Oh bloody hell! Whilst we’re all still debating whether or not we’ll cope with Didier Drogba’s absence through ACON duty, the fact that Nicolas Anelka missed the game through injury on Sunday seems to have been overlooked – until today’s announcement that is.
Word is that Nicolas Anelka has failed to respond to treatment on a calf injury and he’ll now miss most of our busy Christmas period along with the Ivorian. What we’re told is that Anelka will miss the Boxing Day game against Birmingham and the Fulham game 2 days later, whilst Drogba and Kalou have to report to the Ivory Coast’s training camp on December 27th, so to say we’ll be a little depleted up front is putting it mildly.
I mean, obviously we still have Sturridge and Borini so it’s not as if we don’t have any replacements at all but if you compare Drogba and Anelka’s goals this season to that of the two youngsters, it’s not exactly ideal. Add to that the fact that both of them probably thought Ancelotti had re-christened them ‘bench’, then it’s not really surprising we feel a little less confident going into Christmas.
If Ancelotti’s worried though, he certainly isn’t letting on, saying “I have a lot of confidence in my strikers, not only Drogba, Kalou and Anelka, but also Sturridge and Borini. Against Fulham maybe we have only Sturridge and Borini but in January Anelka will be ready to play. He has a little muscle problem and will not be able to play these games. But Sturridge has a good opportunity to show his quality. He played very well against West Ham and maybe he will play from the beginning against Birmingham. These are very important games for us and we’re in a very good position. We have four more points at the top, although we didn’t play well in the last few games. We have to stay concentrated and focused. We are playing against very strong teams, they are doing very good results and performances. We have to pay attention and this is a very important moment for the future.”
And whilst we might be thinking a dip into the January transfer market is called for, Ancelotti insists “We have a good solution internally. I didn’t ask for new players to come to the club because it could be a problem in February and March.”
I have to say it’s the problem over the next month I’m more worried about though.
Blue is the colour
