Two years into Claudio Ranieri's reign at Chelsea the trophy cabinet remains empty but the Italian yesterday told his team it was time to deliver.
Ranieri believes the Premiership is beyond his players but clearly has his eye on a knock-out competition. On the eve of Chelsea's opening Uefa Cup match he said: "It is important for us to start winning something."
Last season Ranieri led his team to the FA Cup final and the last four of the Worthington Cup and he hopes the defeat by Arsenal in Cardiff will provide a spur. "Everybody wants revenge," he said. "This is very important for the motivation. Chelsea is a long, long time without achieving anything."
The Uefa Cup has provided such miserable experiences for Ranieri, with defeats by St Gallen and Hapoel Tel Aviv in the last two seasons, that he refuses to take victory for granted against Viking of Norway, with the first leg at Stamford Bridge tonight.
A performance like that in Saturday's 3-0 win over Newcastle should suffice, though there could be bad news for Ranieri from that match with the Football Association preparing to study a video of an incident in which Marcel Desailly and Craig Bellamy clashed off the ball; charges could follow.
Looking ahead to tonight, Eidur Gudjohnsen made clear that Chelsea feel they have "something to make up for" after losing to Tel Aviv. The aim for next year, he added, is to leave this behind: "Everyone agrees the Champions League is the main event."
Ranieri must cope without specialist full-backs because Mario Melchiot is suspended and Albert Ferrer, Celestine Babayaro and Graeme Le Saux are injured. Mario Stanic may switch to right-back and Robert Huth, an 18-year-old German, could make his first start on the left.
Viking, fourth in the Norwegian league after 22 games, are coached by the former Bristol City manager Benny Lennartsson, whose contract will not be renewed next month. Lennartsson had a trial at Chelsea in the 60s but failed to impress. Ranieri hopes his team pass their trial and set off on the road to silverware tonight.
