The Ivory Coast international - a reported transfer target for Jose Mourinho's Inter Milan - was axed from the squad for the FA Cup third-round replay at Southend, in which the Blues came from behind to record a 4-1 victory.

The decision to leave out the striker, however, was nothing more than tactical, according to Wilkins.

"That was just a selection policy of Felipe (Scolari)," he said.

"We have a very big squad, some exceptional players and Felipe felt Nicolas was the man to take the field tonight.

"Whether Didier will be included at the weekend, we don't know, but he is certainly a very valuable member of our staff.

"I do not know whether Felipe has met with Didier, but from what I have seen on the training pitch, it certainly does not give to the fact they are at breaking point."

Chelsea had been under pressure following their 3-0 defeat at the hands of Barclays Premier League rivals Manchester United on Sunday, but captain John Terry was glad his side put up a spirited performance to avoid an upset in a game which had initially been called off by referee Chris Foy because of fog at Roots Hall.

After going behind to an early Adam Barrett header, Chelsea rallied to progress thanks to goals from Michael Ballack, Salomon Kalou, Nicolas Anelka and, in stoppage time, Frank Lampard.

"We have been under-performing recently, and I think the manager was right to criticise us for not fighting enough," Terry told ITV1.

"Today was an opportunity for us, and we showed great spirit.

"It was not the best of starts - but after 30 minutes we upped the tempo in the second half, and I thought we fully deserved the win."

Wilkins felt the Chelsea players - lambasted for their poor recent performances by Scolari - produced the perfect response.

"We moved the ball around well, created a lot of chances and had it not been for the Southend boys defending so valiantly, we would have got ourselves back in it a bit earlier," said Wilkins, who maintained Scolari was "as happy as Larry" with the result.

"Our spirit has been fantastic, and you could see that with the way they played tonight.

"The atmosphere around the place was we really wanted to put Sunday right and we did that."

Chelsea were again undone by a set-play, when a corner led to Southend's opening goal - making a mockery of Scolari's new zonal system.

It is something, though, which the Blues coaching staff are determined to put right.

"We will try everything to get it right, whether it be zonal, man-to-man marking, sticking a coach in front of it, whatever. We will try the lot until we get the right solution," Wilkins said.

"When you are dealing with the quality and intelligence of footballer we have, it is never a gamble to change it."

The only down side to the performance was the loss of winger Joe Cole late on to a knee problem, which will be assessed in the coming days.

Wilkins, meanwhile, maintained they had no problem with the referee's ruling.

"The referee made a very good decision at the time he made the decision, it was not playable. Then, 10 minutes later, it was perfect conditions," he said.

Southend boss Steve Tilson admitted his side had just been outclassed in the end.

He said: "We could have gone 2-0 up, and that save probably changed the game and swung it their way.

"We tried to hold on as long as we could, but in the end that bit of quality has got them the four goals.

"That is the trade mark of a top side - they were clinical tonight.

"But I can't fault the players, they have given me everything tonight in terms of effort and desire."

Tilson admitted he had looked to exploit Chelsea's apparent weakness on set-plays.

He said: "We had a couple of good chances, they did not look comfortable.

"If the delivery is good and they are zonal marking, you have got a run on them.

"It is the first time they have tried it and so we tried to exploit that."