Blank look may be the best way for Chelsea

CHELSEA chief executive Peter Kenyon yesterday confirmed the club are considering not having a shirt sponsor in their centenary season.

The Premiership leaders are in talks over a new sponsor just days after clinching a £12m-a-year deal with sportswear giants adidas.

Chelsea's contract with Emirates expires this summer and Kenyon already has his sights set on completing another massive new deal with a different sponsor by the end of this month.

However, one of the major issues surrounding any new agreement will be its start date. The deal with Adidas is not set to begin until 2006 and Kenyon said yesterday the club may decide not to carry a sponsor's logo on their shirts during the 2005/06 season.

Chelsea have already revealed the club's famous blue shirt will sport a more traditional badge next term and deciding to go without a sponsor would be another radical step but one they could probably afford.

It would also bring back memories of another famous Stamford Bridge side from the early 1970s, which included Peter Osgood, Ian Hutchison, Charlie Cooke, Alan Hudson and Ron Harris.

Chelsea continue their quest for title glory tonight with a tricky visit to Blackburn. Manager Jose Mourinho will revert to his normal first eleven after resting most of his influential players in the 2-0 FA Cup fourth-round victory over Birmingham on Sunday.

But the most important week so far in the club's season will come at the end of this month when they play Newcastle in the fifth round of the FA Cup, travel to Barcelona in the last 16 of the Champions League and face Liverpool in the final of the Carling Cup at Cardiff's Millennium stadium.

Those seven days will be crucial for the club if they are to continue their amazing quest for an unprecedented quadruple.

The significance of the week is not lost on Czech goalkeeper Petr Cech, who will return in goal at Ewood Park tonight.

Cech said: "We have to fly again to Newcastle, but we have beaten them already in the Carling Cup quarter-

finals. If we want to win the FA Cup, we have to beat everyone. If that means we have to fly to Newcastle, it will be a tough game, of course, but we have to beat everyone."

Mourinho will recall Didier Drogba to the attack in place of Eidur Gudjohnsen along with Arjen Robben tonight.

The Chelsea boss was dissatisfied with Robben's second-half performance against Birmingham but will not risk starting the game at Ewood Park without him. Defenders Paulo Ferreira and William Gallas will also return as well as midfielders Tiago and Claude Makelele.

Meanwhile, Blackburn boss Mark Hughes insists they will not be weakened by Barry Ferguson's return to Rangers. Hughes expressed disappointment over his former captain's desire to return north of the border but said Ferguson's attitude had left him with little choice but to recommend the £5m deal.

Former Chelsea player Hughes is relishing the prospect of measuring his own side's improvement against Mourinho's men, who thumped Rovers 4-0 in the Welshman's first month in charge in October.

Hughes has a fitness doubt over striker Paul Dickov who missed Saturday's FA Cup win over Colchester with a nagging groin problem. Dickov will have a late fitness test before Hughes finalises his line-up for a game which he hopes will put more space between Rovers and the Premiership drop zone.

"This is what the Premiership is all about," added Hughes.