I hope you all had a very happy and peaceful Christmas. There is always a little pang of guilt as a former player at Christmas time, because for years during your career you could never really enjoy the festivities fully. You couldn’t have that extra glass of wine or helping of Christmas pudding, because there was almost always a game on Boxing Day, so we had to leave our families in mid-afternoon on the 25th to be locked up in a hotel.

After two decades of indoctrination, it took a few years for me to really be able to fully relax and not worry about my condition. Well I still do watch the waistline, but not to quite the same level. At least the Chelsea players have had an extra few days this time, with the game against Bournemouth not being played until today this week, two full days after the presents were opened.

It has been strange enough with the World Cup break but the idea of only two games over the entire holiday period for Chelsea is hard to get your head round. As a fan, let's be honest it is a bit frustrating. We are used to being royally entertained if we get a few days off at this time of the year. There are usually four or five Chelsea games to enjoy in this sort of period.

I looked at a random season back in the bad old days at Chelsea when I was playing and we had a game on the 26th, 27th, 31st and the 2nd. First of all, two games in two days, when is the last time you heard of pro footballers accepting that! That wasn’t unusual, but on top of that, four games in eight days was in hindsight a bit of a push. Doubtless the games weren’t as fast, but they were played in harder conditions and the tackling was tougher, so it is amazing that I cannot recall any player ever complaining about the schedule.

The thing is, in hindsight we should have moaned a little. With squads smaller and squad rotation not ‘a thing’ back then, it was unfair on the players but also on the fans. I am sure the quality suffered a bit. Actually on that, my least favourite festive programme ever, was one year when my New Year’s Day game was cancelled on the morning of the match because of an ice-bound pitch and stadium. It was bad enough losing the game, but for a Scotsman to have to forego yet another Hogmanay get together, but then it having been a waste of time because it was postponed, that was a particular torture.

Anyway, no such problems this season hopefully. Undersoil heating stopped all those cancellation problems and this is a very relaxed programme in comparison. It is however vital that we get off to a good start to the restart. It is very noticeable how a very short run of games without a win saw us slip down the Premier League table very quickly, but a run of wins will see us fly back up almost as smartly.

Having Bournemouth and Nottingham Forest either side of the New Year is a bonus. These are not poor sides and will be tough nuts to crack, but if you have ambitions to be top four, these are the ones you must win. Bournemouth have a surprisingly decent record against us over the years so there will be no complacency. Dominc Solanke and Philip Billing are two that have really caught the eye recently for the Cherries and it is noticeable that both are beginning to use their height and weight to full advantage as they have matured. We will have to be strong and ready for the physical onslaught.

We must be aware but not overconcerned with the opposition this time. A controlled and controlling performance would set us up for the whole of January and beyond. Going back to the old days, another annoyance was games away from home at this time of the year. The last thing you wanted was Newcastle or the like away on Boxing Day or New Year’s Day. At that time, a flight wasn’t even a consideration, so it was a long coach journey usually with a bunch of traffic jams thrown in to and from the game. It is worth underlining here that we had many thousands of fans following us from down south for every game no matter what, in a fleet of trains and automobiles, if not planes.

The league did try to keep the games local, but I am not convinced they had anything approaching the modern artificial intelligence or sophisticated algorithms, (more like limited intelligence and ancient logarithms) they have at hand now to help with the fixture organisation.

As such we have a run coming up that means eight of the next nine league games after Forest are in the capital city. A good number of players will have to come to the fore and over the last few weeks I have mentioned the likes of Jorginho and Reece James, particularly as they had rest and recovery time over the last month or so. It is however hard to know who is going to step up to the plate.

It is a big period for the likes of Kai Havertz, Raheem Sterling, Mason Mount, Conor Gallagher, Christian Pulisic and Hakim Ziyech. Each had very different experiences at the World Cup but each is a player that could be the creative or goal-scoring force in the coming months. Right now, I couldn’t guess who will be the one, but someone has to step forward. When that happens and whoever it is, then everyone else will get a lift and that run of wins we need will become all the more likely.