Malouda: Chelsea can cope without quartet

FLORENT MALOUDA insists Chelsea’s squad has the quality to remain in the hunt for glory on three fronts while four of their key players are missing.

The France winger was on the scoresheet for Carlo Ancelotti’s side in their 5-0 demolition of Watford in the third round of the FA Cup at Stamford Bridge on Sunday.

Holders Chelsea will travel to meet Preston in the fourth round of the competition and Malouda believes their performance against the Hornets proved they can live without African stars Didier Drogba, Salomon Kalou, John Obi Mikel and Michael Essien.

All four will be in action in the African Nations Cup later this month but some of the concerns over the absence of 19-goal Ivory Coast striker Drogba were soothed by Daniel Sturridge’s display against Watford.

He scored his first goals for the club since joining from Manchester City in the summer and while Chelsea’s Barclays Premier League title rivals are hoping the loss of the key quartet will hurt them, Malouda is confident they can cope.

“The system we have is our strength and it doesn’t matter the players who come in or go out,” said Malouda.

“You could see we were confident against Watford. Everyone is fit and ready to help the club reach the targets – we want to win everything.

Our big squad is our big strength.”

Malouda, 29, who has denied criticising coach Carlo Ancelotti or team-mate Frank Lampard in an interview published in France over the weekend, is backing Sturridge to help fill the void left by Drogba and Kalou.

“Daniel has been wonderful in training,” said Malouda. “He was injured before and struggled but he has been working really hard.

“He deserved to score the goals. As you can see when he comes into the team, he’s really confident. It’s a good opportunity for him now to show his quality and he deserves it.”

Watford were 3-0 down inside 22 minutes thanks to Sturridge’s first for the club, an own goal from John Eustace and a third from Malouda.

Frank Lampard and a second for Sturridge sealed an emphatic win over the Championship side.

Sturridge, 20, hopes to continue playing well enough to give Ancelotti a selection headache when the African quartet return.

“We played really well as a team,” said Sturridge. “We went out there from minute one to show everyone what we can do. A few of the boys have gone away to the African Nations Cup and everyone was probably doubting us and we went out there and put our best foot forward.

“I have been getting a lot more involved in the team over the past few weeks and I am delighted to get my first goal because I have been waiting a long time for that.

“If more opportunities don’t come after this I am going to keep coming back anyway so it doesn’t really matter whether I get my chance next week, a month later or in a year’s time.’’

Meanwhile, Ancelotti has confirmed that Anelka will return against Hull at the weekend after recovering from his hamstring problem.