Source: Team_Talk
Anelka ready for Blues fight
Chelsea striker Nicolas Anelka has vowed to fight for his place in new manager Andre Villas-Boas' line-up at Stamford Bridge.[LNB] With England Under-21 striker Daniel Sturridge back from an impressive loan spell at Bolton, Fernando Torres insisting he is ready to justify his £50million price-tag and evergreen Didier Drogba ready to go again, there had been suggestions 32-year-old Anelka would be ready to leave and move to Major League Soccer in the United States.[LNB]However, the France striker, who broke through as a teenager at Arsenal in 1997/98, insists he still has plenty to offer as Chelsea prepare for Thursday's friendly against a Malaysia XI at the sold-out 84,000 Bukit Jalil National Stadium.[LNB]"I am still here and still very pleased to be with Chelsea. I like a challenge," Anelka said, quoted by the London Evening Standard.[LNB]"It is all part of the game and when you play at a club like Chelsea you have to be ready to meet the challenge from wherever it comes.[LNB]"Every single member of this squad will have to fight to play and I am ready to fight."[LNB]Anelka welcomes the healthy competition and believes Torres, who took time to settle following his big-money January move from Liverpool, will come good.[LNB]"The problem last season was that Fernando was a new player and it is difficult when you come from another team and then play in a style you are not used to," he said.[LNB]"Now he is getting used to how we perform he has scored one goal in pre-season already.[LNB]"Fernando looked sharp and I think everything will be okay for him."[LNB]Anelka echoed the sentiments of team-mate Frank Lampard, who claimed no matter how much their Premier League title rivals spend, Chelsea still believe they will be the team to beat.[LNB]"I don't think we need to strengthen the squad if we are going to win the Champions League," he said.[LNB]"We have a good squad already. We are strong everywhere and I do not detect any real weaknesses."[LNB]He added: "Our biggest challenge will be the same as it has always been - Manchester United. They won the title and have bought some good players so they will be our biggest challengers, but we will be ready for them I can assure you."
