With Chelsea's double header against teams from the city of Liverpool starting tonight, the next few days will go a long way to deciding whether there will be a new trophy at Stamford Bridge come the end of the season.

We have in our squad players who have won both the Premier League and the Champions League in the past and one of them, Nicolas Anelka, is certainly carrying high hopes he will be reacquainted with at least one piece of silverware in May.

The first challenge tonight is a domestic one - the need to take three points off fifth-placed Everton in order to keep Man United in sight. Nicolas admits the league is now a longer shot than triumphing in Europe.

'It is going to be difficult but we won't give up. We have still have a few games to play and we have to make sure we win them and then wait for the mistakes of Manchester United,' our January signing says. 'We know in football, anything is possible.

'Then comes the first game against Liverpool and these type of games are good,' he continues. 'You don't play these type of games all the time and it is a big game.

'Even in the Premier League, Liverpool against Chelsea is a big game but now it is a Champions League semi-final so it is even bigger.'

Not least because the tie is the third in a trilogy of similar contests between the clubs. Nicolas reveals the players have been talking to him about the previous two unsuccessful semis.

'Of course I was not at Chelsea the last times but I was watching on TV and I know what Chelsea did in those games.

'I think the players know the mistakes they made, nobody wants to see the same mistakes and everybody knows what we have to do. I think we are ready.

'Everybody knows Liverpool are very difficult to beat in the Champions League but I think this is our season to go to the final and maybe to win it. Because of what happened the last two games against Liverpool in the semi, we definitely want to do it this time. If we give everything, I am sure we are going to go through.'

Nicolas's success in the latter stages of the Champions League came in the 1999/2000 season when he was playing for Real Madrid. In the semi-final, the giants from the Spanish capital played Bayern Munich. Nicolas curled in the opening goal after just four minutes of 2-0 first-leg victory in Madrid.

In the second leg in Germany, although Bayern won 2-1 on the night, it was his terrific header that effective sealed the tie.

Then in the final in Paris, Nicolas led the attack against Valencia as Real were convincing 3-0 victors.

'The semi-final was difficult because we played already in the group stage against Bayern and we lost twice. So when we came to the semi, we knew it was going to be tough,' he recalls, hinting at shades of similarity to the Chelsea-Liverpool story.

'In these type of games it depends how the game starts. If you can score first, it is the most important thing because it makes you confident and it makes you feel you can go through,' he adds, thinking back to his impact in that Bayern match.

'If you start well, everything is possible.'

Facing Hector's Cuper's Valencia in the final was again not dissimilar to the Liverpool challenge in that the opposing team was so familiar.

'When we played against Valencia, they were on fire,' Nicolas remembers.

'They were better than us all that season in the way they played. But when you go into the final and have one game, you have to give everything and that is what we did. You have a lot of pressure when you play this type of game which maybe you can play only twice or three times in your career.'

Look back at reports of the game and there are frequent mentions of Nicolas's pace causing big problems to their Spanish rivals on the night.

While his top speed may have diminished a little in the eight years since, he is still well able to operate by hovering close to the defensive line, waiting for the moment to explode towards goal.

There is just one recurring problem it seems; he is vulnerable to the incorrect offside flag with more than his fair share of decisions going the wrong way since his move to Stamford Bridge.

'I think maybe it has happened more in Chelsea,' he reckons. 'I don't know why but when the referee says it is offside, it is too late to do anything about it so I have to deal with it. But I hope this changes.

'It is my game and I've always played like that. Even sometime when someone gives me the ball in the right moment and I am not offside, maybe someone thinks I am because I am soon four or five yards in front of the defenders. But that is life, I will never stop playing this way, this is my game and I am waiting for the right decision.'

He is also waiting, Nicolas reveals, to move out of the hotel he has been staying in since leaving Bolton and into his new house. Already settled on the football pitch, he will then feel totally established following the transfer. He expects to move soon after the season ends.

Before that there is something else that would aid the induction process.

'Everything is good but I hope we win a trophy at the season's end. That is most important.'