The coach of the Ghana national team has explained the reasons why he agreed to leave Michael Essien out of the team for next weeks matches, and says that it was an amicable arrangement.
“As you know with Michael he has had two very serious injuries both with the national team in the last two years. It affected him a lot,” he said.
The Chelsea and Brazil defender Alex believes that the arrival of his countryman Ramires from Benfica will mean a lot more goals will be coming from midfield this season.
“I was talking with Jose Bosingwa and we were saying how Ramires is a lot like Michael Essien,” said Alex yesterday.
Chelsea returned to action after securing the famous League and FA Cup double last season, and theystarted with a low-key friendly against London neighbours Crystal Palace.
There were many World Cup stars missing as they are given extended breaks to recover from their exertions, so Daniel Sturridge and Franco Di Santo led the attack in the absence of Anelka and Drogba.
The Chelsea coach Carlo Ancelotti has made it clear that the Blues are not interested in signing Fernando Torres from Liverpool, as Chelsea already have four first-team strikers.
“I don’t think we need other strikers,” he said. “Nothing has changed because in the next days we have Didier Drogba, Nicolas Anelka and Salomon Kalou back and we have Daniel Sturridge.”
The Chelsea midfielder Michael Essien is gutted that he can’t play in tonight’s World Cup QuarterFinal against Uruguay, but says that he is recovering well from his injury, and hopes to be back in time for the start of the new season at Stamford Bridge.
The Chelsea midfielder Michael Essien may have missed quite a lot of last season through injury, but he still did enough to convince Carlo Ancelotti that he is worth holding on to for the rest of his career.
The 27-year old has signed a new three year extension to his contract, which means he will be 32 when it finishes, effectively signing him up for the rest of his playing life.
Chelsea have received another double injury blow as both John Obi Mikel and Michael Essien are ruled out for the rest of the season.
Mikel was taken off against Spurs with a tear in his knee, and said after the game: “It’s a little tear in the knee meniscus,”
“I won’t play this weekend and the doctors say it will take about three weeks to heal, although there will be no surgery.”
Chelsea are preparing for tomorrows crucial match against Aston Villa with a growing injury list, especially in defence.
Our defence is looking even weaker with the news that Ricardo Carvalho’s ankle injury will keep him out for about a month. It couldn’t have come at a worse time considering that Banislav Ivanovic was also ruled out for the same amount of time last week.
The Ghana Football Association want to get their team together for a two week preparation period before the African Nations Cup begins in January, and are not willing to take Chelsea’s word on the injury to their star player, Michael Essien.
They intend to send their own doctors to examine Essien before deciding when they want him to join up with the Ghana squad.
The other clubs in the Premiership are hoping that Chelsea will be seriously affected in January when the African Nations Cup is being staged, but if you look at the facts it would seem to be wishful thinking.
Yes Drogba and Essien can make a big difference to a game, but Mikel and Kalou are fringe players at best, so will not be missed to any degree.
