Chennaiyin FC travel to the abode of ATK on Thursday to lock horns with the defending champions at the Vivekananda Yuba Bharati Krirangan in Kolkata on Thursday. After a shock 1-3 defeat at the hands of NorthEast United FC in their previous fixture, the 2015 champions will be aiming to reach the summit of the Hero Indian Super League (ISL) 2017-18 table with a win. The match will also see the return of the visitors’ head coach John Gregory on the sidelines after serving his dugout suspension.

In the pre-match press conference, Gregory shared how he evaluates their opponent and the kind of impact the injured Robbie Keane will have on the side. “Robbie Keane has already showed in India, what a quality player he is. Obviously, you miss somebody of his ability and talent. I think he helped get the best out of the players around him. I do believe he could be coming back and playing a part in ATK’s season,” he explained.

“They have got some very good footballers. For one reason or another, it hasn’t worked. He (Teddy Sheringham) has not always been able to pick his best team. We have got a great medical team. My head of sports science keeps everybody fit. Literally, tomorrow we have 25 players to choose from. People ask me how come we’ve done so well this season, and that’s one of the reasons. I have a massive problem tomorrow night. Eleven to choose in the team and that’s what it’s been like. I’ve had a problem choosing the bench. It’s a testament to how we train them and prepare them throughout the season.”

He further elaborated, “I regard ATK as the Manchester United of India. They’ve been champions twice. We look up to them. All my players are fired up because it’s ATK. They want to play in this beautiful stadium. At the start of the season, when the fixtures came out, the first thing I did, was to look when we play ATK. The home game (against ATK) was an amazing match. That was one of the best games of my career. Regardless of their league position, they’re the current champions and we look forward to playing them.”

ATK will face Chennai under the management of Ashley Westwood after former head coach Sheringham parted ways with the club on Wednesday. Speaking on it, Gregory commented, “Sometimes, this kind of thing happens and a new guy comes in and suddenly everybody gets a lot of confidence. Things start to change. We saw what happened in NorthEast. They made a change, Avram Grant came in and they got an amazing victory against FC Goa. Sometimes, it works and sometimes it doesn’t, and we have to make sure that it doesn’t.”

The 63-year-old was effusive when asked about his own group of players. “Speaking about my own team, we’ve got an amazing bunch of guys,” he replied. “Sometimes words are cheap, but I really mean it. There are no egos in the dressing room. They mix incredibly well. We are a well-knit bunch and we stick together. That has helped us to win matches. As I said earlier, that (keeping everybody fit) has been an important aspect of this club. We don’t have any marquee players as such. We went down a different route and we feel we’ve been vindicated.”

Before leaving, Gregory also stressed why it was crucial to have a good pre-season, leading up to the main league. “Pre-season is vastly important because there you do all the hard work. There’s never a period during the season, when you can do all the things. As I said, I put a lot of trust in my head of sports science. Between us, we try to look after our players. It’s helped us enormously. A lot of that has been down to our pre-season. I think pre-season is extremely important and it’s important that you get it right. From our point of view, we’re delighted with our pre-season,” he finished.