Team news

Manager Sam Allardyce has a number of injury problems to cope with ahead of Blackburn's game against Chelsea.

Goalkeeper Paul Robinson (calf), captain Ryan Nelsen (knee), Gael Givet (groin), Lars Jacobsen (hernia) and Vince Grella (calf) are all missing while loan striker Franco di Santo cannot play against his parent club.

Jason Brown will fill in for Robinson, with Mark Bunn being recalled from Sheffield United as cover.

Blackburn manager Sam Allardyce has warned his players to expect Chelsea to react like a wounded animal after their Champions League mauling by Jose Mourinho's Inter Milan side.

Allardyce said Chelsea had received a "massive kick up the backside" from Inter but is hoping their players will suffer from fatigue.

He said: "I'm not sure it's a good time to play them but the only thing we do know is that they are going to tire later on in the game.

"They put a huge amount of effort in against Inter Milan so there will be some physical and mental fatigue, so we have to make sure we are in there with a shout for the last quarter of the game.

"Chelsea have had a massive kick up the backside and didn't expect to lose that game and get knocked out of the Champions League, and they are now a wounded animal that you have got to protect against." Allardyce has taken some tips from Mourinho's book of tactics by studying the success of Inter Milan - and Wigan earlier in the season - to pinpoint weaknesses in Carlo Ancelotti's side.

"I learn an awful lot from every game, I usually used to manage to set out a team tactically against Chelsea that could get a result and we have had a look at some of the stuff that Inter did," said Allardyce.

"We've also looked at what Wigan did when they beat them, as they are a team very similar to ourselves.

"If you watch Inter Milan's work-rate and the tactics that they put together it shows why they nullified Chelsea so much.

"Whether you can keep that up for 90 minutes is another thing but we'll have a go.

"We have to be right tactically and we need 11 lads prepared to roll their sleeves up and work harder and run longer than they have done all season." Chelsea have no fresh injury concerns ahead of the game.

Goalkeeper Petr Cech trained on Friday but remains a doubt and he will undergo a late fitness test on his calf injury. Hilario is also a doubt with a groin strain.

Michael Essien (knee), Ashley Cole (ankle) and Jose Bosingwa (knee) are all sidelined.

Chelsea coach Carlo Ancelotti has told his squad to focus on becoming only the seventh club in the history of the English game to achieve the league and FA Cup double.

The Italian has handed the new challenge to his players in the wake of their disappointing Champions League exit to Inter.

"It's to put a new motivation in all the club," said Ancelotti. "To shift the objectives because we were focused on the Champions League and now we've changed our aim.

"I think to think you can do a double is a good motivation for everyone at this club. If we want to do this, we have 11 games.

"It was my idea. It's a new motivation for me, also. I needed this because I was disappointed by what happened on Tuesday." The Champions League defeat was hard to take for Ancelotti and his players, especially as it came against Chelsea's former boss Jose Mourinho.

But Ancelotti insists there has been no knee-jerk reaction to the failure and maintains that he has not spoken about his plans for a revamp of the squad with owner Roman Abramovich.

He also knows that Chelsea cannot afford any more slip-ups during the title run-in - starting with victory at Blackburn.

"We didn't speak about the future of this club or these players," said the Italian. "We all have to do our best in the last 11 games.

"I spoke to my players and to my assistants and stressed we have to do this.

"I think Chelsea have not been in this position in recent seasons. They've been behind in the last four years - they were not at the top of the list and, when you're behind, you can't afford to drop points, so you have more pressure.

"We have pressure now because the three teams - Arsenal, (Manchester) United and us - are very close and you cannot make a mistake.

Blackburn vs Chelsea

Last modified 22:54 21/03/10

Ewood Park will always have a special place in the hearts of Chelsea fans.

But last night the ground where Jose Mourinho’s team knew they would be crowned champions was transformed into the place where Carlo Ancelotti’s side appeared to be giving up the title ghost.

And as Ancelotti bemoaned his side’s loss of “composure”, “confidence” and togetherness, the Italian looked like a man who feels the tide is running inexorably and inevitably against him.

In 2005, John Terry led the frenzied celebrations of a backs against the wall victory that made Chelsea believe it was their destiny, as Petr Cech saved a penalty and the Blues shrugged off Arjen Robben’s fractured ankle.

The final whistle on that freezing February night saw the entire Chelsea side rip off their shirts to throw them into the travelling fans at the Darwen End, a moment that has never been forgotten.

Last night though, as Ancelotti’s side ran out of conviction as swiftly as they did ideas, despite Didier Drogba giving them the perfect start, the scene could not have been more different.

This time, rather than moving as a group, they walked in dribs and drabs to the same end, heads bowed, shoulders hunched, with Drogba the only one bare-chested as he tossed his shirt apologetically into the small knot of supporters, brought low by El Hadji Diouf’s leaping header.

That is the way the title world ends, not with a bang but a whimper, and the hollow men, still haunted by the Champions League exit at the hand of Mourinho’s Inter, were in Chelsea colours, washed out by the teeming rain.

They knew that this was a game they should have won at a canter, should have strolled away with, especially when Drogba stroked them in front after just six minutes.

Earlier in the season, they would have done that too, yet now there is nothing easy, nothing simple, nothing guaranteed. That is the ghoul haunting Ancelotti.

The goal was simplicity itself, as Martin Olsson’s inability to get back after an attacking thrust ensured Blackburn’s vulnerable left flank was even more exposed.

Frank Lampard spotted the danger, playing down the line to Anelka, who walked past the alleged challenge by Keith Andrews before rolling back for Drogba to steer home without breaking stride.

It was the big Ivorian’s 28th of the season, his best-ever 22nd Premier League strike and in truth there could and should have been more, as Chelsea, destroying Blackburn on Olsson’s side - the full-back left utterly exposed by Diouf - created a welter of half-chances but not delivering the final execution.

Drogba, a foot wide from distance, Salomon Kalou and Anelka all failed to hit the target.

Kalou was inches away from converting Lampard’s cross after a terrific advantage was played by Steve Bennett following Olsson’s mugging of Anelka, while Florent Malouda, otherwise subdued in midfield, slalomed through the statuesque home defence before drilling straight at Jason Brown.

Yet the nagging fear was there for every Chelsea fan.

There is a reason they have won just two of their last eight away games, that inability to put matches away, and once again the weakest link in Ancelotti’s side - between the ears of his players - took its toll.

Sam Allardyce knew his players - the outstanding debut-making Phil Jones at centre-half aside - had not shown in that first half, but demanded a pressure game that almost bore instant fruit.

Yuri Zhirkov, who had replaced knee victim Branislav Ivanovic before the break - the Serb is a real concern after a tangle with Diouf - bailed out Ross Turnbull when the keeper went absent without leave as Christopher Samba nodded Morten Gamst Pedersen’s long throw goalwards.

Lampard, turning and taking aim from 25 yards, was a whisker away from finding the top corner but suddenly a game that should have long been over was turning twitchy, especially once Allardyce sent on Jason Roberts as a physical force up front.

And 20 minutes from time, as Terry complained at a throw he rightly felt should have gone the other way, Chelsea were undone.

Nobody closed Michel Salgado down, allowing the Spaniard two touches before he delivered to the back post, where Diouf soared above Paulo Ferrerira to nod down and past Turnbull.

A devastating blow to a side still reeling from their European exit and and while Chelsea pressed, only once, as Drogba met substitute Deco’s near-post corner with an instant strike turned aside, did they even test Brown, stymied time and again by Jones and Samba.

It was not good enough. Ancelotti knew it, his players too. Fear stalks Chelsea. Fear of failure. It looks and feels fatal.