The Blues head north for the first of two away matches before Christmas. Stoke City in the Barclays Premier League await next Monday night but before then comes the chance to book a place in the first set of semi-finals this season.

‘Derby is the next match, and the next match is the Capital One Cup so the next match is the most important match,’ Mourinho tells the official Chelsea website.

‘At this moment we don’t speak about any other competition, we just speak about the Capital One Cup. It is a difficult opponent and we have to go with a strong side.

‘It is a sign of respect for Derby, it is a sign of respect for the competition because I don’t think this cup deserves other things than we always show for the competition. We don’t have problems. The players are fit, the players are not tired, the players are in good condition so no special reason not to go with a strong side.’

Cesc Fabregas completed a one-match suspension against Hull on Saturday and the manager reports on Filipe Luis following the challenge in that game which earned the Tigers’ Tom Huddlestone a red card: ‘Filipe Luis didn’t break his leg, he is not in the hospital with surgery in his leg or in his knee and that is great news for us, we were very lucky.’

Derby, under the stewardship of Steve McClaren, lost a top-of-the-table clash 2-0 away to Middlesbrough at the weekend, our on-loan striker Patrick Bamford one of the scorers. The Rams are now third in their division, a point behind leaders Bournemouth and Boro.

‘The Championship is a league where the top teams in the table have already four defeats, so it is a league where already they know there is a great balance and it is normal for them to lose matches. If they lose two matches they are out of the top six, if they win two matches they are in promotion positions - so I don’t think they are affected by that.

‘The Championship is a very competitive league. It is amazing - 24 teams, play-offs, lots of matches including midweek, very strong physical sides and it must be a very hard league for sure.

‘Obviously Derby will try to get into the Capital One Cup semi-finals which would be a great achievement for them but also for us, and we are going to try.’

The Blues are returning to a stadium where we won 2-0 in the third round of the FA Cup last season, courtesy of second-half goals from John Mikel Obi and Oscar.

‘Derby were a strong team then and they are a strong team now,’ notes Mourinho, ‘but with more time with the same manager they have more conditions to be stable and to be a better team, which I think they are.

‘This is a cup match, a quarter-final, big motivation for them and we have to equal that motivation so our bigger talent can win.’