Frank Lampard is adamant Chelsea won't suffer a Christmas hangover this season.
The Blues took only three points from three games over the festive period last term - drawing with Reading, Fulham and Aston Villa.
Ironically, they face Villa today and Fulham on New Year's Day with Newcastle in between.
But Lampard declared Chelsea have the resources to cope with the key absentees this year.
He said: "I can see there are parallels. But to be fair in terms of John in particular, we didn't have cover for him last year.
"We had to play Michael Essien at centre-half and out of midfield. It made us weaker in midfield and while he did really well, he's not a centre-back.
"This year we've got players who can come in and cover that. Obviously we miss Didier, because he's probably the best striker in the world."
Blues face Martin O'Neill's men at Stamford Bridge, standing six points behind leaders Arsenal.
Lampard reckons a decent Christmas haul would set up Chelsea nicely with their title rivals all still due at the Bridge.
He added: "You can't drop important points over this period. There are too many points on the table and it makes it very important for us to win these next three games and hope that the others slip up.
"We are only six points behind and we've still got Arsenal, United and Liverpool to come to our place in the new year.
"Anything is still possible and that's the feeling we have. That's not as easy as it sounds but that's the way it is.
"We now have to go on a real run of winning games and hope that then we'll have the big players coming back.
"The players we've got here are capable of going on that run without the injured players.
"I'm pretty confident we can go and win all three games."
