IVANOVIC: LEARN FROM EXPERIENCE
Posted on: Sat 17 Nov 2012
Branislav Ivanovic recognises the importance of returning to winning ways against West Bromwich Albion this afternoon.
Three games without victory have seen us lose top spot in the Barclays Premier League for the first time this season, and we travel to The Hawthorns to meet a side whose home record in this campaign is second only to champions Manchester City.
New manager Steve Clarke has instilled confidence and cohesion into a talented squad, and they sit fifth in the table, four points behind the Blues. Having been defeated there last season, Ivanovic knows we must improve if we are to return to form.
'I think in previous years we had almost exactly the same situation as we now have,' Ivanovic said. 'We need to learn from these experiences, and from the last game against Liverpool we know we need to be more concentrated as a team to win matches.
'It's important we get the points from this game against West Brom, we tried hard in the other games but we don't have the points and we need to improve this.'
It is now eight games in all competitions since we kept a clean sheet, and while it makes for exciting matches, Ivanovic is all too aware we must tighten up without losing our attacking flair.
'This is very important, to keep clean sheets,' he admitted. 'It's the main thing for the defence to think about. We need to be motivated, compact, and everybody needs to be concentrated. Sometimes we need to be more aggressive, angrier as we defend.
'Then we will be fine, but we cannot lose many more points in the next few games. It's not just one win we need, we need one win to start a run and to keep going after that. That's the way to pass this busy period, which is so important for us.
'We are three points behind now, we were three ahead, so why in five games can we not be three in front again? We can do that if we win our games.'
Ivanovic will be joining Gigi Salmon and Frank Sinclair on the sofas during Chelsea TV's Friday Night Live show next Friday, 23 November.
As well as taking calls and answering your tweets, the Serbian international captain will also be talking to fans live on air, as we will be integrating a Google+ Hangout for fans into the show.
Recently, Petr Cech took part in the first of our Google+ Hangouts, and with fans posing questions to him direct; this is your chance to hangout with Ivanovic and become a part of the show.Have you got something you'd like to ask? Fill out this form and you could be one of the lucky few selected to join us on the night.
Don't worry if you're not one of the five, the Hangout will be live on our YouTube channel for you to enjoy, meaning you can go back and watch it again at any time.
Friday Night Live is on Chelsea TV from 6:30pm every Friday. For fans who would like to watch the Hangout via YouTube, we will provide a link on the day of the event
