Can Chelsea survive the fixture flood in critical month ahead?

The international break has been weird. Dor the first time in months, Chelsea have not played twice in one week – we are in a comparative famine with no game in 13 days.

This has been a major shock to the system. Whilst the reign of Rafa has been shambolic, I have grown accustomed to the games coming thick and fast. I must confess I am suffering from withdrawal. So much so infact that I even watched England play like donkeys against Montenegro last night.

Whilst the majority of players have been in action and not had a rest, there is no time to linger as we see our fixture list intensify to the height of ridiculousness.

In April we are due to play a minimum of 8 games, with more congestion in the fixtures the reward, should we overcome Manchester United in the FA Cup.

In the first week of April, we will play 4 games in 8 days which would be enough to challenge even the most robust squad.

With an artificially thin squad due to almost every player in Europe being a Chelsea loanee, we face a challenge to remain competitive and we will be reliant on Rafa not messing it too much as he fumbles with a Ferrari using his Lada-suitable toolbelt.

Thank goodness we are not faced with a trip to Russia during that period.

The pressure will be on our flair players like Mata, Hazard and Oscar to keep their performance levels at their highest without much recovery time during matches. These players are young so I would like to see Mata and Hazard on the pitch as much as possible.

Should we kill a game early, then haul them off for a rest. Each game is critically important so we cannot afford to rotate for the sake of rotation.

I am nervous about April. There is a lot at stake and with no faith in the manager and too many games it could be make or break for our future.

The fixture drought is coming to an end, let us hope that Rafa doesn’t have us drowning in the flood.