Michael Essien Rovers and Fulham, the latter a match in which he scored the only goal and received a red card. However, Essien would again incur an injury and missed two months of the season, during which Chelsea won just one out of nine matches. He returned to score in the penalty shoot-out loss in the FA Cup against Everton but ultimately had a poor second half of the season. After Chelsea's final match, the Ghana Football Association announced Essien had returned to the international squad. In pre-season training for the 2011–12 Premier League season, Essien ruptured his anterior cruciate ligament and
Michael Essien in a 5–0 victory at Stamford Bridge. He scored his first brace for Chelsea against Wolverhampton Wanderers with a header and a low shot from outside the box, and came close to completing his first hat-trick for the club with a flurry of second half shots, one of which was tipped onto the bar by Wolves goalkeeper Wayne Hennessey. Essien was injured on international duty during the 2010 African Nations Cup and missed the remainder of the English domestic season. On 4 June 2010, he signed a two-year extension to his existing contract which would have kept him at the