By Nada Grkinic BBC Sport Online

Chelsea manager Claudio Ranieri has insisted success in the Uefa Cup is crucial to his side's progress this season.

The Blues have failed to make any impact on the competition in their previous two appearances.

They suffered an embarrassing first-round exit to Swiss minnows St Gallen two years ago when Ranieri had just taken over from the sacked Gianluca Vialli.

And they were knocked out by Israeli side Hapoel Tel Aviv in the second round last year.

But Chelsea have made an impressive start to the Premiership campaign.

They are unbeaten after six games and Ranieri is keen for his players to take their good form into Europe.

"The Uefa Cup is very important and I want my players to gain experience and improve by playing in the competition," he said.

"I arrived at Chelsea after our first appearance in the [revamped] competition.

"And Hapoel Tel Aviv were a good team and maybe deserved to go further than they did last year when they were beaten by AC Milan in the quarter-finals.

"Sometimes the fans have suffered because of our failure to do well and Chelsea haven't achieved anything for a long time.

"So now it is time we started winning something and the Uefa Cup is among my priorities."

Ranieri's sentiments were echoed by in-form striker Eidur Gudjohnsen, who scored twice against Newcastle at the weekend.

Despite admitting the club's ultimate goal was to qualify for the Champions League, Gudjohnsen pointed to the benefits of being in the Uefa Cup.

He said: "I think everyone agrees that being in the Champions League is the main event.

"It's the competition to be in and that's what we want to achieve.

"But we are still working on things and it is important that we do well in the Uefa Cup for our confidence.

"We have the ambition to win every competition we are in and so far this season we haven't lost.

"Scandanavian teams are always physical and good at set-pieces so we will have to concentrate on our game.

"But we want to make up for the disappointment of last year and go as far as possible this season. We want to do better."