Spartak weakened by injuries ahead of tonight.

Chelsea have their injury problems ahead of tonights game but Spartak have to deal with problems of their own including a major blow to their influencial striker Ari tore a thigh muscle in the recent win over Zenit St Petersburg.

Boss Valery Karpin has Ari added to the list of players missing for tomorrow that includes defenders Sergei Parshivlyuk and Martin Stranzl in addition to Nikita Bazhenov and Kirill Kombarov.

Karpin is looking for an improvement from his side tonight and wants them to take the fight to Chelsea. He said:

"We played much better after the break than in the first half, We were too scared of our opponents, we had given them too much respect, but if we play them like we did in the second half in Luzhniki and like we played Zenit in the second half, then we have a chance."

Spartak did cause Chelsea problems on the day but I believe Ari will be a big loss for them tonight. He was busy against us and his movement did cause us problems. I expect Spartak to pack the midfield and remain as compact as they can be to at least come away from the Bridge with a point.

Match preview will follow shortly.

KTBFFH.