Sifting through the debris of a 4-1 defeat is a messy task, but the Blues manager yesterday managed his blues with predictable positiveness ahead of tonight's heavyweight clash in the Italian capital.
"I have always said we will not forget how to be a good team," he promised.
No, not Gianluca Vialli but Sven Goran Eriksson, the Lazio coach recalling his side's defeat to Roma three weekends ago, a result freakishly identical to that by which Chelsea blacked out in the Stadium of Light on Saturday.
Vialli spent yesterday deep in contemplation about why his array of expensive talent play so indifferently in the Premiership compared to the Champions League.
Sunday saw a clear-the-air meeting between manager and players in which Vialli laid it on the line that things must improve. But the Italian also took his own share of the blame.
In fact the Sunderland shock had made him doubt his ability as a manager. "It makes you think, that's for sure," he said. "I haven't got great experience as a manager so I think I make more mistakes than Arsene Wenger or Alex Ferguson, for example.
"Definitely when you perform as poorly as we did on Saturday, you know you have done something wrong as a manager."
Given Chelsea's superior form in Europe, they go into tonight's game against the second favourites to lift the trophy optimistic of taking at least a point.
Despite various fitness doubts Vialli is expected to be able to field the line-up which took Feyenoord apart in the last Champions League game.
Lazio, however, will be without Sinisa Mihajlovic, Dejan Stankovic and Giuseppe Pancaro, all suspended, while Paolo Negro and Matias Almeyda are out injured and Pavel Nedved is doubtful with flu.
But though the Italians possess a squad capable of covering for those absences there is a psychological brittleness to this team which sits second on goal difference in Serie A.
Last season their players wept as they lost the title in the last 15 minutes of the season. Vialli's friend Roberto Mancini and the defender Fernando Couto were recently involved in a training ground dust-up. Two recent games have seen on-pitch altercations involving Mihajlovic, the goalkeeper Luca Marchegiani and Alessandro Nesta.
It all makes for a fascinating duel tonight. Which will win? Jekyll or Hyde?
Meanwhile, Feyenoord and Marseille, who both lost their opening second phase mathces, clash in the other pool match.
It is Marseille's first game in the champions League since they parted company with coach Rolland Courbis and replaced him with Bernard Casoni.
Patrick Blondeau will be absent from the Marseille defence and will be replaced by Sebastien Perez although Spanish midfielder Ivan de la Pena will definitely miss the trip to Rotterdam.
In Group C, Real Madrid will be keen to put Saturday's 5-1 Spanish league defeat to Zaragoza behind them when they host Norway's Rosenborg while Bayern Munich, in a re-run of their semi-final last year, take on Dynamo Kiev. A draw against Kiev would not be disastrous but realistically Bayern will not be satisfied with anything less than a win at home.
LAZIO (probable, 4-4-1-1): Marchegiani; Gottardi, Nesta, Couto, Favalli; Conceicao, Veron, Sensini, Simeone or Nedved; Mancini; Salas.
CHELSEA (probable, 4-4-2): De Goey; Ferrer, Desailly, Leboeuf, Babayaro; Petrescu, Wise, Deschamps, Poyet; Zola, Flo.
