Malouda's capital pain

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Despite his £50,000-a-week wage, the French midfielder says settling into his new London home has proved problematic.

"I have only just had a phone line put in," said Malouda. "Things are not as simple over here as they are in France. You can't just go to a shop and 'bingo', they come round the next day to install your equipment.

"I was still trying to have satellite TV and the internet installed in my house in November.

"When I first arrived I went to see the club official in charge of the players' accommodation to ask him to help me find a house to rent.

"He dialled the number of a lettings agency and handed me the receiver, and that was the job done for him."

Malouda, who has been out injured since straining his knee ligaments a month ago, also criticised the absence of a winter break.

He said: "I have been warned about the Christmas periods in English football. They sound terrible."

He even had a few words to say about his colleagues' diets, adding: "The people at Chelsea don't control what the players eat. You can help yourself to anything you like, drink Coke or anything.

"It's a good thing I have come over at the age of 27 and so haven't been following the same diet as the rest of the club's players." Meanwhile, Chelsea have been told they will have striker Didier Drogba for just nine more games before he has to leave for the African Nations Cup.

The Ivory Coast FA said today they will call-up the striker for a training camp in Spain on 7 January and are not prepared to negotiate.

Ivory Coast coach Uli Stielike said: "All our players will go for the whole period. It is not only me who will demand Drogba is there, but the federation president and the whole nation."

Drogba, who has scored nine goals this season, could be away for five weeks along with international teammate Salomon Kalou.

Along with the Ivory Coast pair, Chelsea will lose Nigeria's John Obi Mikel and Ghana's Michael Essien.