Drogba was stretchered off amid rumours he could be out for a large part of the season

Instead, injuries to key players have unsettled the squad ahead of Sunday's match against high-flying Aston Villa.

Chelsea was without Joe Cole, Deco, Ricardo Carvalho and Ashley Cole for Wednesday's Champions League meeting with FCR Cluj and lost Didier Drogba to what could be a long-term knee injury during the match.

Injury nightmare

Defenders John Terry and Alex were also hurt during the match, suggesting that Chelsea will do well this weekend not to lose ground on co-leader Liverpool, who play Manchester City on Sunday.

"I need to think for the game on Sunday," said Luiz Felipe Scolari, who took his unbeaten streak as Chelsea coach to nine games with a 0-0 draw at Cluj.

"I have a few days to build the team again.

"I don't know now what the possibilities I have for Sunday are."

But Scolari is getting used to coping without key players.

Drogba fear

Midfielder Michael Ballack limped out of the season opener against Portsmouth and Chelsea still won 4-0, while Scolari then had to alter his plans for the entire campaign after Brazil striker Robinho opted to move to Manchester City rather than join his compatriot at Stamford Bridge.

Drogba is certainly out of Sunday's match and Scolari is waiting to hear how long the Ivory Coast striker is set to be on the sidelines.

Ligament damage is suspected, suggesting he could be out for weeks or even months.

That could lead to an extended run in the side for France forward Nicolas Anelka.

The only other backups are Salomon Kalou and Franco Di Santo, who has never started a match for Chelsea.

'Not ideal'

"If Didier is out for a while, we will have to pitch in with goals from all around the team, which we can do, though the situation is not ideal," said midfielder Frank Lampard, who has five goals this season.

"The experience is not really there, but I believe the quality is."

Ashley Cole should recover from a back problem in time to play, but Scolari is waiting on news of Terry and Alex.

Villa unchanged

The game is likely to provide a contrast in approaches, with a regularly changing Chelsea side coming up against a Villa team that has been unchanged for all six of its Premier League matches.

Villa manager Martin O'Neill's team hit third place after Saturday's 2-1 win over Sunderland.

"Premier League points are hard to come by," O'Neill said.

"We seem to be getting into the habit of winning close games, which is very encouraging."

Steven Gerrard celebrates scoring his 100th goal for Liverpool

Liverpool confident

Unlike Chelsea, Liverpool has few problems ahead of its meeting with Manchester City.

Tied with the Blues on 14 points, one more than Villa, Liverpool easily beat PSV Eindhoven in the Champions League in midweek to continue its own unbeaten start to the season.

"But we've won nothing," Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard said.

"It's a good start but it's important to put silverware on table this year.

"We've gone two years without."

Title rivals

Defending champion Manchester United is at Blackburn on Saturday, when Arsenal is at Sunderland.

Arsenal missed the chance to take sole possession of the Premier League lead last weekend when it slumped to a shock 2-1 home loss to newly promoted Hull, but rebounded with a resounding 4-0 Champions league win over FC Porto.

"Losing to Hull is not like a crime," striker Emmanuel Adebayor said.

"It can happen in football.

"We had to show character and belief in our personality.

"But we took our lesson."

Juande Ramos is secretly wishing for a bit of luck this weekend

Spurs trouble

Spurs find themselves in dire straits ahead of Hull visit this weekend.

If Tottenham Hotspur fall at home to the Premier League new boys on Sunday they will have two weeks to suffer the consequences.

Tottenham are bottom of the standings with two points from six games, their worst start for 53 years, and share with fourth division Grimsby the dubious honour of being the only teams yet to have tasted a league victory.

In fact, since they won the League Cup in February they have managed only three league wins from 18 attempts and Spanish coach Juande Ramos, who guided them to victory over Chelsea at Wembley last season, is under intense pressure.

Two weeks

With the international break next weekend it would be a long two weeks if Spurs were to fail again on Sunday and there is always the chance that he might not be around by the time the team run out again at Stoke City on October 19.

"At this difficult time we have to be positive and optimistic," Ramos said this week.

"We have young players but players with quality and I have every confidence in the team.

"However, they are young, the pressure is on and it's possible the confidence is low.

"I'm sure when we win two or three matches that situation will change."

Turbulent changes

A turbulent close-season saw the departure of strike trio Dimitar Berbatov, Robbie Keane and Jermain Defoe while Roman Pavlyuchenko and midfielder Luka Modric were among the incoming group.

Ramos, brought in when Martin Jol was sacked for overseeing what was then considered a bad start last year, has been unable to knock his new squad into shape.

Worrying admission

Worryingly, and incomprehensively for most fans, assistant manager Gus Poyet said after last weekend's 2-0 defeat at Portsmouth that Pavlyuchenko and Darren Bent were too similar and might not be able to team up as a striking duo.

On paper a home game against Hull would appear the ideal time to chalk up that first win and begin building confidence but the promoted team have shown already that they are not in the top flight merely to admire the sights.

Their stunning 2-1 victory last week was only Arsenal's second defeat since they moved to the Emirates and left Hull in sixth place in the league and with an unbeaten away record after beating Newcastle United and drawing at Blackburn Rovers.

Manchester Utd

Manchester United travels to Blackburn without midfielder Paul Scholes, who damaged medial ligaments in the team's midweek Champions League match at
Aalborg, and Wayne Rooney but has striker Dimitar Berbatov in form after he scored twice in that 3-0 win.

Also Saturday, Fulham is at West Bromwich Albion, and Middlesbrough is at Wigan.

In Sunday's other games, Newcastle is at Everton, Stoke is at Portsmouth and Bolton is at West Ham.

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