Grant starts to flex his muscles

FOR much of his five-month tenure, Avram Grant must have felt managing Chelsea was one giant optical illusion.

This is a club owned by one of the world’s richest men and saturated by silverware over the past three seasons, and yet it is only now that the Israeli can enjoy the full sweep of Stamford Bridge’s resources.

From pondering how to scrape together 16 senior players for key games, Grant is now fretting over who to leave out. Chelsea meet Olympiakos in the last 16 of the Champions League tomorrow and with the treatment room all but emptied and suspension lists cleared, there will be some bruised egos when Grant announces his line-up. Even Didier Drogba, left out here after feeling a twinge in his knee, is not a certain starter, even though Grant expects him to be fit.