UPDATE -  Chelsea and Ghana International Micheal Essien’s initial estimates for his return from a ruptured ACL and subsequent surgery has now been seemingly pushed back after the New Year.

With Essien doing most of his rehab in France at the Centre Technique National Fernand-Sastre (CTNFS) in Clairefontaine, the timetable of 4 to 6 months looks to be closer to the latter.

Via DailyMail

“It’s difficult for the moment to fix a date for my return,” the midfielder said.  “But I know that my recovery period will last a total of four to six months.”

Chelsea midfielder / defender / plays wherever he’s needed Michael Essien faces a lengthy stretch on the sidelines after rupturing his ACL while away on International duty with Ghana during their loss to Libya.

A Chelsea statement read: “Michael Essien suffered a knee injury playing for Ghana on Friday. “He has ruptured his anterior cruciate ligament and will undergo an operation as soon as the majority of the swelling has subsided. We expect this to happen in a week’s time.

“In the meantime Michael has started rehab in the aqua therapy centre at Cobham which will improve the condition of the knee prior to surgery. A return to full fitness is not expected for several months.”

“There was no challenge but after I cut out a cross and landed I felt awkward and the pain was sharp. I am devastated but these things happen in football,” Essien told KickOffGhana.com.

Losing Essien against Libya? Who else is putting money on Chelsea making a move against FIFA to recoup some of their money after losing Essien for that long?

Libya? Really?

Paging John Obi Mikel, Obi Mikel… Please report to the Chelsea midfield.

image via DailyMail

UK High Court Judge Mr. Justice Christopher Clarke has claimed that Russian Billionaire Roman Abramovich’s ownership in Chelsea is just a “hobby and leisure interest” during his courts initial hearing of a case brought against Abramovich by Yugraneft, a bankrupt Russian Oil Company that is claiming it was defrauded out of a 50% Siberian Oil Field stake.

Ruling that the case can not be heard in the UK because of the lack of time spent there, Justice Clark brought about the 2003 purchase and subsequent 600 Million Pound Abramovich pumped into Chelsea saying “It is not a business investment. The sums that Mr Abramovich has given to the club far exceed any return that could possibly be expected.”

image via Deadspin

We have posted a lot on here about Roman Abramovich and how he likes to spend his money. From football, to art, real estate to mega yachts, Abramovich knows how to spend some serious scratch.  Looks like some of his free spending ways might start to slow though with reports that the gloabl economic crisis has wiped $20 billion from his personal net worth! Yes, that is $20 billion…gone.  It is reported he is still worth an estimated $3.5 billion, but that is a serious amount of evaporated money. At what point will this start to have an effect on the type of money he is putting into Chelsea? You can’t lose that kind of money without taking a hard look at all of your investments.

Oh, and according to Bloomberg,  Russian billionaires “have lost more than $230 billion in five months.”Wowzers…

Chelsea vs Manchester United at Stamford Bridge, on Fox Soccer Channel, Sunday at 9 a.m. ET.

Chelsea may have been beaten to the Premier League title by two points and denied Champions League glory by a missed penalty kick - both times by Manchester United.

Yet new Chelsea manager Luiz Felipe Scolari says his team will not be driven by revenge when the two sides meet Sunday at Stamford Bridge. He hasn’t even watched tapes of last season’s matches.

“No. No. No. I have videos of Manchester United in this season’s Champions League, and of their last two games in the Premier League,” Scolari said Friday. “Now is different to what happened in May. Now is important and they have a fantastic group. They have 25 or 26 fantastic players, and they’re in a better condition now than at the start of the season.”

United manager Alex Ferguson begs to differ…”I just want my team to put the ball into the net,” Ferguson said. “We are simply not scoring enough goals.”

Image via SkySports

With referee Mark Halsey pulling out the straight red card after Chelsea Captain John Terry pulled down Manchester City’s Jo near the end of Chelsea’s 3 - 1 win at City, Terry WAS set to miss this weekend’s Manchester United at Chelsea showdown, the Carling Cup match against Portsmouth and the match at Stoke on the 27th because the red card was labeled “Serious Foul Play”, which means in a three match ban.

After taking another look at the video after the match, head coach Luiz Felipe Scolari and the Chelsea honchos appealed to the FA Regulatory Commission who agreed today, dropping the mandatory ban.

When things like this happen, I have always wondered what happens to the referees who make the wrong decision.  Are they banned, suspended, docked pay, forced to do a couple of Championship matches before getting called back up?

I personally feel that they should be held accountable in the same way and forum that the players are held accountable.  Just sayin….

image via lh3

Chelsea had at first refused Assistant Coach Steve Clarke’s tendering of a resignation to join up with Gianfranco Zola at Upton Park, but now it’s looking like both clubs have reached compensation as West Ham has sent 1 Million Pound over to Stamford Bridge for the highly rated Number 2.

“Clarkey has been an unbelievable servant for Chelsea for many years as a player and as a coach,” said Blue’s and England Midfielder Frank Lampard.

“He has been an important member of the back-room staff for what we’ve done over the last few years. But if he feels he wants to go and do something different - I know he has intentions to be a manager in his own right - you can only wish him all the best.”image via EuroSport

After a long week away in South America with Brazil for World Cup Qualifiers that didn’t go exactly to plan, Robinho turned out for Manchester City for his first training session under Mark “Sparky” Hughes.

With City facing Chelsea at home this weekend, fans will get a good look at their new 32.5 Million Pound player.

images via DailyMail 

With all the money and hype surrounding Man City’s new owners, and the potential of Sheikh Mohammed to drop some serious cash to get a hold of Liverpool, let’s not forget the Premier League’s Original Billionaire / Oil Tycoon…Mr. Roman Abramovich.  The latest Vanity Fair has their annual Top 100 list, aka The New Establishment, aka the world’s most powerful and influential people. And coming in at number 8 was Roman, jumping up from number 20 last year. Aside from his massive art and real estate holdings, his ownership of Chelsea (they didn’t mention that one, but I had to) VF notes that Abramovich will getting back into politics, and this time in a much more high profile position. Gotta be nice for Chelsea having one of the world’s richest and most powerful people as your owner.

DOUBLE UPDATE -  Adrian Mutu has officially filed an appeal with the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

A CAS statement said: “Mutu requests the CAS to annul the Fifa decision and to establish that no compensation is in fact due.”

UPDATE - Instead of 9.6 Million Pound, make that 13.68 Million Pound that Adrian Mutu has to pay back to Chelsea FC after FIFA ruled in favor of the Premier Leauge Club.

‘The club can confirm that it has received the decision from FIFA’s Dispute Resolution Chamber (DRC) on the claim made against Adrian Mutu,’ read a statement from Chelsea. ‘Chelsea is delighted with the DRC’s decision to award the club £13.68million in compensation.’

‘This is an important decision for football. Not only did the DRC make us a very significant monetary award, the decision also recognized the damaging effect incidents involving drugs has on football and the responsibilities we all have in this area.’Chelsea will now be following the process laid out in the DRC’s decision to claim the money from Mutu.’

Ouch. I’ll say that again, Ouch.

Romanian and Fiorentina striker Adrian Mutu has been ordered to pay 9.6 Million Pound to Chelsea Football Club after a FIFA sporting tribunal judged the club was allowed to recover compensation for wages and transfer money lost when Mutu tested positive for Cocaine back in October of 2004 (the player was also handed a 7 month ban).

Beans and I have been racking our brains about this one. We can’t figure out if this is the first time a player has been forced to pay back money/damages to a club and held accountable for choices made off the field. Makes you wonder what really happened behind the scenes after this all went down.

Chelsea had initially paid 15 Million Pound to Parma in 2003.

Yesterday it was Emirates, today it was Stamford Bridge for Tottenham at Chelsea.

Dave’s view today was from the Shed end.