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Chelsea ponder conundrum of full strength weakness
LONDON (AFP) - The resources afforded Avram Grant may make him the envy of his Premier League peers, but privately the Chelsea manager might be pining for the days when his squad was stretched to breaking point.
The west Londoners were widely expected to crumble during the winter, as they battled with a lengthy injury list and the unavailability of several key players due to the African Nations Cup.
Instead, they flourished, maintaining their interest in four different competitions at home and abroad and rediscovering the bloody-mindedness which was their trademark under Jose Mourinho.
Yet, perversely, the return to action of senior players such as Frank Lampard, Ashley Cole and Florent Malouda has coincided with a relative downturn in fortunes.
Chelsea have laboured in their last three matches, winning just once, to the extent that their already faint league title ambitions have virtually evaporated.
The Blues cannot allow their standards to drop. They are confronting a defining fortnight in their season, with a Champions League trip to Olympiakos looming next Tuesday and a League Cup final with Tottenham following five days later.
The chance to rediscover their rhythm against Huddersfield in Saturday's FA Cup fifth round tie at Stamford Bridge cannot be passed up.
Grant would never admit it publicly, but he must be perplexed at seeing the return of so many key players breed new problems rather than solve existing ones.
The Israeli will have been especially concerned at the laboured performance of Lampard in his comeback match against Liverpool, which resurrected the debate about whether the England midfielder can play alongside Michael Ballack.
It cannot have escaped Grant's attention that the pair struggle to function well in tandem and, while it should not cause undue problems against League One Huddersfield, he may be left with an awkward conundrum when it comes to plotting the downfall of more obdurate opponents.
Lampard, for his part, is merely happy to be fit again after a knee injury which ruled him out for nearly two months. "I feel fresh and ready to go," he said.
"It has been very frustrating. When you've been out injured, you can't even mix with the lads that much and you're spending long days at the training ground. I haven't ever had that and now I realise what other players have had to deal with."
Even an off-colour Lampard should be confident of thriving against Huddersfield, who are mired in the lower half of League One and would presumably be grateful to merely escape embarrassment on their trip to Stamford Bridge.
They will be backed by a 6,000-strong travelling army and will have the support of the romantics, but recent history suggests Chelsea have little time for such trivialities.
One man who will relish his afternoon, whatever the scoreline, is Frank Sinclair, who spent eight years at Chelsea after emerging from the club's youth system before leaving in 1998.
"I am obviously going to go there and try to do a job and get a result but it does make it a special day, to go back to the club and see the fans that I haven't played in front of for many years now," he said.
"My last game at the Bridge was with Leicester in 2000 when we lost 2-1 in the FA Cup. I was there as a guest of the club two years ago and went on the pitch at half-time. I wasn't sure what sort of reception I would get but the fans were brilliant and I can't wait for Saturday now."