Essien - Blues can cope

Midfielder expects Chelsea to keep playing well in January

Last updated: 12th November 2009   Subscribe to RSS Feed

Essien - Blues can cope

Essien: Calm over Chelsea prospects

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Michael Essien is not worried that Chelsea will struggle without their African stars in January.

Ghana midfielder Essien, Ivory Coast strikers Didier Drogba and Salomon Kalou and John Obi Mikel of Nigeria will all leave the Blues in the New Year to represent their countries at the African Cup of Nations.

Chelsea's title rivals will not lose so many players and may feel they have a slight advantage during an important part of the season.

Carlo Ancelotti will be able to bring in new players after their transfer ban was suspended but he has insisted he will not panic buy.

And Essien is adamant the current squad is strong enough to continue picking up points in the absence of several key performers.

"As you can see we've got a very big squad so they can cope without us and hopefully they will keep winning while we are away," said Essien.

"I love to represent my country and we can't change anything about that, we have to accept it and go over with our countries and once we are finished we will come back to our clubs do the job."

Confident

Essien is confident Ghana can claim glory in a country he has never visited before.

"I'm looking forward to it. I've never been to Angola so it's a new thing to me and I'm excited and looking forward to it and hopefully we can have a good tournament in Angola and win it," he said.

"We've got some good players in the squad but we have to keep working hard and we will see what happens in Angola.

"We are in the two big tournaments and we did qualify easily for the World Cup. For Ghana it's never been easy but we made it good and we will see what will happen."

Prem 2009/10 Win Outright: Chelsea 8/11