Chelsea's young strikers will be trusted to help Chelsea through one of the most critical periods of the season. Blues boss Carlo Ancelotti will be without Didier Drogba and Salomon Kalou against Fulham on Monday as they are heading off to link up with the Ivory Coast on Sunday.
The pair, along with Ghana's Michael Essien and Nigeria's John Mikel Obi, are all taking part in the African Nations Cup in January.
Ancelotti again insisted he does not intend to spend any money on new players in the transfer window and is content to rely on the likes of Fabio Borini and Daniel Sturridge, who have yet to score for the club, against Fulham and then into January.
Nicolas Anelka, Ancelotti's only other main striker, is out of both festive games against Birmingham on Saturday and Fulham on Monday due to a muscle problem.
"No, I'm not changing my mind," said Ancelotti. "I didn't ask (owner) Roman (Abramovich) for new players and he has not asked me if I want them.
"I have a lot of confidence in my strikers. Not only Drogba, not only Kalou, not only Anelka. Also Sturridge and Borini.
"Against Fulham, maybe we'll only have Sturridge and Borini. But in January we'll have Anelka and, in January, he'll be ready to play.
"I didn't ask for new players to my club. I think that we have good solutions internally. Even if we lose the African players. If you have new players, maybe it's a problem in February or March. We don't need them in this moment, to have new players.
"Anelka has a little injury, a muscle problem. It's a small problem but he's not ready to play in these games. Against Fulham also.
"We will still have 11 against Fulham. If Didier is not here, we can put in other players. Sturridge has an opportunity to show his qualities. He played against West Ham very well in that second half and, maybe, against Birmingham he can play from the beginning.
"They are very important games. We are in a very good position. We have four more points at the top.
"We're not in our best moment because we didn't play well in the last few games but, because of this, we have to stay concentrated and focused to try and win our next matches.
"We play very strong teams having very good results, Birmingham and Fulham, so we have to pay attention.
"It's a very important moment but we still have possibilities, if we do 100%, to win."
