Chelsea may be without their two most influential players in Didier Drogba and John Terry but Blackburn manager Mark Hughes is under no illusions regarding the task facing his team tomorrow.
Ivory Coast striker Drogba is the focal point of Avram Grant's side but he is recovering from knee surgery while the England captain has a broken foot.
However, the visitors have more than adequate replacements in Andriy Shevchenko and the likes of Alex or Tal Ben Haim.
Therefore Hughes is not getting too carried away at the prospect of a 'weaker' Chelsea turning up at Ewood Park.
"Most big sides, if they lose players of that stature, they pick back-up players who can come in and they compensate for it," he said.
"But I have to say I would prefer to go up against a Chelsea side without Drogba and Terry because of the influence they have on their side."
Chelsea have lost just once - against Arsenal last weekend - in 18 matches but all three of their league defeats this season have come away from home.
Blackburn, by contrast, have won one in eight and are shipping goals at an alarming rate.
"This is a challenge for everyone but certainly we don't think it is beyond us," added Hughes.
"The vast majority of games we have given a decent enough account of ourselves for long periods but have let ourselves down at crucial times and had lapses in the defensive situations.
"It is another difficult game for us. This run we are on we looked at [beforehand] and we knew what we were up against Manchester United, Liverpool, Chelsea and Arsenal (in the Carling Cup).
"During this period there have been games against top-quality opposition which we recognise were hard to overcome but our frustration has been with the games people expected us to win and we expected to win ourselves.
"If we can go out against Chelsea and put a decent performance in and get a positive result then that will settle everyone down and we can look ahead to the new year."
With four matches in nine days over the Christmas period Hughes is well aware this is the time of year which can define a season, especially his club who are ninth in the Barclays Premier League and looking to challenge for a European place.
"It does shake up the league somewhat with the number of fixtures that take place and if we can get back-to-back wins or three wins in a row that can really shape your season for the second half," added the former Chelsea striker.
"That is what we are looking to do, turn this run around because we are not comfortable with it and feel we are a lot better team than we are showing at the moment.
"It would be a great boost to beat Chelsea. I think we raised expectations quite high - we don't mind that - but if you have a couple of defeats that brings people crashing down with a bump.
"But we are still very much in the mix for a top place in the Premier League and are very much in touch with everything.
"There are a hell of a lot of games to look forward to and we are still very positive about the season we are having.
"If you look at our position last year we had about 17 points and ended up in 10th."
Blackburn will be without centre-back Christopher Samba for the visit of Chelsea as he serves a one-match ban for accumulating five yellow cards.
Zurab Khizanishvili or midfielder Aaron Mokoena look most likely to step in, although the versatile Brett Emerton returns after suspension.
