December and January is the time when the Premiership transforms from a professional, cash-rich tournament into something altogether more amateurish. Players who are normally cared for like priceless works of art are forced to play several games a week on frozen pitches in rain, snow or Burnley. It is the time of Boxing Day craziness, FA Cup upsets (this year has seen Arsenal, Manchester United and Liverpool all eliminated in the first two rounds) and season-changing injuries. Then along comes February, the Champions' League begins, the days start getting longer and everything gets back to normal. It is often the team that manages to navigate this chaotic period relatively unscathed that goes on to win the league and this year it is my team, Chelsea, who emerge into the February sunlight bleary-eyed and top of the table. This despite the fact that January was also the time when they were without several key players - most notably Didier Drogba - who were competing in the Africa Cup of Nations. While other international tournaments like the World Cup and the European Cup take place in the summer when the domestic leagues are over this tournament falls bang in the middle of the European footballing year. This was no big deal in the past when there were only a handful of African players playing in European leagues. But that is no longer the case; Chelsea have a particularly African-heavy team but most clubs in the Premiership have one or two African players on their books. Many African players also play in the French first division. Given that the ACN takes place every two years (as opposed to every four for the European and World Cups) this presents a major disruption to these championships and a potential handicap to those teams who have a large African presence in their squads. ( I say "potentially" because it does not seem to have had any effect on Chelsea but not all teams can afford to follow Chelsea's policy of having a substitutes' bench made up of international stars.) I personally enjoy the element of unpredictably that December/January brings to the grindingly commercial English Premier League but with the rise and rise of African football is it perhaps time to consider a winter break? It would be a shame if top clubs thought twice about signing African players because they would miss a month's football every two years and if there were no domestic matches taking place then a lot more people would watch the Africa Cup matches which would do a great deal to increase the visibility of countries who need all the PR help they can get.