A rare endangered species has been sighted at Cobham these last few days.No, it wasn't Florent Malouda wearing the same hairstyle two days running (more on him later), nor was it goalie coach Cristophe Lollichon recycling one of his training regimes. It was instead a midweek free for the coaches to coach without a first team match.

Providing we remain (touchwood) in the Champions League, it will be into May before another of those is spotted around these parts. It briefly looked as if one was on the cards in April until today's announcement of a new date for the previously homeless league match against Bolton.

So for one week only, Thursday - often a mixed bag day of recovering players from a game just played and those not selected trying to stay sharp - presented the chance for an all-inclusive training session when Carlo Ancelotti and his assistants could work on improvements both in team and individual play.

It was inclusive enough for Yury Zhirkov to take full part, as he also did earlier in the week as he puts his calf injury behind him. Chelsea's left-back shortage, it would appear, is soon to ease.

Also back training these past two days has been Nicolas Anelka. All the players had Monday off following their Sunday win over Stoke but for Nico the leave of absence was extended to Tuesday for a very good reason. He now has two sons following the addition of a baby named Kahil to the Anelka family.

If he needed to refocus quickly on his trade then a full-on 20 minutes spent finishing off difficult chances would have done the trick.

That exercise followed a reflex-sharpening nine-a-side game on an area half the size of a pitch. The group was then split in two for Carlo Ancelotti and Ray Wilkins to work the likes of Didier Drogba, Malouda, Deco and John Mikel Obi through some counter-attacking, while Paul Clement oversaw others on the adjacent pitch attempting to score from a wide variety of deliveries.

Not that Carlo's group were left out from fine-tuning their net-finding skills.And the biggest roar of approval of the day? When Mikel screamed a volley in from some distance - much appreciated by all who witnessed it - even if the next effort didn't go quite so close.

So how many gave up watching a Man United Champions League win on Wednesday night and switched over to see Malouda as the studio pundit for the UK live TV coverage of Real Madrid versus his former club Lyon?

Having long shown himself to be tactically eloquent in written interview, Flo proved himself to be a natural in front of the camera.

It may have been his debut as a TV analyst in England, but he has done it before in France he told Old Blue Eyes as he left the training pitch today.