Petr Cech has expressed his frustration at Chelsea's lack of cutting edge at Stamford Bridge and has targeted the Premier League programme over Christmas as the time to make amends. The goalkeeper is aware of how vital the period can be, noting that in both of the club's title-winning campaigns under Jose Mourinho they boasted a 100% record from their festive fixtures while in the past two seasons, when the championship has gone to Manchester United, they dropped points.
This time out, three rather than four Premier League matches have been scheduled and for Chelsea, they will be squeezed into seven days. They face Everton at Goodison Park on Monday before entertaining West Bromwich Albion at home on Boxing Day and travelling to Fulham on Sunday week.
"We need to win the games, even though it's three matches in such a short period," Cech said. "But I think we prefer that many games coming so quickly. You don't really have time to think about the matches when they come at you so swiftly, you just go out and play.
"Over the years when we won the title, it was our strongest period, when we had to reel off games that were coming like this so we have to look to do it again. We have to at least keep our position in the table over this period, if not improve it, because what happens over Christmas will have a big impact on what happens in the New Year."
Chelsea could only draw 1-1 at home to West Ham United on Sunday and they have dropped 14 points at their own ground this season. By contrast, they have taken a maximum 24 points from their eight away games. It could have been worse on Sunday had Cech not saved in injury-time from the West Ham striker Carlton Cole.
"It's hard to explain why our form is so different. You can see the effort and the way we try to break our opponents down [at Stamford Bridge] but getting the early goal is the key. We've been doing that away from home and it has made the games easier. We are not taking our chances at home. When we play away, we are really efficient, usually the first chance we get goes in. But we've not had the luck this season at home to score the quick goal and start from there.
"We need to get our home form back again. When you win three points away, it is good but you need to make the most of it by winning the next home game as well. The most disappointing thing is that we've now had two chances to go top of the table and we've not taken them. Whenever everybody else has drawn, so have we."