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""I have to be honest and say that the disappointing summer is not affecting anyone at Chelsea. Of course I am disappointed about England and the World Cup but it is a breath of fresh air to come back to Chelsea. No one wants to go to the World Cup and get knocked out. I'm sure that Brazil, Argentina, Italy and all the other big teams who didn't get to the final feel the same.

But I'm not going to dwell on it and there has been no niggling mental effect for me because I've come back to a club that has just won the Double. It's an exciting time to be at Chelsea and I think the players and the fans all need to enjoy the fact that we are the Premier League champions. It's much better to be starting the season as the champions than trying to win the title for the first time in two or three years.

I've had a month's rest since the World Cup and that was enough for me because I haven't lost too much fitness in that time. I've only been back in pre-season training for a week and a half so obviously I'm not quite there yet, but I think a lot of clubs are having the same problem with their World Cup players.

It's going to be hard to top last season and we probably won't score more than a hundred goals again if the truth be known. We know teams will try to stop us doing things like that again this season. We'll try to perform as well as we can but to be honest I don't really care how we win the League as long as we do it. Every year there is always a lot of talk about winning the Champions League, but my first priority is always to defend the title.

City have got the money and are stronger than they've ever been because they've been able to sign a lot of good individuals. But they have to find the right mix very quickly to make it work. Chelsea were in a similar situation when Mr Abramovich took over. It probably took us about a season and a half to get where we wanted to be. City have a very good manager and experienced players so you feel that they are going to be a force eventually because of the money behind them. But how quickly and how successfully they can do it remains to be seen.

Michael (Essien) has been a huge loss for us. Even though we did the Double last year we can never underestimate what he brings to our team. He is so powerful and one of the best players around in a number of different positions. We've lost a few players this summer so having him back has given us that strength again. Michael is like a new signing for us.

Carlo fitted in very quickly last year and all the players have tremendous respect for him. I think that people at other clubs and the general public all understand that he's a good man. The way he works looks very decent from the outside. He's obviously been brilliant for us so it's nice to be able to carry on building with that. We all enjoy working with him here and we hope we can reach the heights we did last season.""

""We've spoken to Chelsea and we hope to tie something up very soon with Scott, There's one or two things that we're looking at. This is a squad that isn't going to need major surgery as long as I keep the squad I want to keep here and then add just one or two to it. One of those is injured but we hope to complete a deal with him, one we hope will be completed in the next 48 hours and one will probably happen before the end of the transfer window. All in all, I'm happy with the group that's here." "

""Gilberto, Julio Baptista and others gave me confidence by insisting I must accept this chance, In the end the Chelsea proposition was impossible to reject - not just because of the money but the chance to spend every day at one of the best clubs in the world.

As a boy in Brazil I watched the Premier League and I remember how Chelsea and Manchester United played such attractive football. This summer has been a dream - the Portuguese title with Benfica, the call of Brazil, the World Cup and now the jump into the Premier League." "

""Ben is an England U-17 international and has been under contract with Chelsea since 2007, Everyone at the club extends a warm welcome to Ben." "

""Chelsea are the champions and they have been there and done it like us.""