Avram Grant, the Chelsea coach, whose side face Olympiacos in Athens tomorrow night, insists he will not rest until he has led the club to victory in the Champions League.

The Israeli is determined to go two steps better than Jose Mourinho, his predecessor, who twice saw teams eliminated by Liverpool in the semi-finals, in 2005 and again, on penalties, last season.

“Chelsea are a big club already but if you want to be a really big club and bigger than we are now, we need to be in the final of the Champions League and then do more and more,” Grant said.

“You cannot say we are bigger if we don’t get to the final of the Champions League. So this is our target. Our target was to do it within two years but we want to do it this year.

“We need to go step by step. I personally will not rest until we get to the final. Our target is to reach the final but we also need to do our job tomorrow night. If we look too far ahead we could lose the moment. So we concentrate on tomorrow first.”

For the first time since he took charge from the deposed Mourinho, Grant has a fully fit squad to choose from, and has been further boosted by news released by the club today that Paulo Ferreira, the Portugal international, has signed a new five-year contract.

Only Andriy Shevchenko, the Ukraine striker, did not travel to Greece and he was left at home in a bid to boost his fitness levels after being sidelined with a persistent back injury.

Grant still has to grapple with the thorny issue of whether Michael Ballack and Frank Lampard can play alongside each other in midfield and how to accommodate Didier Drogba and new £15 million signing Nicolas Anelka in attack.

But he remained non-plussed by such concerns ahead of game that could well be affected by a rock-hard pitch and freezing conditions.

“Anelka is a very good player and my opinion is there are no two managers or strikers the same,” he added. “This is what is exciting about football. We have good players and take the best of them. Everybody asks me if Anelka can together with Drogba and if Ballack can play with Lampard. Two good players can always play alongside each other if they are ready to work for the team.

“The competition for places is good for me, the team and the players. I don’t know which is more of a headache, the situation now or the one I had two or three months ago.

“This is less of a headache. This is part of life as a manager at a big club. I don’t call it a headache.

“I know who will play, how we will play, and who will be on the bench. The situation is more good now. But the players who have come back from injury and Africa are in good shape but they will get even better in time.”

Grant is likely to stick with a 4-3-3 formation against the Greeks with Drogba or Anelka leading an attack flanked by Joe Cole and Shaun Wright-Phillips. Michael Essien is set to be handed a role as a holding midfielder with Lampard and Ballack given another chance to shine in midfield together.