Chelsea return excites Swansea manager Brendan Rodgers
Last updated on .From the section Football
Swansea manager Brendan Rodgers says they will go to Chelsea this weekend believing they can upset the odds.
Stamford Bridge is a familiar place for Rodgers, who was part of ex-Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho's backroom staff and still has friends in west London.
But Saturday will be the first time former Watford and Reading boss Rodgers has taken a side there as a manager.
"In terms of power and money we shouldn't be on the same field as Chelsea," Rodgers said.
"But I think we've shown... we can compete and we'll bring the same idea to Stamford Bridge."
Last weekend Swansea got off the mark in the Premier League in some style, scoring their first goals and claiming their first win as they beat West Bromwich Albion 3-0 at the Liberty Stadium.
But in their opening winless run of four games Swansea were unlucky to lose in their previous trip to London, where a defensive mistake gifted Arsenal a 1-0 win.
Chelsea are smarting from their 3-1 defeat at Manchester United last Sunday and Rodgers knows his side must be on their guard.
"We know the task will be very difficult... but we're very much a team that relies on our confidence and our attacking threat, but also to ensure that our discipline is very good," Rodgers said.
"We know we're up against some world-class players, some outstanding players like John Terry and Frank Lampard and players of that quality.
"But we have a great belief wherever we play, home or away, that we can cause a problem to a team."
Rodgers still has fond memories of his time at Stamford Bridge, while his son Anton was part of the youth team there until last May when he joined Brighton under another Chelsea old boy, current Seagulls boss Gus Poyet.
"It was a club that I probably wouldn't be sat here today if it wasn't for them, they gave me a wonderful opportunity," Rodgers added.
"I arrived there at 31 a nobody. I'd worked my way through at Reading and had a terrific nearly 10 years there.
"But the move to Chelsea gave me a chance to work at a totally different level and I was fortunate enough that they'd seen something in me to give me that chance, to work with some of the biggest players in European football.
"So I'll always be grateful for that and it's my first time back there as a manager and I'm really looking forward to the game.
"Since I've left there to move into management, everywhere I've gone I've always been given a great reception by Chelseas supporters.
"But ultimitely we're going back to play a game of football and hopefully continue with our good form."
Swansea wing Scott Sinclair is another with strong ties to Chelsea, having come through the youth ranks there before joining the Swans in August 2010, and he will have a point to prove as well
The Welsh club have Neil Taylor, who was carried off after a clash of heads with Baggies striker Peter Odemwingie last weekend, and record signing Danny Graham fit and available.
Graham, a £3.5m buy from Watford, missed the West Brom game with a back injury and had to watch from the sidelines as striker rival Lerory Lita put in a performance labelled "outstanding" by Rodgers.
It seems as though Rodgers will keep faith with Lita against Chelsea in the manager's preferred lone frontman role, while Swansea were boosted at centre-back last weekend by the return from injury of captain Garry Monk.
