Villa spurred by UEFA Cup goal

Any meeting with Chelsea FC inevitably reawakens transfer speculation surrounding Valencia CF striker David Villa; the London club's interest in the dynamic Spanish international is well documented.

All on the line
However, Villa's return to England finds him intent only on impressing to give his club the opportunity to continue their European campaign in the UEFA Cup. In their final UEFA Champions League fixture, Valencia have to engineer a better result than FC Schalke 04 manage at home to Rosenborg BK, and they need a big performance from Villa and their other star performers.

Morale low
A victory would be especially sweet as it would also exact revenge for Los Che's home defeat by the same opponents on Matchday 2. That result appeared to have a devastating effect on morale at the Mestalla: Valencia lost their next two UEFA Champions League games (and their coach as Quique Sánchez Flores paid the price for their poor form against Rosenborg) and then could only draw with Schalke. Not once in those three matches could Valencia get on the scoresheet.

UEFA Cup focus
"It was a very tough night for us against Chelsea," said Villa. "We knew if we had won that game we would have had a 100 per cent record from our first two games. Things might have gone differently for us if we had managed to beat Chelsea but there's no point mulling over it now. It's in the past and all we are concentrating on is getting into the UEFA Cup.

'Right attitude'
"We are bound to be a little bit down because we are out of the Champions League, but we have to be positive and see this as an opportunity for us to turn things around. The UEFA Cup is important to the club and important to us as players. We know it's a tough place to come and Chelsea are a difficult side to play against, but we have to go out there with the right attitude."

'No pressure'
Responding to the transfer conjecture and the possibility of him displaying his goalscoring talents in the Premier League in the future, the 26-year-old added: "I don't feel under any more pressure because of something mentioned on TV or on the radio or in the papers. All I am thinking about at the moment is how we as a club can move forward and improve our performances."