GARY Cahill doesn’t need to do too much homework to figure out the threat posed by Nicolas Anelka.
Even though the centre half arrived at the Reebok just 20 days after the Frenchman’s departure, his legend lives on in the dressing room and on the training pitch.
So charged with the prospect of marking the Premier League’s top marksman, Cahill is seeking advice from his team-mates before tomorrow’s game.
“I haven’t had to study him too hard,” the defender said. “The lads know what he is all about, and if you have watched the Premier League like I have for the last 10 years, you should know all about what Nicolas Anelka can do.
“Unfortunately, I never had the pleasure of playing with him, I just passed him in the (January) window, but he’s obviously a proven goalscorer and on fire at the moment.
“The lads speak very highly of him both as a person and as a footballer – they are not surprised he moved on to a side like Chelsea. We know he’ll be a threat.
“But the thing is, with a side like Chelsea you can’t dodge good players. If you manage to mark Anelka out of the game, you might get Frank Lampard or Deco come along and put one in.”
The 22-year-old arrived for £5million from Aston Villa in January, a move funded by Anelka’s club record sale to Chelsea.
Gretar Steinsson and Matty Taylor were also signed to bolster a Wanderers squad which eventually scrapped their way out of the bottom three. And while Cahill agrees Anelka left a large gap when he decamped to Stamford Bridge, his replacement Johan Elmander has fit nicely into a squad which now seems greater than the sum of its parts.
“You could say we are stronger as a unit without him,” he said. “But I have to say that, I was one of the players who came in.
“To be serious, it is very hard to replace a goalscorer like him, you just have to bring different players in and hope they can do the same thing.
“That’s why I’m just made up that Johan has now found his feet and is looking a very, very good player.
“There is no shock that now he is fit he is showing that he can score goals.”
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