It is no consolation to England manager Fabio Capello but the international break has come with perfect timing for Carlo Ancelotti.

The Chelsea manager watched Frank Lampard and John Terry limp out of the 2-0 victory against Stoke and out of England's Euro 2012 qualifiers against Bulgaria and Switzerland.

But at least Ancelotti, whose Chelsea side have now scored 14 goals and conceded none in a perfect start to the Premier League season, knows he has a fortnight to get two of his most vital characters fit again.

Lampard will have a hernia operation early this week after undergoing treatment for the last week to try to rectify the problem on which he had a similar operation 10 years ago.

The treatment did not work and pain in the Stoke game, in which he missed a first-half penalty and was substituted in the second half, convinced the club that further surgery was the only option.

Terry's injury is a hamstring problem which needs rest.

The international break provides just that and Ancelotti fully expects Lampard to have fully recovered by the time Chelsea take on West Ham at Upton Park in two weeks' time.

Asked how long Lampard will be out, Ancelotti said: "One week, two weeks. We had the same experience with Drogba and he was able to train in one week.

"It is not a big problem. It is very easy surgery. He started to feel pain and he needs to do this.

"We tried treatment to see if he felt better but the solution is to have surgery."

The injuries came after a rigorous training week in which Ancelotti admitted the players were pushed harder than ever.

The backlash was a performance against Stoke which lacked the snap and the energy of their first two 6-0 wins of the season against West Brom and Wigan.

There was still enough on show at Stamford Bridge, however, to suggest Chelsea could be unstoppable in their bid to retain the title this season.

Stoke manager Tony Pulis, whose own side are still in search of their first points, suggested as much.

"We haven't played that bad this season but overall Chelsea were the better team," he said. "They have a team of great players and they had numerous opportunities."

Two of them fell to Ashley Cole, who pulled one wide and smashed the other acrobatically against the crossbar.

Florent Malouda finally made the breakthrough, latching on to a pass from Terry and smashing the ball past goalkeeper Thomas Sorensen.

With Lampard already off the field, Didier Drogba struck the second from a penalty after Sorensen had brought down Nicolas Anelka.

Not that Drogba has any intention of taking the job permanently, insisting Lampard would still be the regular taker.

He said: "It's clear, Lampsy is the first one. If he is not on the pitch I take the second one and that's why I took it. If he had been on the pitch he would have taken it again. This is one of his qualities, he has scored so many penalties for us. The next one he will take."

The defence have also been doing their job considering it is now more than 600 minutes since Chelsea conceded a goal.

Terry said: "That's brilliant. Alex has been brilliant. He has made four great blocks, two against Wigan and another two against Stoke. Petr's (Cech) made some good saves as well. We're all helping and covering around which is the minimum we ask of each other."

Pulis, however, has problems, even if his side offered much sterner opposition than on Stoke's last visit to the Bridge in April when they conceded seven.

Pulis, who insisted Stoke would be "doing their absolute damnest" to keep unsettled goalkeeper Asmir Begovich at the club, said: "They worked their socks off. The lads are disappointed but they are upbeat as a group.

"You have to be sensible in this league, not get too down or too disappointed, and the players have been positive. You have to give credit for the work they put in."