All goes quiet on the club football front for a fortnight but Pat Nevin has plenty to reflect upon in his weekly column.

Sometimes a match can be summed up in a couple of words. With the Tottenham game on Sunday, the words were 'infuriatingly frustrating.'

This one fizzled out in a fairly flat manner at the end, but that can happen. Spurs carried their luck when they needed it and they broke up the play in a very un-Tottenham like way. As is usually the case on these occasions, it made you think less about the players on the field and more about those who were missing on the day.

The powers of Drogba and Ballack were the most obvious, but there was also the thought that there might just be another signing before the transfer window closed, someone who could add something for the coming months.

Well the transfer deadline came and went last night and much to the surprise of most observers Robinho decided to go to Manchester City and not Chelsea. It left the club's spending more or less neutral over the summer months, not something many people would have predicted.

There may be some disappointment regarding the Robinho affair in particular, but the situation at Eastlands appears to be almost unique. I suspect the new owners up there would have spent the equivalent of the GDP of a small European country to make this signature signing.

The Brazilian is a quality player, but if he is not considered to be worth breaking the bank for, then it is a good idea not to get into a bidding war, after all remember how much we paid for his new team mate Shaun Wright-Phillips? A good player, but did anyone think he was really worth £21 million?

So this is the squad the club will have to run with until January at least and if there are few long-term injuries to key players it should be enough. Even so there is a lot to survive between now and then. There is of course the group stage in the Champions League and although it is never easy, the draw certainly could have been less kind.

Maybe the best thing about the draw was the way the fixtures themselves have fallen. The last thing you want is to be scrapping in the last game, so with the first three games being Bordeaux at home, then Cluj - the weakest team in the group - away from home, before the formidable Romans arrive at the Bridge, it has panned out well.

The Italian match will be a tough one, but if the Blues can win those first two as they should, then that third one could almost put us through.

Of course we are getting ahead of ourselves a touch, but there is always a temptation to do so in an international week and no Blues have no game to look forward to. It is the first breathing space for Phil Scolari since he took the job and a great opportunity for him to sit back and really think about what has to be done.

He will want to consider where the weaknesses are in the team, and indeed in the squad as a whole in the longer term. The imminent return of Didier Drogba will however give him a huge increase in his options.

The attacking options against Spurs were limited late in the game, and maybe that was understandable following the transfers of Shevchenko and then Shaun Wright-Phillips. Last week on this page I was wishing Sheva all the best and I would like to do the same for the little English winger this week.

Like his former teammate now in Milan, SWP always had that initial transfer fee millstone round his neck. Really that has nothing to do with the player, he isn't part of that part of the negotiation. (And by the way the player doesn't receive 10 per cent of the fee as the old football folk lore used to suggest.)

However because of the money, the expectations were understandably high from everyone and that pressure certainly wouldn't have helped him.

He was unable to command a regular place, which was never going to be easy considering the standard of players around him. There was also the minor fact that the team often played without and out-and-out winger at all. It was often as frustrating for Shaun as it was for those of us who were waiting for it to happen on a regular and dependable basis.

In the end the move back to Man City will be good for him as he will get regular football, Sunday's goals v Sunderland have proved that already. It is also good for the English national team as he will then be more in the thoughts of Fabio Capello by playing every week.

He might not have been able to make himself a fixture at Chelsea, but as David Beckham ages, he might still have a chance of making that right wing berth for his country all his own.

SWP's departure also continues the job of our own manager rebuilding the team in his own particular image. He was clearly frustrated on Sunday and this will play on his mind during this international break period. He will not however be too down beat when he looks at the clubs expected to challenge this season, no one is streaking out ahead.

Liverpool struggled yet again at the weekend, this time at Villa and they have injury problems of their own. I was in Monaco for the Manchester United Super Cup match against Zenit St Petersburg on Friday and they looked anything but impressive in a 2-1 defeat following on from their patchy form in the Premier League already.