Joe Cole admits that Chelsea cannot afford to lose tonight’s Champions League game at Valencia.
Chelsea drew their first match at home to Norway’s Rosenborg and the game in Valencia is their first in Europe since the departure of Jose Mourinho.
“We need to go out there and get the result,” the midfielder said.
“We’ve only got one point on the board in the Champions League so it’s a game we must not lose. We want to go home with all three points.”
Chelsea are a lowly eighth in the Premier League after a defeat and a goalless draw in new manager Avram Grant’s first two games in charge.
But Cole admits that Chelsea will lose in Valencia on Wednesday if they do not improve their form.
“It’s a tough place to come and they are a side with great players,” the England midfielder said.
“We need to be five to 10% better than we’ve been all season. We need to improve.
“That is everyone, including myself, we are not firing on all cylinders at the moment.
“As a team we want to go out and win. Maybe a draw would be a good result, but we want to come here and get a great result.
“We are improving and we don’t think it will be too long before we are back to our top level and higher.”
And Cole says they need to forget consign the memory of Mourinho to the history books.
“The club were very successful under Jose but in football things move on and things change,” he said.
“We want to draw a line under that now and look forward. The atmosphere has been fine, obviously nothing runs smoothly when there is any change among leaders and managers.
“We all just want to look forward to a successful future with Avram and Chelsea, and win things.”
