Chelsea vs Arsenal: Gary Cahill believes Champions League win will kick-start Chelsea season

Gary Cahill believes that Chelsea's win over Israeli club Maccabi Tel Aviv will give them a massive advantage going into their game against Arsenal in the weekend. The Blues have been in woeful form this season and a 4-0 win mid-week would do wonders for their confidence, in what is a crucial game for both teams.

A win here for Arsenal will effectively rule Chelsea out of reckoning for the title this season, with the Blues potentially 14 points behind Manchester City, should the Citizens win their game against West Ham in the weekend. However, should the result go the other way, it will bring Chelsea within three points of the Gunners and give their season a kick-start they have missed so far.

Cahill, who was dropped for Chelsea's game against Everton last weekend, is expected to start alongside John Terry and insists the atmosphere inside the dressing room is much better than what followed the result at Goodison Park. The Blues will, however, be without summer signings Pedro Rodriguez and Willian, who have both picked up injuries over the course of the week.

"It was the ideal game for us," said Cahill, as quoted by the Guardian. "We were dominant throughout, kept a clean sheet and scored four goals. It was exactly what we were looking for to try to get us up and running.

"It means we'll go into training in better spirits than we have been going into training. Happier, more lively. Saturday is a huge game. I'm not going to say it's going to have an absolutely massive impact on that because it probably won't but in terms of the feel-good factor around us, it certainly will.

"It's normal when you've had a bad run or you lose games that certain players dip in confidence, that's just natural. The only thing that turns that around is winning games. That is why [beating Maccabi] was so pleasing. That's the only thing that can turn things around: win, win, win. And we've got another chance to do that on Saturday," he added.