Bad news everyone. While we weren't expecting John Terry to be back from his knee injury for Chelsea's match against Napoli or anything, nobody was expecting a long-term absence. Well, we may very well be getting one:

Well that's not good at all. Although Terry takes a lot of flank for being 'past it' and 'slow', those descriptions don't do his defending any real justice. He's been very good for the past two years, and there's a real downgrade between him and Gary Cahill, who will presumably partner David Luiz in his absence.

For a while, we thought that Chelsea might be missing Terry for an extended period because of the racial abuse claims from October, but even though that trial got pushed to the summer we're getting a longish term absence anyway. When it rains, it pours, I suppose. We'll get the details as they come - hopefully this is minor. Early guesstimates seem to be between one and two months out.

What's worse than facing Napoli's terrific trio of Edinson Cavani, Ezequiel Lavezzi and Marek Hamsik at the San Paolo? Facing them without John Terry! Here's Andre Villas-Boas as the bearer of worse news than usual:

Alllright. I hope you've been enjoying the David Luiz and Gary Cahill partnership, because it's going to have a rather tough test on Tuesday. We had mostly assumed that Terry was getting rested for that match, but nope. Time to see whether Cahill's worth the money we paid for him, because we need a decent result at the San Paolo in order to get this season back on track (or at least slightly less off-track).

We've also got the problem, if Ashley Cole is unavailable, of having to deal with Christian Maggio's overlapping runs at right back. Now, this would be pretty bad whether or not Cole was available, but I'm even more uncomfortable with throwing Ryan Bertrand* or Jose Bosingwa up against that. This match is going to be very very interesting.

*I'm not entirely sure what our new squad is for the Champions League. It's entirely possible that Bertrand is still out.

A funny thing happened a few days ago. Chelsea, at risk of falling out of the Premier League top four for the first time since history began, with an unpopular manager, a trigger-happy owner and a string of pretty miserable performances, did not fire anyone after losing 2-0 at Goodison Park. It's not like it was an unfortunate scoreline, misrepresenting the way the team played. It was an absolute atrocity, the sort of game that gets managers pushed off the cliff.

And yet here we are. Andre Villas-Boas is still at Cobham rather than being shipped off to some penal colony in Siberia. And, incredibly, the manager is starting to throw some punches of his own:

I have no less or more authority from the way you are putting it. My authority is total because it's the owner's authority.

[The players who don't like it] don't have to back my project. It's the owner who backs my project. I think the owner has full trust in me and will continue to progress with the ideas that we have.

-Source: Fulham & Hammersmith Chronicle.

Compared to what's happened to past managers of Chelsea when they've disappointed, this is a crazy development. I'm also not that sure it's a sensible one. If Andre Villas-Boas wasn't so loud about how awesome he is (which is apparent to those of us who followed Porto last season, but has completely failed to manifest itself during his tenure with the Blues), that'd be one, thing, but to air dirty laundry in the media is something else entirely.

I really don't get it. It would be pretty simple to explain to his players that he has the owner's backing and that they should buck up or get out without playing all of this drama out in public, but he's chosen exactly the wrong path, in my opinion. No matter whether or not you support Andre Villas-Boas as manager, I don't think it's reasonable to assert that this was the right way for him to have gone about his business - staying quiet and keeping this internal would be far more sensible.

The only thing I can think of that would make this move make any sense at all is if Villas-Boas is issueing Roman Abramovich a direct challenge via the media - fire me or back me. If that's true, he's playing a very dangerous game.

Some interesting stuff is in the works regarding Chelsea's stadium move. For a long time, it's looked as thought Earls Court - for my money the most natural home of the Blues should we move from Stamford Bridge - was off-limits. Now, however, it seems as thought Chelsea are trying to sabotage the planned new development there. With the general plans for Capital & Counties' big project at Earls Court going up for approval at a Hammersmith and Fulham meeting today, the club has launched an objection to the scheme, hoping to block it before it begins:

The current applications fail to take advantage of the potential for a new strategic leisure, cultural and visitor attraction, such as might be provided by a new stadium with conference and exhibition spaces. (We) therefore consider the applications premature in advance of the EC&WKOA SPD and have requested that any decisions on the applications are deferred until the SPD has been adopted.

-Source: CoStar news.

So that's pretty interesting. My gut feeling is that Chelsea are probably out of luck here - the planners have given their recommendation that the original project be allowed to proceed, but it's nice to see the club be so aggressive about going after an area that could really be a great site for them. Earls Court is almost certainly a better place for Chelsea than Battersea, which is south of the Thames, and so the Blues should be fighting tooth and claw to get a stadium built there.

Remember that under the Financial Fair Play rules, Chelsea can vastly increase their revenues by moving into a new arena without actually impacting their relevant expenses, so a move away from Stamford Bridge is looking like an excellent solution to any money problems we may have. There was, of course, plenty of controversy as the team tried to buy out the Chelsea Pitch Owners last autumn, with many fearing the club might escape the area altogether, so the fact that the team is taking nearby sites so seriously for a proposed move is fantastic.

Hopefully the objection to the current plan for Earls Court holds. Why have a bunch of silly overpriced townhouses when you could have a stadium!

If you were to ask your average football fan who Chelsea's top player has been over the course of the 2011/12 season, they'd probably come up with Juan Mata. While that could well be true, there's another candidate who deserves a place fairly high up that particular list - Ramires. Without the midfielder, Chelsea have looked rather aimless, and although Michael Essien's doing a fine job since his return from injury, he doesn't have Ramires's ability to burst forward at speed, a weapon Chelsea have really missed.

Since Ramires's MCL injury against Queens Park Rangers at Loftus Road, Chelsea have played three matches. They've won none of them, picking up two points from a possible nine. His absence was most keenly felt during the 3-3 draw against Manchester United, where a fit Ramires would be the man picking up Paul Scholes in the second half, but there's no doubt he'd have helped against Swansea City as well (I don't think anything would have helped at Goodison Park!).

Anyway, Ramires. Ramires is back for Birmingham City. I don't really want to use him for a full ninety minutes on Saturday with Napoli coming up midweek, but I'd be fine with him playing 30 minutes at the Bridge. His return is really really good news, so let's all have some sort of Ramires party to celebrate. You go first.

Nobody else is back. Salomon Kalou and Didier Drogba have returned from the Africa Cup of Nations but haven't been in training for long enough to feature against Birmingham, John Terry is scheduled to return to full training tomorrow and won't be able to participate in two games in such quick succession, and Ashley Cole is '50/50' to return by next week. That means... more Jose Bosingwa, most likely. What fun.

Anyway, the squad should be at full strength by next weekend. Not a moment too soon.

It looks like good news on the injury front for John Terry and Ashley Cole. The captain, who hasn't featured this month thanks to an injury initially sustained on January 8th, is back in light training with Chelsea, the first step in his road to recovery with the team. Hopefully he'll be back for Chelsea's visit to Italy next week, although we'll have to wait and see on that one.

Ashley Cole, meanwhile, looked in real pain following a collision with Phil Neville at Goodison Park during Chelsea's 2-0 loss on Saturday, but there's good news* on that front too - the Blues have described the damage as 'heavy bruising' rather than anything serious, so there's no reason to think that he'll be out for a sustained spell.

*And no matter what you think of Cole's performances this season, having players injured is bad news.

With Didier Drogba and Salomon Kalou back from the Africa Cup of Nations and Frank Lampard and John Obi Mikel restored to the squad following injuries of their own, the Blues are racing back towards full strength. Once Cole, Terry and Ramires are fit again, we should have a team that can overcome what a certain someone would call our 'bad moment'.

If Chelsea were at full strength, what lineup and shape would you be picking? Answer in the comments.

Some good news on the injury front at long last. The somewhat-maligned* John Obi Mikel has recovered from the hamstring injury he suffered during the 1-1 draw at Tottenham Hotspur and is back in training ahead of the Everton clash, and Frank Lampard is expected to join him before Saturday, meaning that we'll be up to almost a full complement in the centre of the pitch. Both players have their flaws, of course, but having them available is a lot better than not, as we saw against Manchester United.

*Unfairly.

That will still leave Chelsea down four players, but with the Africa Cup of Nations final set of Sunday, we'll get Salomon Kalou and Didier Drogba back next week and hopefully toting some nice shiny medals to add to their collections. There's also, apparently, some hope that both Ramires and John Terry will return for the FA Cup match against Birmingham (although reports from yesterday seemed to indicated that Terry could miss the rest of the month). Ramires is the player the Blues are missing most at the moment, and getting him back after just one more match would be huge. Here's hoping!

I'm sure we'd all like to wallow in self pity after the 3-3 draw against Manchester United, but we have to keep looking forward, and we've got another important match coming up. Andre Villas-Boas isn't exactly give us good news - John Terry hasn't recovered from his knee injury, and nor has Ramires. However, there's a chance we get reinforcements anyway:

In light of a horrendous cameo by Oriol Romeu, it would seem that John Obi Mikel's return is important, but it becomes less of a factor should Chelsea switch to the 4-2-3-1. Terry's absence is obviously a blow, but the Gary Cahill-David Luiz partnership looked fairly good against United, so I wouldn't be too fussed about that. Lampard getting into a match would be pretty handy as well. It shouldn't be long until we're at full strength again, at any rate.