LONDON - Chelsea's players returned to training on Tuesday amid suggestions that player unrest was threatening to destabilise the remainder of their season.
Chelsea were given the day off on Monday to recover from their Carling Cup final defeat by Tottenham at Wembley.
But the focus of attention has switched to the pre-match build-up which was dominated by speculation that captain John Terry and midfielder Frank Lampard would be left out of the starting line-up.
The pair were omitted for the Champions League match against Olympiacos last Tuesday, and the uncertainty over manager Avram Grant's plans appeared to spill over into an alleged training ground row between the club captain and first-team assistant coach Henk Ten Cate.
Terry and Lampard were included in the side from the kick-off but Chelsea lost the game 2-1 despite taking a first-half lead through Didier Drogba.
Goals from Dimitar Berbatov and Jonathan Woodgate gave Spurs their first trophy since 1999.
When the allegations of a training ground row were put to Chelsea, a spokesman for the club would only say: "All our focus is on our next game."
That is at West Ham on Saturday when Chelsea hope to shake off the memory of the Wembley defeat and continue their push for a third Barclays Premier League title in four years. They are also in the last 16 of the Champions League and the quarter-finals of the FA Cup.
One witness to the alleged argument between Terry and Ten Cate told the Sun that it was during a session "to put the finishing touches to the final plans for Wembley".
Terry insisted on Monday that the preparations for the final had not been affected by the doubt of team selection.
He said: "The manager keeps it all very close to his chest and none of us knew until Sunday and that is how it has been in every game. So there was no change or excuse. That is the way it has got to be, it keeps everyone on their toes and as a group of players we have to deal with it."
Germany captain Michael Ballack was also omitted from the starting line-up and while admitting he was not happy about it, the midfielder is understood to have accepted the reasons.
