Didier Drogba is fit enough to take his place on the bench for Chelsea against Birmingham today. Jose gives Pizarro his full debut up front alongside Kalou who has recovered from a knock to start the season. Malouda also starts, while Joe Cole has to make do with a place on the bench. He and Drogba will doubtless feature if Chelsea struggle to break down Steve Bruce’s side. It seems likely that Drogba will be fit enough to start the game at Reading on Wednesday and line up against Liverpool next weekend.

Meanwhile, over at the Emirates, Arsenal are doing it the hard way yet again. They trail Fulham at half-time after Lehmann dropped an almighty clanger to let Healy grab a debut goal after just 57 seconds.

I’ll be bring full rundown of the weekend events, lineups and incidents in my Scout Notes later this evening.