• ‘Chelsea is where I could fulfil my ambition’
• Valencia winger says Chelsea can rival Real Madrid and Milan

Spain winger David Silva says “the Premier League is the place to be” – and has set his sights on a move to Chelsea.

The Valencia star, currently on World Cup duty, has been linked with a number of Premier League sides, among them cash-laden Manchester City and cross-town rivals Manchester United. But Silva has implied he would pass up a move to the north-west should west London come calling.

“Chelsea have established themselves as one of the best clubs in Europe over the last five years,” said Silva. “They might not have the history of Real Madrid or Milan but they are creating their own history now. There is no reason why in the future Chelsea can’t be as decorated as Real Madrid.

“Chelsea probably have, along with Barcelona, the best squad in football and if any player joins Chelsea he knows he is going to win things.

“In players like John Terry, Frank Lampard and Didier Drogba they have players who would get into any team in the world and it would be a pleasure to play with them,” he told the Daily Star.

“There is no doubt in my mind that Chelsea would be a great club to play for – and a club where I could fulfil my ambition of league titles and the European Cup.

“The Premier League is still the place to be, no other league in the world has six or seven Champions League quality teams.”

ChelseaValenciaTransfer windowguardian.co.uk

• Mikel John Obi fitness concerns continue for Chelsea
• Michael Ballack likely to remain in line-up at Liverpool

Chelsea are increasingly resigned to being without their regular holding midfielder, Mikel John Obi, through injury for the critical Premier League game at Liverpool on Sunday, with Michael Ballack expected to retain his place in the leaders’ starting line-up.

Mikel sustained damage to his ankle and knee ligaments in a challenge from the Bolton striker Kevin Davies during Chelsea’s 1-0 victory at Stamford Bridge this month. The 23-year-old, who has established himself as first-choice in the anchor role in the prolonged absence of Michael Essien, was fit enough to start the following game at Tottenham Hotspur but lasted 33 minutes before succumbing to a relapse of the injury.

That ruled him out of the meeting with Stoke City last weekend though Carlo Ancelotti had been hoping he would have Mikel available for the trip to Merseyside. However, the player continues to be discomforted by the injury and is rated extremely doubtful for Sunday. While the Nigerian was not missed against Stoke, with the visitors dismissed 7-0, his absence would potentially be felt more keenly at Anfield where he would have been in direct confrontation with Steven Gerrard, the main thrust of Liverpool’s attacks in the absence of the injured Fernando Torres.

The task of quelling the home captain is now expected to fall on the experienced Ballack, who had little to do in the one-sided contest with Stoke. The Germany captain has played in the position before but it is not his preferred role, though he is likely to be given the nod ahead of both Branislav Ivanovic – who has featured occasionally as a defensive midfielder, albeit not at Chelsea – and the versatile Juliano Belletti. The Brazilian, an unused substitute against Stoke, will leave Stamford Bridge under freedom of contract in the summer.

Mikel should be fit to feature in the final fixture of the season, against Wigan Athletic on 9 May. Ancelotti will at least have Deco and Yuri Zhirkov available for the trip to the north-west after both recovered from a virus that had swept through the squad in the build-up to the Stoke game, while John Terry returns after a one-match ban following his sending off at Spurs. Ricardo Carvalho continues his steady rehabilitation from his own ankle problems, though he has only just started running again and will not be in consideration for the weekend.

Chelsea could potentially claim the league title on Sunday should they win at Anfield in the early afternoon kick-off and Manchester United subsequently succumb to Steve Bruce’s Sunderland on Wearside. The Londoners will be flying back from Liverpool as the United game concludes and will only learn whether or not they have been crowned champions for the first time since 2006 on arrival back at Gatwick.

ChelseaPremier LeagueDominic Fifieldguardian.co.uk

Today’s extemporaneity would like a Geek Pie, please

Just as a bad workman always blames his tools, so a bad rumourmonger always blames his snouts. We’re not passing the buck, it was somebody else’s fault. Despite telling our team of hapless sniffers that we would cattle-prod them to within an inch of their future fatherhood prospects if they did not give us some premium juice this morning – Phil Brown to start an acid-skiffle group with Bez and Courtney Love, say, or Andrés Iniesta to Gillingham – we’re left drinking the same old watered-down rubbish. So let’s get on with it.

Chelsea are going to spend €40m to pip Barcelona and Real Madrid to the signing of the Benfica winger Angel di María, a man whose name sets the Mill in mind of Angel Delight and more innocent, benevolent times. Bananaman on TV, jumpers for goalposts, having our head flushed down the toilet twice a day by “Cropper” McNichol, being forced to sniff paint behind the bikesheds, silently weeping ourselves to sleep at night.

Everton’s manager David Moyes has told anyone who’ll listen that Jack Rodwell is going nowhere this summer. Given that Moyes is one of the hardest men ever to walk the earth, and once gave The Mill a prolonged attack of The Fear by simply making eye contact with us for 1.42 seconds, we’ll take his word for it.

In an attempt to get a greater grasp of the English culture, and having completely failed to understand the point of Loose Women and The One Show, Gianfranco Zola is planning to play a game of pass the “half-decent England goalkeeper” in the summer. If Robert Green decides to leave Upton Park, Zola will replace him with Joe Hart on a year-long loan, it says here.

Harry Redknapp is in the shower. And while he’s firmly scrubbing the luscious bubbles of Original Source Mint Shower Gel into his freshly waxed six-pack, he’s thinking about the 16-year-old Zambian left-back Emmanuel Mbola, who he wants to sign for £1m from Armenian side Yerevan. That actually sounds a bit Didier Baptiste to us, but our crack team of grizzled Armenian snouts assure us otherwise. In fact Mbola has already played 20 times for his country, having won his first cap as a foetus.

Oh, and Ashley Cole nearly swerved off whatever the Chelsea equivalent of the North Circular is when he learned he would be disciplined by Chelsea for reportedly doing extra training in his hotel room bedroom during away trips. He was just keeping fit! Cole may do one to Barcelona or Real Madrid as a consequence. “Ashley is having a rough time at the moment,” said a source. “If he and Cheryl get divorced, why would he want to stay in this country?” Loose Women?

ChelseaTottenham HotspurEvertonHarry RedknappDavid MoyesBenficaRob Smythguardian.co.uk