Didier Drogba Return Is Perfect Timing for Chelsea and Diego Costa

International breaks can have a habit of breaking a team's momentum.

They can be bad news indeed.

Entire squads disappear for the best part of a fortnight, leaving managers with just a couple days to prepare for their next game when players trickle back from representing their countries.

Suddenly a winning streak can be halted by a draw or worse, a defeat.

The flip side of course is a fortnight off gives teams a breather, allows for tactics to be refined and important injured players are afforded more time to return to fitness.

Chelsea's Cobham training ground would have been a ghost town in the aftermath of their 2-0 victory over Arsenal 10 days ago, but importantly for Jose Mourinho, his squad is looking stronger ahead of this weekend's return to Premier League action.

Diego Costa, Eden Hazard and the rest have been on international duty since that Arsenal win, but as Mourinho counts the numbers returning he now has Didier Drogba and Ramires back fit, per the Daily Star.

Alastair Grant/Associated Press

Chelsea's numbers in midfield mean they can cope with the odd injury, but with three strikers, the absence of one can result in things looking sparse.

With Drogba missing for the past couple of weeks, Diego Costa's tight hamstring has been bigger news than it should have been. Chelsea have had to wrap him in cotton wool in the hope he would make it through otherwise they would have been left with just Loic Remy.

Costa did make it through, and now at the back end of a difficult period that required delicate man management, Mourinho can breathe a sigh of relief.

Chelsea are back to full strength.

As we have seen, the Drogba of 2014 is a far cry from the player who left Stamford Bridge a hero just over two years previous.

Time spent in China and Turkey has seen him wind down his career, yet as an impact player, he still has something to offer.

His presence gives Mourinho greater ability to rotate his front men, and with four games in 10 days, starting with Crystal Palace this weekend, we can be sure the manager will utilise his squad as much as he can.

Jon Super/Associated Press

After travelling to Selhurst Park, Chelsea face Maribor in the Champions League on Tuesday, followed by a trip to Old Trafford to face Manchester United before a third away fixture with Shrewsbury Town in the Capital One Cup.

The games are coming thick and fast, and Costa is going to need rest.

Against Palace and United, Mourinho will play his leading goalscorer. Chelsea are five points clear in the league, and the manager will want to see that lead extended, not narrowed.

Costa's nine goals in seven games tells us Chelsea will be better equipped to do that with him around.

Playing Maribor and Shrewsbury is the ideal time for the Spaniard to be left out, resting that troublesome hamstring. And now Drogba is back, Costa need not even be on the bench.

Remy and the Ivorian can share striking duties in those games. They're both capable and against lesser opposition should still leave Chelsea strong enough to come away with victories.

Alastair Grant/Associated Press

It's been around this time in recent seasons when Chelsea have slipped up in the league after a bright start. They can't afford that now, especially when they have been the league's standout team.

Mourinho is ruthless, and invariably, when his teams seize the initiative in a title race, they rarely relinquish it.

Now is the time to step it up a gear and punish those teams around them, extend that lead and put even more daylight between them and the chasing pack.

It's about momentum, and Chelsea can't lose theirs.

When he looks his players in the eye as he delivers that message, seeing Drogba among them will give Mourinho the confidence his team can do just that.

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Garry Hayes is Bleacher Report's lead Chelsea correspondent. Follow him on Twitter @garryhayes.