Chelsea are monitoring Robinho's public row with Manchester City over his birthday trip back to Brazil.

The Daily Mail says Chelsea will hope the friction presents them with a chance of landing the player who got away in the last transfer window. That hijack still rankles after Roman Abramovich was outmuscled financially by Sheik Mansour and his Abu Dhabi crew, the Premier League's new high-rollers.

The fact that, having been informed of the furore he has created, Robinho has pencilled his return in not for tomorrow, not for Friday, but for Monday - coincidentally, the day after he celebrates his 25th birthday - is sure to displease City boss Mark Hughes.

But if Robinho is having second thoughts about his Premier League destination - and the table offers him little comfort - Hughes will not want to push his star asset to the point of a full-blown rebellion.