The Blues and Avram Grant silenced their critics on Saturday by
bouncing back from the Spurs defeat with a 4-0 league win at West
Ham.
“We had extra motivation to put things right after Wembley,"
commented midfielder Michael Ballack after the Upton Park
victory.
“If you play a big game like (the final) and you don’t perform,
you don’t play well, everyone is a bit down and frustrated, then
everyone wants to show we can play much better.
"The paintballing was arranged by JT," he added of last Tuesday's
exercise near to the club's training ground. "It is a small
part in football but sometimes during the season you have difficult
moments, especially after such a defeat by Tottenham. Then
you have to do something a little bit different. It was not
the main reason for the victory at West Ham, but we wanted to do
something to clean our minds and our heads.”
