Rothen reception for Chelsea

By Matthew Spiro

Paris Saint-Germain FC winger Jérôme Rothen is hoping to use his AS Monaco FC experience to help his new team-mates in Tuesday's opening UEFA Champions League match against Chelsea FC.

Integral role
Rothen played an integral part in Monaco's run to last year's Champions League final and is now targeting more success with PSG, whom he joined in a €10m move this summer. "I can't wait to be involved in the Champions League again," the 26-year-old told uefa.com. "It's the ultimate competition for a player because it gives you the chance to test yourself against the very best."

Sensible policy
The French international believes the key to a successful campaign is to focus on just one match at a time. "The important thing is not to make your goals too high at the start, otherwise you'll set yourself up for a fall," he explained. "At Monaco we just took one game at a time, making sure that we were thinking about our next opponent and no one else. You can't start by saying 'let's try to get to the quarter-finals' because it doesn't work like that."

Defining performance
Rothen's most dazzling Champions League performance last season arguably came in the semi-final first leg against Chelsea, which Monaco won 3-1, but he believes it will be difficult for PSG to register a similar result at the Parc des Princes. "It's a nice memory but it will be a totally different game on Tuesday," he said. "I'm playing for a different club and Chelsea have changed a lot since last spring. Our league form is a concern right now and we'll have to raise our game considerably against Chelsea to get the right result."

Going home
Indeed, PSG are still looking for their first league victory of the season, with Saturday's 1-1 draw against FC Istres leaving last year's runners-up 14th in Ligue 1 after five matches. Rothen, however, insists he is not regretting the move north to his hometown club. "I had two years left on my Monaco contract and I also had some interesting offers from abroad, but my heart was set on Paris," Rothen said.

Golden memories
"PSG are the team I've always supported so to be wearing their shirt makes me feel very proud. If I could win the championship in the blue and red of PSG it would mean so much. I started going to watch games at the Parc des Princes with my dad when I was five and I carried on going until I was 17 or 18. I have got some great memories of that stadium."

Future prospects
However, the blond-haired midfield player denied that he had joined PSG for purely nostalgic reasons, saying: "The main reason I have moved to PSG is because I believe the club is going places and I think I can fulfil my ambitions here. I want to help PSG become one of Europe's leading clubs and while there is a long way to go before that happens, the foundations are there. We've not had a good start to the season but it's early days and we can still turn things around."

Chelsea challenge
Rothen knows that victory against Chelsea could be just the kick-start PSG need. "We're not playing badly," he said. "There's just a slight problem with the confidence. But that will change when we get our first win. Against Chelsea we will have to give absolutely everything and convert all of our chances. If we do that, anything is possible."