First it was Jose Mourinho, politely pointing out after last weekend's narrow squeak against Wigan that while everyone thinks Chelsea have the perfect squad and an unlimited budget with which to supplement it, that is no longer the case in reality.
Mourinho might have been exaggerating when he said Chelsea were in big trouble, and it will be a major surprise if Roman Abramovich shrugs and turns out his empty pocket linings when the transfer window opens tomorrow, but the manager was entitled to bemoan the loss to injury of Petr Cech and John Terry. 'We no longer have the best goalkeeper in the world, we have lost our captain, and without John Terry we are short of cover at centre back,' Mourinho argued, perfectly reasonably.
Then it was Ricardo Carvalho, not quite singing from the same hymn sheet a couple of days later after the unexpected loss of points against Reading. The centre-half bizarrely insisted that Chelsea have the best squad in England, in spite of the injuries that are depressing his manager and the fact that Manchester United have just added Henrik Larsson to their roster and are recalling all their loan players. But the point of Carvalho's mini-rant was to stand shoulder to shoulder with his manager in moaning about Chelsea's lack of popularity. 'The whole country wants Manchester United to win the title,' Carvalho wailed. If this is not strictly true, in that one could show Carvalho pockets of Merseyside and Greater Manchester where absolutely no one wants to see United win another title, he was on firmer ground with his second sweeping statement: 'All of England wants a champion other than Chelsea.'
Not many people would give him an argument there, and it is not just the unclassy, nouveau-riche aspect of Chelsea's success that galls people, either. The fact is that Chelsea moan a lot. All managers moan in adversity, with the honourable exceptions of Aidy Boothroyd and Stuart Pearce, and perhaps the main reason for the perceived softening of Sir Alex Ferguson's personality is that he is not sticking his puce features into our television screens so much these days.
But, and this is not necessarily a criticism because some of the antics over the past 30 months have been highly entertaining, Mourinho and his players have taken the expression of dissatisfaction to a new level. The flounce, the petulant sulk, the contemptuous stare, the ludicrous persecution complex and the daft conspiracy theory are all likely to make an appearance in a Chelsea season, all the more so when results begin to go against them. Which, Carvalho and his manager might like to note, is one reason why everyone keeps rooting for Chelsea's opponents. It is not the case that the country has suddenly become converted to the cause of the previously hated United. It is simply that Chelsea are so much more amusing and newsworthy when they are not getting their own way.
So imagine if Chelsea really had something to moan about. More specifically, imagine if the African Cup of Nations were taking place in a couple of weeks, as it will be doing this time next season. Imagine how happy Mourinho would be, given the closeness of the title race, at losing Didier Drogba, Michael Essien, Salomon Kalou and John Obi Mikel while Ferguson and United lost absolutely no one. This is the situation that could be facing Chelsea in all probability in a year. Fifa recently mooted the idea of a synchronised season that would run in every country and continent from February through to November, something of a sledgehammer to crack the inconvenient nut that is the African Nations taking place every other January, although nothing is likely to change for the foreseeable future.
This means, with practically the whole of the Ivory Coast, Senegal and Nigeria now playing in the Premiership, that next season's disruption will be greater than ever. As things stand now, Chelsea could lose four players, at least two of them major influences, as could Tottenham. Arsenal, Blackburn, Bolton and Portsmouth might lose up to three each, and it's no use managers moaning about it, as one or two have been known to do, because the African Cup of Nations is no longer a novelty item on the calendar.
As our list shows, practically every Premiership club now have an African player, in some cases as many as five. Yet, handy as they may be, you don't want key players going missing when the going gets tough in January. It is possible that Manchester United have worked that out, though they were interested in Mikel and Essien.
