CLEVER lot, Chelsea happy to put club first
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UNDER WRAPS ... Frank LampardCLEVER lot, that mob down at Stamford Bridge.
While everywhere else managers have been counting the cost of the international break, Chelsea have sailed through it serenely.
At Tottenham, Michael Dawson is out for eight weeks following knee and ankle ligament problems sustained against Bulgaria.
Team-mate Jermain Defoe, who might have chosen the two-week hiatus to fix a long-term hernia condition, finds himself on the sidelines for six weeks after ankle damage incurred in Switzerland.
Ditto the luckless Theo Walcott at Arsenal.
It's claimed this is the EIGHTEENTH injury Walcott has suffered since signing from Southampton four years ago - and the second on England duty along with the shoulder he dislocated in training before the Germany match in November 2008.
He joins an Emirates casualty-list that includes Nicklas Bendtner and Robin van Persie, the Dutchman out until mid-October after missing five months of last season with an ankle injury picked up on international duty.
Van Persie has managed just 131 league appearances in six seasons at Arsenal though, interestingly, he was fit enough for the 2006 and 2010 World Cups and Euro 2008.
Liverpool's Dirk Kuyt also faces significant time out after rupturing shoulder ligaments in the build-up to Holland's Euro 2012 qualifier with Finland.
Yet at Chelsea it's all sweetness and light.
Frank Lampard and John Terry, who opted out of the international break for some running repairs, will both return for the trip to West Ham tomorrow.
Terry was able to rest a hamstring injury (which hadn't prevented him playing 90 minutes against Stoke just before the England squad joined up) while Lampard had a keyhole groin op.
Now they are raring to go again. How convenient for Chelsea, who have already seen Paulo Ferreira draw the curtains on his Portugal career while Ghana's Michael Essien has gone into "temporary" retirement.
There is also the bonus of Nicholas Anelka's 18-match ban by France following the furore in South Africa. Which doesn't seem to have bothered him too much.
Chelsea then are fully primed to continue the defence of their title having already started at a gallop.
Carlo Ancelotti will see all this as wonderful commonsense - especially in light of the injuries to Dawson, Defoe and Walcott.
He can also make the point Essien has missed numerous Chelsea games following THREE separate injuries while away with Ghana.
But it does make you think even more clubs will now follow Chelsea's example and pull their players out of what they see as undemanding internationals and needless friendlies.
Even more so as the Champions League season gathers momentum.
England have Euro qualifiers against Montenegro (October 12) and Wales (March 26) plus friendlies with France (November 17) and Argentina (February 9).
Now Argentina-England may be one of the most high-profile games in world football but I doubt whether even that can withstand club demands.
The weekend before, Chelsea are at home to Liverpool and then face Fulham a few days after.
On that very same weekend, Manchester City - with so many England players - are at Old Trafford while Spurs go to Sunderland.
The following week all our Champions League clubs will be hoping to feature in the last 16.
On top of the expected withdrawals before England play France, we may well have come to the stage where a match with old foes Argentina is even deemed superfluous to club requirements.