Adrenaline kicks in as Rovers eye Chelsea clash

A visit from Chelsea is never less than daunting: when they roll into your home stadium fresh from marmalising their supposed title rivals Arsenal on their own patch it becomes positively nerve-shredding.

For Blackburn, the dread ahead of Wednesday’s League Cup quarter-final meeting with Carlo Ancelotti’s side at Ewood Park should only be compounded by the memories of their last encounter – a 5-0 drubbing at Stamford Bridge in the league – and yet the excitement engendered by being three games away from Wembley transcends any nervousness.

Brett Emerton, for one, is relishing the prospect of tussling with England’s team of the moment.

The Australian midfielder has tasted bitter disappointment in cup competitions before with Rovers – he was knocked out of the FA Cup semi-finals by Arsenal in 2005 and the last four of the League Cup by Manchester United a year later – and now, it seems, the time has come to atone.

“To get to Wembley would be something special,” he said. “I’ve had a couple of semi-finals but you’re in football to win things and hopefully this is our chance. Some of our cup runs have been very enjoyable and we’d love to go on another one again.

“Everyone realises the importance of Wednesday?s game. If we can get a positive result there, excitement will build and the players will start to believe we can win something.”

For Emerton, the desire to defy the odds on Wednesday is particularly keen. The 30-year-old is reaching the twilight of his top-level career but has still to taste a major final.

He played a key role in helping Feyenoord reach the 2002 UEFA Cup but was banned for the final itself, and instead found himself watching the players’ celebrations from the sidelines.

There have been highs with Australia too, of course, most recently helping the Socceroos reach the World Cup finals in South Africa next summer, but he is running out of opportunities to taste the unique adrenaline rush provided by a knockout final.

His path is blocked by Chelsea, a formidable obstacle by any estimation, although Emerton’s hopes of an upset are fuelled by the possibility that, having negotiated draining encounters with FC Porto and Arsenal in the last week, Ancelotti will give some of his fringe players a run-out in Lancashire.

“Obviously they’re a world-class team, one of the best in Europe, but we’ll see what kind of team they put out,” Emerton added. “We’ll have to see whether they rotate but all we can do is prepare the best way possible.

“We have to approach it in a positive manner. If you try and defend against that sort of quality then eventually they’ll break you down. Hopefully we can try to be on the front foot and cause them some problems and force some mistakes.”

Even if Chelsea do decide to field some of their B-listers, few would bet against Ancelotti’s side maintaining their charge towards an unprecedented quadruple of trophies.

The Italian’s reserves would comfortably find starting places in the vast majority of Premier League starting line-ups and the likes of Salomon Kalou, Gael Kakuta, Alex, Juliano Belletti and Daniel Sturridge will all be fired by a desire to prove their worth to the manager.

“We know very well our possibilities,” Ancelotti said. “We can win every game but also if we don’t have determination and concentration, we can lose every game. We started the season believing we could win it and we have to maintain a good behaviour in our work.”