jose Mourinho may have knocked Chelsea out of the Champions League on his way to European glory with Inter Milan, but he's still happy to help the Blues out from time to time. Ok, maybe this wasn't exactly deliberate, but still - he apparently convinced former charge Wesley Sneijder to stay at the San Siro rather than join up with Manchester United this summer. How do we know this? Because Wesley told us, of course!

Mourinho called me and he told me to stay. He has an Inter heart and he has always told me to remain. I am happy to have stayed because I never wanted to leave and so I no longer want to speak about Manchester United

-Source: Gazzetta dello Sport via ESPN Soccernet.

Even if you think Sneijder is overrated and/or overpaid (I certainly do), he would make every team he goes to with the exception of Barcelona a more dangerous one, and even though he's not an immediately obvious fit in Sir Alex Ferguson's team I still would rather United not haul in any more good players. In other words, I wouldn't want Sneijder at Old Trafford if I were a United fan, but I also definitely don't want him there while I'm supporting a team that's supposed to be challenging them for the title.

So thanks for that, Jose. We owe you one - that's at least four Sneijderless months you've bought us. Well done on helping Sneijder help Inter contain their mercantile urges* for the summer and making Chelsea's life a little bit easier in the process.

*Inter seem to be super into this selling-players-to-meeting Financial Fair Play thing, but why sell Sneijder when you can just offload Samuel Eto'o to Anzhi Makhachkala for what I'm reliably told is one hundred billion euros? Between that and buying Yuri Zhirkov for silly money, Anzhi have been pretty darn helpful this year.

Last post on Javier Pastore. Promise.

As we're all more than aware, Javier Pastore elected to go to Paris Saint-Germain and not Chelsea. Most people don't seem to be too disappointed, on account of the fact that he was extremely expensive - in a previous post I pegged his annual cost to PSG at £13.3M per annum, which would have been a significant fraction (7%) of Chelsea's 2010 turnover. On the other hand, if your team is going to overpay, it might as well overpay for an actual need, and few could deny that the Blues are in dire need of someone like Pastore, if not the man himself, to shore up their midfield.

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While Uruguay were hammering Paraguay in the Copa America final today, Mario Balotelli and Manchester City were engaged in a pre-season friendly against Major League Soccer side Los Angeles Galaxy. During the game, which finished 1-1 and went to penalty shootouts for some reason, Mario Balotelli went clear through on goal and... well, tried something rather silly:

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