Mata demands awayday success at Norwich

Juan Mata believes Chelsea must quickly secure a first away win of the Premier League season if they are to kick-start their title challenge. A trip to Carrow Road to face Norwich City on Sunday presents Jose Mourinho's side with the latest opportunity to claim three points on the road. And Mata -– back in the side after falling out of favour -– is confident the Stamford Bridge club will face Chris Hughton's side in buoyant mood after drawing a line under an alarming early season dip. Successive defeats to Bayern Munich in the European Super Cup, Everton in the Premier League and Basel in the Champions League came as a shock to Mourinho's squad. But after getting their league form back on track with a victory over Fulham and hard-fought draw at Tottenham Hotspur, Chelsea delivered an impressive display at Steaua Bucharest to ignite their European campaign. "I think we're in a good moment after the last three games," said Matta. "We won two of them and drew against Tottenham after playing really well in the second half, so now we have to keep going and build on that before the international break. “We need our first away league win as soon as possible. If we want to fight for the title you need to win your home games but also pick points up away as well. "Obviously when you play away it's difficult, especially against teams like Norwich who are very good at home, but we're good enough to do it.” Mourinho's decision to drop Mata raised eyebrows but the Spain playmaker’s response has been to force a u-turn and also earned a recall into his national squad. "I'm happy with how I played in the last three games and I'm happy with how the team played," said Mata. "I'm really pleased to be back in the Spain squad and, obviously with the national team, my target is to play in the World Cup." Samuel Eto'o will lead the Chelsea attack at Norwich in place of Fernando Torres who is suspended after being sent off last week and Mourinho acknowledges a victory immediately ahead of the international break will hand his side a timely lift. "We have a lot to improve and work to do. We will have ups and downs, that's normal with this profile of squad. I'm ready for that," said Mourinho. "But after defeats we won against Fulham and had a fantastic second half at Spurs. We solved the situation under pressure in Romania. If we do our job then have 15 days to reflect and prepare for the future." Norwich claimed only their second league win of the season last time out when they collected all three points at Stoke City. The visit of Chelsea presents a daunting challenge but City's record at Carrow Road last season, when they beat Manchester United and Arsenal, will give Hughton's side hope. "We will be underdogs and most people would expect them to win," said Hughton. "But you have to use that and at Carrow Road we have put in good performances against the big teams. We have to draw on those experiences." Sebastien Bassong is Norwich's only injury doubt after Nathan Redmond and Javier Garrido proved their fitness this week. Source: AFP