As reigning world champions, the technical quality of our players is not in doubt. The level of tactical expertise in the building at Cobham, the same. But new Chelsea head coach Liam Rosenior has stressed all of that is secondary to the need for his squad to go and 'win the battle' when we travel across London to face Charlton Athletic tomorrow night.
The Blues head to the Championship side for what will be Rosenior's first game in charge of Chelsea.
The 41-year-old held his first two training sessions with the squad on Thursday and Friday before speaking to the media in his maiden pre-match press conference as our head coach this afternoon.
Rosenior has been impressed by the quality he has seen on the training pitches at Cobham but the players' technical ability and the fact we are 31 places above the Addicks in the football pyramid will count for little if we are not ready for the fight come Saturday night.
'It's going to be a very difficult game tomorrow,' Rosenior said.
'They play with real intensity, they are very, very difficult to play against. I've watched a lot of their recent games. It's going to be a typical English FA Cup tie; third round in January. And, my players need to be able to stand up to that intensity.
'That's the first thing in football. You can talk about systems, tactics, but you have to win the battles. You have to win duels, you have to win headers, you have to run. And that's the message I've given to the players over the last two days.'
Rosenior joins the Blues in eighth position, four points below the top four, and with Champions League clashes and a League Cup semi-final against Arsenal lying in wait.
The former England Under-21 international was asked if he was prioritising one competition over the other. His answer made the Chelsea head coach's views on the matter very clear.
He said: 'You have to try to win every game that you play, that's the reality. If you start to pinpoint and say one competition is more important than the other, that's crazy. You have to compete every day in training. You have to try to win every time you train. And you have to try to win every game that you play.
'If you think too far ahead, that's when you fall. So for me, the focus is Charlton and trying to put a run of results together that put us in a really good place. But I'm not thinking too far ahead. We just have to focus on the here and now.'