Michael Ballack will definitely miss the season’s opener - not through injury but because he signed for Bayer Leverkusen some weeks ago. Now another Michael (his former Chelsea teammate Essien), is confident that the squad won’t be affected by the German captain’s absence. In the same way, Michael Essien also believes that Chelsea won’t miss the services of Joe Cole and Deco who both left the club during this summer's transfer window as well for Liverpool and Fluminense respectively.
Speaking to the Blues’ official site, the Ghanaian midfielder who has now recovered from the knee injury he sustained earlier in January stated:
“We still have a lot of good players to play the games. We just have to stay fit, and to work hard, to go out there and win our games.
“It’s one of those things… Players move [to another club] in football. We could miss these great players, but I think we have the players to fit in now. I think we have enough here to replace them.”
Actually, Chelsea have officially assigned a work permit to Ramires who is set to complete his transfer from Benfica to the London club anytime soon. Talking about the Brazilian midfielder, Michael Essien declared:
“I don’t know too much about Ramires. But, I understand that he is a really good player.
"I l
ook forward to welcoming him and helping him adapt to the Premiership.
“Hopefully, he can be a good player for us to have here. To be in the Brazilian side [A Seleçao] is not easy, so he must be good and I hope I can work well with him.
“Coming [to Chelsea] at this time is not really different to any other time, be it the start of the summer or in January. Everyone here is a professional, and we understand each other. He [Ramires] will just have to get used to us, and we will have to get used to him, and we can take it from there.”
Ramires may not arrive in time to feature in Chelsea’s English Premier League opening fixture against West Bromwich Albion. However, a player other than Michael Ballack, Joe Cole, and Deco whom will definitely not be involved in this match is Ricardo Carvalho. The Portuguese signed for Real Madrid earlier this week.
For further details on the Blues match this Saturday which will kick off at 12:30 EST, visit the Chelsea vs West Bromwich Albion Live Streaming and TV Schedule page.
