Ranieri wants players to bounce back

CLAUDIO RANIERI has challenged his Chelsea players to prove that they have what it takes to bounce back from last week's double defeat at the hands of Arsenal.

Ranieri's men have the chance to show their mettle when they resume European action in the last 16 of the Champions League tonight, and the Blues' coach wants his players to show they were not adversely affected by the pain inflicted upon them by Arsene Wenger's Arsenal.

"We have arrived in good condition and we are confident," said Ranieri as he touched down in snow-sprinkled Stuttgart. "The Arsenal defeats have not affected us but it is important for us to show that rather than to just say it." New chief executive Peter Kenyon said recently that after spending £120m of owner Roman Abramovich's money, the least that could be expected was for Ranieri to deliver a trophy, so the defeats by Arsenal raised fresh speculation about the Italian's future.

However, Ranieri remained defiant and said: "My future is not important, I am concerned only about the future of Chelsea. I am confident with Chelsea, with Roman Abramovich, with Peter Kenyon, with everybody. People continue to write something different but what more can I say. I don't think about a trophy I repeat that I want to build."

The Chelsea players had a meeting at their Harlington training ground yesterday and skipper John Terry said they were looking forward to getting Arsenal out of their systems by taking on VFB Stuttgart.

"It is much easier to get the Arsenal games out of our system when we have a game so soon afterwards," said Terry. "We spoke about it yesterday and it is forgotten now we are totally focused on this game and we are here to win."

Chelsea travelled without Adrian Mutu after the striker suffered a kick on his thigh on Saturday, but Hernan Crespo is fit again and may replace him, while Carlo Cudicini will return in goal.

The Blues have been impressive in Europe so far this season and will be hoping to ease the pressure on their manager in the two-legged tie against the team from the Bundesliga.

When Felix Magath's Stuttgart beat Manchester United in the Group phase last October, the coach was applauded into his post-match press conference by German reporters acknowledging a home defence who had gone 735 minutes without conceding a league goal. However, Magath embarked on some Ranieri-style tinkering with his back four and when they lost to Kaiserslautern last Saturday it was the third time in three weeks they had failed to beat a team at the wrong end of the table.

They are now 10 points behind leaders Werder Bremen and tonight's game at the Gottleib-Daimler stadium is a much less daunting task for Chelsea than it was five months ago.

Ranieri added: "Stuttgart are a compact, solid team and the best in the Bundesliga in my opinion. It will be a game similar in style to the Premiership but we know how they play and that is important. We shall try to play our football and try to win."

VFB STUTTGART (probable): Hildebrand; Hinkel, Zivkovic, Bordon, Lahm; Meira, Soldo, Meissner, Gleb; Kuranyi, Imre Szabics.

CHELSEA (probable): Cudicini; Melchiot, Gallas, Terry, Bridge; Gronkjaer/Duff, Makelele, Lampard, Geremi; Crespo, Gudjohnsen.

Referee: Kyros Vassaras (Greece).