This week could define Chelsea's season says Luiz

There is no doubt that this season has been a disappointment for Chelsea fans. It all started with such optimism, with some exciting new players and the Champions League trophy taking pride of place at Stamford Bridge. It looked for a while as if the Blues would add the Premier League title to the European cup as we won seven a drew one of the first eight league games. The next game saw defeat by Manchester United thanks to some terrible refereeing and the season has gone off the rails ever since.

Now Chelsea are in a battle with Arsenal and Tottenham to qualify for next season’s Champions League, while the FA cup and Europa League are the last hopes for a trophy. With a 1-0 deficit to overturn against Steaua Bucharest and an FA cup to Old Trafford today, David Luiz knows that this week could be the most important in the season, and he is hoping that Chelsea can capitalise on United’s disappointment at being dumped out of Europe by Real Madrid.

“Sometimes when you get knocked out you can be a little bit sad,” said Luiz.

“I hope their guys stay sad until this game so Chelsea win.

“I thought we were unlucky on Thursday. It was a difficult game on a bad pitch, so we could not play like Chelsea love to play, with the ball on the floor and trying some combinations. But now we have the second leg and we can reverse the score.”

His defensive colleague Ivanovic has called on Chelsea to treat today’s game against United as a cup final, because he knows that a poor performance and defeat could have a negative effect on the rest of the season, in the same way that United could be suffering today.