Chelsea can salvage a difficult few days

SOCCER: There was much talk at Stamford Bridge yesterday of being professional. It will dictate Chelsea's approach to this evening's game against CSKA Moscow, a match which will arouse unique emotions in several people at the club - albeit only the Russians.

But professionalism will always be expected of each member of their team, as the club comes to terms with Adrian Mutu's unseemly fall from grace.

While Jose Mourinho's control over his players ends at the gates of Chelsea Village, he clearly expects to influence their behaviour at all times.

"I think a professional player has to be aware of what he can do, what he should do," he said. "I think a man, I can say a boy, of 20 years of age is always a man of 20 years of age. If he is a football player, if he is a student, he's always a man of 20, with the same kind of needs, with the same kind of desires, with the same kind of influences. But the question is what they can do, and a football player has to know.

"I'm the manager of a group of 24 men. I don't know what all of them are doing outside their professional life. It is impossible to do it. But when I see my team work every day, when I see the enthusiasm, the commitment, I can only believe that they are top, top pros and give everything."

Mourinho will certainly expect such commitment this evening, with qualification for the Champions League's knockout stages the reward for victory and a bitter first defeat of the season, by Manchester City on Saturday, to avenge.

"Nobody likes to lose, but when lose is something normal in your life you just accept it," he said. "When lose is something that doesn't happen so much in your career, you look forward to the next game because you don't want to have the same feeling again. We are happy people because we don't lose so many times, and the taste of lose is something that we don't enjoy."

If CSKA are in need of some encouragement, it is to be found in Chelsea's misfiring attack. With their top scorer, Didier Drogba, still four weeks from returning from a groin operation and Mutu also absent, the home side have only two fit forwards. Of those, Eidur Gudjohnsen last scored for them on the opening day of the season and Mateja Kezman has not scored at all.

"We had four strikers at the beginning of the season, it is more than enough. I think it is the correct number. But for different reasons we at the moment have two," Mourinho said. "But Kezman will score. I have a feeling, and sometimes my feelings are correct, and I have a feeling that tomorrow he will score a goal."

Moscow's other source of encouragement will be the directors' box, where Roman Abramovich will have more than national pride to blame for the belief that an upset might not be a total disaster.

Chelsea's owner is also the major shareholder in Sibneft, the oil company which sponsors CSKA's shirts for a lavish €14 million a season - more than twice what Emirates pay for Chelsea to sport their insignia. UEFA investigated the potential conflict of interest only to decide last month that there was no reason for the sides not to play.

CHELSEA (4-4-2): Cech; Ferreira, Carvalho, Terry, Bridge; Smertin, Lampard, Makelele, Duff; Kezman, Gudjohnsen.

CSKA Moscow (3-4-1-2): Akinfeev, Ignashevich, Semak, Berezutskiy; Ferreyra, Gusev, Odiah, Aldonin; Jarosik; Rahimic, Vagner.

Referee: L Michel (Slovakia).