A round-up of news and views from the past 24 hours.
Chelsea will welcome Frank Lampard back to their squad for their trip to Sunderland this weekend, with the midfielder available for the first time in six weeks. However John Terry has been ruled out for the whole of the Club World Cup as he continues his rehabilitation from ligament damage sustained in the 1-1 draw with Liverpool.
Chelsea will also be without Daniel Sturridge with injury this weekend, and John Obi Mikel will serve the first game of his three match ban.
Sunderland are hoping that both John O’Shea and Steven Fletcher will be fit for the game tomorrow, with the defender the more likely to feature. Their captain Lee Cattermole is expected to be out for up to two months with a knee injury.
Gary Cahill has spoken about the club’s form, saying that the players can’t explain their poor performances:
“It’s the same group of players who started the season beating teams and scoring goals and keeping clean sheets.
“There’s no reason why we can’t get back to that but we were hoping it would come sooner. We’ve been waiting for that win.”
Cesar Azpilicueta has also spoken about the club’s form, defending Rafa Benitez and saying that the club can returning to winning ways now that they have adapted to their new manager’s style, and tightened up their defence.
Benitez himself has said that Chelsea can still compete for the Premier League title, despite slipping 10 points behind leaders Manchester United, after being encouraged by his side’s performance against Nordsjaelland on Wednesday.
Juan Mata has today said that the departure of Didier Drogba was like “an electric shock” for the club. The Spanish midfielder also defended Fernando Torres, saying that the team is learning to play in an entirely different way since the talismanic Ivorian left, and that Torres was still one of the best strikers in the world.
Drogba threw a party for his former teammates last night to celebrate their Champions League win. Focus was again thrown onto Fernando Torres, who was conspicuous in his absence from the party that was attended by many of Chelsea first team. During the night, Drogba gave his teammates rings commemorating their Champions League win at a reported cost of £800,000 to the Ivorian.
In other former Blues striker news Andriy Shevchenko may be coming back to the club as part of the coaching set up after holding talks with Roman Abramovich.
image: © Gummo
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