Michael Essien's injury today has led to more than a few interesting transfers, generally based on the premise that the Ghanaian midfielder is out for the season. This, of course, is purely speculation - the extent of Essien's injury is currently unknown and won't be sorted out for a few days as Chelsea run tests once swelling around his right knee goes down. It's therefore pretty difficult to take things at face value here, but we would expect the injury to have an impact on Chelsea's transfer situation, and these are the first signs.
The Mail, for example, is claiming that Chelsea are now going to be pushing for an increased bid for Tottenham Hotspur midfielder Luka Modric, which (bold prediction here!) is probably going to work out about as well as the last one. Meanwhile, the Daily Mirror's back page theorises that Andre Villas-Boas will make a move for Porto midfielder Joao Moutinho, who is on a frankly silly reserve clause. The twitterverse has been crying out for Chile/Bayer Leverkusen midfieder Arturo Vidal, and I'm sure Maurizio Zamparini will be bleating about Javier Pastore before too long.
While none of these should be taken too seriously, they're pretty interesting to consider. A prolonged Essien absence does seem to necessitate a slight tweak to Chelsea's transfer plan, whether that's by going harder after the likes of Modric or investigating a longer-term plan like Vidal. As soon as we get news out of Stamford Bridge about how serious Essien's problem is, I'd expect to see Chelsea linked which a whole slew of new and interesting names. Things are going to get pretty silly.