To return to winning ways Chelsea must beat a Blackburn side that has won its last four home games and knocked us out of the Carling Cup at Ewood Park. There could be easier challenges but at least the players know there is no time for licking wounds after the Champions League exit.

A 5-0 scoreline back in October at the Bridge showed the way to defeat Sam Allardyce's team and the Carling Cup penalty shoot-out defeat apart, our record up there over the past decade has been excellent with six wins, one draw and just one defeat in the league, but our away form in 2010 has been patchy and the squad is fully aware it must improve.

'We have to be focused,' insists Michael Ballack. 'When you lose a game and you go out of a big competition, it is always difficult and everybody is down but you have to move forward.

'To win the game against Blackburn, we must take on and win the battles.'

'It will be a difficult game,' agrees Salomon Kalou. 'But we don't have a choice, we have to fight back. We've got to bounce back now from the disappointment of Tuesday so we have to go there 100 per cent, 200 per cent even!

'It will be a good memory for me to go there,' says the Ivorian striker who scored in December's visit to Blackburn, as he also did in a Carling Cup game in 2006.

'I'll try to do it again. We normally do all right at Blackburn, but games against them are always different. They play a physical game.'

For Ballack, it is all about staying ahead of the race for what is now the main prize.

'I am hungry. A club like Chelsea wants to win everything, that is why we have a big squad with good players and to be out in such a big competition as the Champions League is a big disappointment for us, but that is football and our target is the league now.

'That is what we have and we are in first position if we win our game in hand. It is also a big competition for us because we have not won it the last three years so we have to be focused on this.'

Blackburn, like Chelsea in recent games, will have a stand-in keeper on Sunday. Kalou and his fellow strikers must beat Jason Brown who will fill in for calf-injury victim Paul Robinson.

Also out are captain Ryan Nelsen (knee), Gael Givet (groin), Lars Jacobsen (hernia) and Vince Grella (calf).