There was good news for Chelsea today and bad news for the rest of the Premier League as five key players moved a step nearer to first-team returns.

With the Blues top of the table, having scored 29 goals in 12 matches and won all six away games in the process, manager Luiz Felipe Scolari may now soon be able to select his strongest team for the first time.

Michael Ballack, Ashley Cole, Joe Cole, Didier Drogba and Ricardo Carvalho are all expected to feature this week plus long-term injury victim Michael Essien is making faster progress than expected.

Ballack has returned to training following a foot injury, having been sidelined for more than a month after aggravating the problem while playing against Aston Villa.

He was forced to have surgery on his foot, but he has made a full recovery and could make his return to the first-team squad in the Carling Cup fourth-round tie against Burnley tomorrow night, although the League game at West Brom on Saturday is more likely.

Scolari is also expected to name Drogba and Joe Cole, who have been troubled this term with knee and hamstring injuries respectively, in his squad to take on the fifth-placed Championship side.

Ashley Cole is also closing in on full fitness following his hamstring strain, while Carvalho will soon resume light training after limping off at Hull two weeks ago with the same problem.

That will leave just Essien on the long-term injured list, although Scolari hopes he will be back from his knee problem by the end of January.

Chelsea have still managed to climb to the top of the Premier League, despite having as many as 11 first team players out at one point.

But Scolari will hope his squad can stay clear of injuries from now on after chief executive Peter Kenyon confirmed that Chelsea will have to sell players in order to sign anyone in the January transfer window.

Kenyon said: "It is extremely unlikely we will spend in January.

"First we would have to sell someone to balance the books. At this stage, we're not planning to bring anyone in.

"Felipe is on board with that because he has an excellent squad and is doing a great job.

"We have an agreed squad size of 24 and January is a notoriously bad time to buy. So any changes are not high on the agenda."