Fast forward to Saturday 27th March 2010. Manchester United travel to face relegation-threatened Bolton, on the eve of a Champions League semi-final against Barcelona. Sir Alex Ferguson picks a weakened team and Bolton grind out a 1-0 win.

Come the end of the season, Bolton finish in 17th position, one point ahead of relegated Wolves. If this series of events unfolds, Mick McCarthy will wear the wriest of smiles.

McCarthy’s decision to change all ten outfield players for Tuesday’s 3-0 defeat at Old Trafford has opened a massive can of worms. Before the match, it generated a feeling that the result would be a foregone conclusion; a gimme.

Eyebrows will have been raised at all of United’s rivals, not least Arsene Wenger. He watched his Arsenal side held to a 1-1 draw last night by a motivated, full strength Burnley. Afterwards, Wenger commented that he will compete on an equal playing field with United over 37 matches – sarcastic, but fair comment.

We always hear that football is a confidence game. I wonder how those ten dropped players felt…Morale must have been sky high after a fantastic victory against Spurs, and the prospect of an injury-ravaged United defence will have excited the likes of Kevin Doyle.

And what of the fans? A midweek trip to Manchester will have set back the away supporters north of £100 per person. Surely they deserve better?

You can understand the reasons behind McCarthy’s decision, and if the renewed players gain three points at home to Burnley on Saturday, it would seem to have paid off.

But the bigger picture is cloudy. When a club’s final league position has such gigantic consequences, financial and beyond, surely all teams have an obligation to field something close to their strongest line ups in every game.

If the FA take no action against Wolves, it sets a precedent and gives every club carte blanche to decide which games they take seriously, and in which games they simply roll over and die.

Billionaire oligarch Roman Abramovich will have seen a few diamonds in his time. Thanks to his latest managerial appointment at Chelsea, he is observing a new one, and on initial inspection, it may be to his liking.

In the spirit of pre-season hype, much has been written about Carlo Ancelotti’s favoured diamond system. On paper, the formation seems a little narrow, with an over-reliance on overlapping full backs to provide width. In practice, we are seeing that it is an impressively fluid system, and in no small part, that is down to the embarrassment of riches the Italian has inherited in midfield.

If width is required, he can call upon the much-improved Florent Malouda, in addition to Kalou, Zhirkov and (if and when fit) Joe Cole. For tighter occasions, Ballack and Deco may be preferred. Either way, it seems Ancelotti will rotate his options in midfield according to the opponent and match situation.

Make no mistake, Ancelotti will be no ‘Tinkerman’. Expect to see the irrepressible spine of Cech, Terry, Lampard and Drogba on the vast majority of team sheets.

The early signs are extremely encouraging – Roman may have found his diamond geezer. However, a word of caution.

This time last year, Deco was shining in the late summer sun, and Luis Felipe Scolari was charming all whose path he crossed. While Deco tries to establish himself again, ‘Big Phil’ is now managing the mighty FC Bunyodkor of Uzbekistan. As Greavsie’s said so sagely, it’s a funny old game.

It could be worse. Chelsea lie one point off the summit of the Premier League, are in the midst of a remarkable run of domestic away victories, and have progressed to the last sixteen of the Champions League. For most teams that would be a pretty good position to be in, but the way Chelsea’s season is unfolding provokes cause for concern.

Following yet another frustrating home performance against West Ham, serious questions are being asked about Chelsea’s credentials. Much will be written about what is happening on the pitch, but how is the man at the helm – Luiz Felipe Scolari – shaping up in the Premier League pressure cooker?

There is evidence to suggest that Scolari is in fact struggling under the microscopic scrutiny of Europe’s most talked about league.

Much was made of Scolari’s perceived lack of experience at club level. However, before he embarked on a successful career in international management with Brazil and Portugal, Scolari had amassed almost twenty years of club management experience in Brazil, Japan & Saudi Arabia.

We always hear that pressure is no greater than in Brazil, where football is not so much sport as religion. But he last managed there in 2001 at Cruzeiro before taking on the Brazil national job. Now aged 60, living in a new country and learning a new language, the rigours of day-to-day club management are more likely to take their toll.

Cracks are certainly starting to appear in the great man. For the first month of the season, the football flowed beautifully and Scolari’s charm offensive swept the media off its feet. Then Chelsea’s proud unbeaten home record was ended by Xavi Alonso’s deflected drive, and since then, Scolari the charmer has become increasingly tetchy.

He accused the officials of ‘killing’ his side in the next home reverse at the hands of a van Persie-inspired Arsenal. He snarled at accusations of Didier Drogba’s alleged meeting with Inter Milan Director Marco Branca, sarcastically stating that he does not sleep with his players.

To compound Scolari’s increasingly strained comments, it is patently clear that he is suffering physically in his new role. Ray Wilkins recently admitted that he honours many of Big Phil’s media engagements as the manager regularly suffers from fatigue. He yesterday confessed to a kidney stone problem – a common symptom of stress.

Ahead of the vital Champions League match against CFR 1907 Cluj, the Brazilian mused that, should his side lose, he would be on the next flight back to his homeland. Those comments may have been said with tongue in cheek, but they may prove prophetic.

This particular observer predicts that, regardless of how Chelsea’s season ends up, by this time next year they will have a new man in charge.

A big thanks to our guest contributor Andrew ‘Tiger’ Walker – and he’s embraced one of our features, which we always like.

Playalikes: Number 2 – John Terry & Nemanja Vidic

Both these centre halves are colossuses. They are extremely dominant in the air at both ends of the pitch and chip in with their fair share of vital goals – Vidic as recently as Saturday evening against Sunderland.

They are exceptionally brave, both having suffered some sickening facial blows in the pursuit of clean sheets. In the world of Terry and Vidic, a tackle is not a tackle without taking a good thick slice of the man, not forgetting the ball.

Just as their strengths mirror each other, so does their most obvious weakness. Neither player is blessed with great pace, leaving them susceptible to rapid forwards in the Gabriel Agbonlahor mould. The Villa striker has scored twice against Chelsea in the last two seasons and just last month was brought down after outpacing Vidic at Villa Park, an offence for which the Serbian was lucky to escape a red card and/or penalty.

As such, Vidic and Terry are at their best alongside a more mobile centre half – step forward Rio Ferdinand and Ricardo Carvalho to complete the two most formidable central defensive partnerships in Europe.

Most apt phrase: ‘He’s better in the air than Pete ‘Maverick’ Mitchell’

Least apt phrase: ‘This lad would give Usain Bolt a run for his money’