Ahead of Saturday's clash between Chelsea and Manchester City there's been plenty mae of the battle of the Bridge, er, at the Bridge.

We've decided to head over the the Times for a bit of sane speak from friend of ESPN, Patrick Barclay. He's saying what quite a few have been whispering: Wayne Bridge ain't that much of a loss to the England team.

Here's a snippet of what he says:

Bridge’s importance as a deputy has been exaggerated for dramatic effect, but Cole is the best left back in the world and without him — no matter who replaced him — England’s chances of becoming champions would be reduced.

And that’s it. The rest of the supposed England injury crisis is just World Cup mania, a peculiarly English form of it, a rather touching pessimism about everything that happens in relation to the tournament, good or bad. It is manifested in discussion of penalty shoot-outs. Everyone thinks that England teams are bound to lose them, as if no other country ever did. No one mentions the law of averages.

Anything to do with fitness is cause for consternation. If Rio Ferdinand misses a few matches for Manchester United with back trouble, England’s defence has collapsed. If Wayne Rooney displays the form and fitness of Superman, this is even more worrying in terms of the attack — for surely he will be burnt out by June.

Gloom can be put to good effect, as I discovered on the opening day of the 2004 European Championship in Portugal. A well-known pundit from a certain country, asked how his team would fare, wailed: “Help! Various players are fighting with each other and most have had problems with their clubs. Just let us have three respectable defeats and go home.” Yet Greece won it.