David LuizDavid Luiz believes Chelsea’s season will still be a success if last season’s Champions League winners qualify for next season’s tournament and win the Europa League.
The Blues have seen seven trophy opportunities slip by this term after Sunday’s 2-1 FA Cup semi-final defeat to Manchester City saw them relinquish their hold on the trophy.
“If you win the Europa League and stay to play Champions League next year of course it’s a success,” Luiz said.
“Some big teams in Europe don’t win titles this year, so of course it’s a success.”
Chelsea have become accustomed to silverware in the 10-year ownership of Roman Abramovich, but earlier this season suffered the ignominy of becoming the first holders to exit the Champions League at the group stages.
But for the second year running Chelsea are the last British team standing in European competition and face Basel, conquerors of Tottenham, in the Europa League semi-final first leg in Switzerland next week.
For now the focus is on today’s match with Fulham, with securing a place in the Premier League top four the main agenda.
Chelsea belatedly showed their potential at Wembley in a second-half resurgence and will need to be on top form in the remaining weeks of the season to achieve their goals.
The Wembley fightback, after defeat in Moscow to Rubin Kazan, also showed how Chelsea must add depth to their squad to challenge across all competitions next term.
Luiz was focused on the present, rather than the future, though.
“This is Chelsea,” Luiz said.
“When Chelsea want to play football they’re just so good. We have a difficult competition. This season we want to win everything.
“Now we cannot win the league, but we can stay in the best position and we can win another Euro title.
“Work for that. The next season is the next season... the future.”