Hsselbaink's surprise omission from the side means that he is not cup-tied and can still play for another club in Europe. But that doesn't interest him.

Jimmy said "I want to stay at Chelsea. Of course I am disappointed not to play tonight.

"Real Betis may want me but I might not want to play for them. I'm not interested in any other club.

"I am only concerned with Chelsea and I am going to stay and fight for my place here.

"I still feel I have something to give and I'm ready to play if the manager picks me. The competition is high but that's fine. We've got five good strikers and every Premiership team would like to have the players of Chelsea."

The saving grace for Jimmy might be the poor performance of Mikael Forssell. The Finn, not the Swede as Barry Davies kept referring to him, looked pretty poor for the majority of his performance. Apart from a few good flicks and passess, he showed little to suggest that he will still be in the team for the visit to Anfield...