Ok relax, calm down. Kenyon has confirmed that there won’t be any January purchases at all, not even that home theatre system he was planning to buy. You’ll keep yapping about Podolski, Schweinsteiger, Adriano etc. but nothing’s gonna happen. Blame it on whatever, there won’t be any new signings in Jan.

Kenyon was quite categorical about it. He didn’t say ‘it’s upto Scolari’ or ‘we will see who Scolari wants’. Scolari may have some players in his mind for January but using the press Kenyon has conveyed the message to Scolari. We’re not sure yet if Scolari can sell someone and use that money to buy or he is free to buy free agents.

Isn’t that what Chelsea said last December as well but went ahead and bought the goal machine, Di Santo and Ivanovic in the winter window. The season before that we didn’t buy anyone in January because Jose stole Roman’s chocolate, and Roman wanted to punish him. Scolari’s denial is substantiated with a claim that ‘We never do because the types of players that we’re looking for are normally unavailable in January. They’re either cup-tied or just not available.’ Well, I can’t quite believe that. You look at the problem and look for a solution for this season. I’m not saying we should sign players in 10-year contracts in January. In 06-07, Sir Alex signed Henrik Larsson on loan for a short period and that made a difference for them.

Our type of player (whatever that means!) may not be available but does that also mean we have no players in the market that are better than a Malouda? C’mon. Also I wonder why we should be so worried about players being cup-tied. We’ll get most of our players for later stages of champions league (that is, if we beat Cluj next week!). The real trouble is in the premier league. That’s where we need players that can make a difference. The current squad with our players returning from injuries, is more than enough for the champions league. It is for the premier league that we need reinforcements. So, I don’t see being cup-tied a problem for the Jan purchases.

We also expect some of our key players to get back, more importantly – Drogba, Essien and Carvalho. To get these players back on the team sheet is like signing a new player. Look at these names. Drogba, Essien and Carvalho – if these guys were there for Arsenal match, do you think they’d have seen the match crumble under our feet? With these players, do you think we’d have played the final thirty minutes without a shot on goal? With Carvalho there, we even might have prevented those two goals.

I have always said that the core of Chelsea is what keeps Chelsea going strong. For me, the core consists of Terry, Lampard, Drogba, Essien, Cech and Carvalho. I can even add Mikel to this list. I will not add Joe Cole to this list. So this core group is what drives Chelsea to success. This group can’t take defeat. They hate to be dominated. They have a personality. It is important that this group plays for us as often as possible. When we miss three out of these six key players, it’s certainly going to impact us and it won’t be too easy to replace them.

We weren’t missing Essien in defensive midfield, thanks to some amazing performances by Mikel. But we did miss him in the midfield. That was evident on Sunday. When Deco has a bad game, we don’t have a good replacement or substitution for him. Our strength has always been the goal-scoring midfield. Even when we won back-to-back titles, none of our strikers scored 25+ goals. When goals come from everywhere, you don’t need to have a striker who scores in every second match. We are missing Essien in midfield and attacking midfield considering that he can also play as the right sided midfielder. He’s gonna be back only in March 2009. Sad.

Carvalho is expected to be back this weekend. That’s some relief. This relief is no reflection on how Alex and Ivanovic are playing. They have very good. Personally, I’ve been more impressed with Alex than Ivanovic. Alex looks more complete than Ivanovic. And also with Alex, the scope for error is very very minimal which I can’t say for the Serbian. Be it Alex or Ivanovic, Terry is not at his best if he does not have Carvalho by his side. We have seen enough matches to confirm this. Such is the intimate understanding and trust between Terry and Carvalho that they defend and they even attack without having to look for what the other is up to. Carvalho can make an appearance against Bolton this weekend. Good.

I’m really looking forward to the return of Di Santo. May be I’m hyping it up a bit too much about Franco. I’m highly impressed with whatever I’ve seen of him and I think he can help us with the plan B thingy. He is expected to be back by 14-Dec. Even Belletti could have replaced a terrible Deco that day but he was not available due to injury. Belletti is also expected to be back this weekend though he may not start unless Scolari wants to drop Deco. I don’t think Scolari would drop Deco. This man Deco was the only Scolari purchase. Scolari had everyone persuaded that Deco will provide that creative edge to Chelsea and also convinced us. I still believe that Deco would be special for us. It’s just that he had a run of a few bad games.

Given that our forwards don’t deliver, given that we bother more about how we play than what we achieve, given that Scolari is unable to influence the match proceedings, no signings in January does not sound like good news.

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