Michael Essien set to feature for the Reserve team today

According to the Daily Mail, Michael Essien will be featuring for the reserve team in some capacity as they host West Bromwich Albion today. The game will take place at 2 PM London time. Unfortunately ChelseaTV will not be airing the game, so you'll have to follow twitter for updates. For those of you not familiar with the midfielders situation, Essien suffered a very serious knee injury very shortly after the squad resumed training this summer and has not played a minute yet this season. How he'll fit into AVB's long term plans is probably a bit unclear as he didn't even get to feature in the preseason. For now it's just exciting to have more options in the center of the pitch.

The timing of the return seems perfect for Chelsea as Essien seems to be regaining fitness just after the ACoN robs the Premier League of it's top African talent. While I'm sure he'll be watching the tournament with some interest, Essien will not be able to participate this season and will instead focus on helping the blues solidify a top four place. Essien's return also probably means an imminent loan move for Josh McEachran as the additional depth provided by the bison should pretty much bury young Josh on the depth chart. A good Spring from Essien could probably hasten the exit of Frank Lampard this summer as I'm sure his playing time will be somewhat negatively affected by this. Regardless of what it does to the rotation however, it will be great to see Essien on the pitch again. Welcome back Michael...