Didier Drogba accepts Chelsea must improve if they are to start the season in the best possible fashion.
Blues front man tells team-mates to up their game ahead of opener
Didier Drogba has accepted Chelsea must improve if they are to start the season in the best possible fashion.
The Premier League fixture list has offered last season's double winners a relatively easy opener with a home clash against promoted West Brom, but Carlo Ancelotti's men enter Saturday's clash in less than ideal form.
Sunday's 3-1 defeat to Manchester United in the Community Shield saw the Blues suffer their fourth straight defeat in their warm-up schedule, although boss Ancelotti remains unfazed heading to their first game of the new campaign.
But Drogba admits there is still some hard work to be done for the Stamford Bridge outfit to be in good shape ahead of the encounter with the Baggies.
"The game against United showed we are not ready. We have to step up our game if we want to start the season well like we did last year," said the 32-year-old, who came on as a second-half substitute at Wembley as he continues his recovery from a hernia operation.
"A lot of players have only trained for 10 days. It is too short to be fit and ready for the big competition.
"We have to improve our game, even if we are not fit, and hope that in two to three weeks time we will be better.
"I hope it does not take that long but when you come back after a short holiday it takes a minimum of two to three weeks to have good preparation and be fit physically. I know I'm not ready yet."
Quality
Drogba - who played at the World Cup with a protective cast after fracturing his arm - continued: "Against United, we played without intensity, but we are working very hard in training trying to get fit early.
"It is not going to be easy but we need more time."
Chelsea are understood to be close to completing the £22million signing of Benfica's Brazil midfielder Ramires, but so far Yossi Benayoun is the only senior player Chelsea have added to their squad this summer, while Deco, Joe Cole and Michael Ballack have left.
Drogba, though, insists there is already enough strength in depth for the Blues to mount another sustained assault on both domestic and European honours next season.
"The squad is the same as last year and the quality is still there," said the striker, who netted 29 goals last season.
"If there are more players coming then that will be good for us because it will improve the level of the team, but if not then we know that we will have the quality to go very far in all competitions."
