Alex out for Three Weeks

I'm still travelling (normal service to resume tomorrow) so not much time to dig into this, but Alex apparentlydid some damage to his thigh muscle in the last few minutes of the Arsenal game and will be out of action for around three weeks. Fortunately, there's an international break taking up a good deal of that time, but it's still unpleasant news - John Terry, Jeffrey Bruma and Branislav Ivanovic have all had injury problems as well in the young season, and any combination of further medical problems for that trio could easily see Michael Essien at centreback while Alex is out.

Against Aston Villa in a forthnight I'd expect Ivanovic to be shifted to the centre while Paulo Ferreira slots in as a right-back, but the quality of Villa's wing play may well force Ancelotti into doing something different - the Portuguese has been defensively vulnerable all season and one can't imagine him doing well against both Stewart Downing and Ashley Young. Any other ideas on what the manager might do here (NB: Jose Bosingwa may be a possibility).