The France winger was on the scoresheet for Carlo Ancelotti's side in their 5-0 demolition of Watford in the third round of the FA Cup at Stamford Bridge on Sunday.

Holders Chelsea will travel to meet Preston in the fourth round of the competition and Malouda believes their stunning performance against the Hornets proved they can live without African stars Didier Drogba, Salomon Kalou, John Obi Mikel and Michael Essien.

All four will be in action in the African Nations Cup later this month but some of the concerns over the absence of 19-goal Ivory Coast striker Drogba were soothed by Daniel Sturridge against Watford.

He scored his first goals for the club since joining from Manchester City in the summer and while Chelsea's Barclays Premier League title rivals are hoping the loss of the key quartet will hurt them, Malouda is confident they can cope.

"The system we have is our strength and it doesn't matter the players who come in or go out," said Malouda.

"You could see we were confident against Watford. Everyone is fit and ready to help the club reach the targets - we want to win everything.

"Clubs can't win the title in December or January but it's better to be on top. We're looking to be top in May so it's important for our confidence that we are still top now. Our big squad is our big strength."

Malouda, 29, who has denied criticising coach Carlo Ancelotti or team-mate Frank Lampard in an interview published in France over the weekend, is backing Sturridge to help fill the void left by Drogba and Kalou.

"Daniel has been wonderful in training," added Malouda.

"He was injured before and struggled but he has been working really hard.

"He deserved to score the goals. As you can see when he comes into the team, he's really confident. He's bringing something to the team and he's playing in a positive way. It's a good opportunity for him now to show his quality and he deserves it."

Watford were 3-0 down inside 22 minutes thanks to Sturridge's first for the club, an own goal from John Eustace and a third from Malouda.

Frank Lampard and a second for Sturridge sealed an emphatic win over the Championship side.

Sturridge, 20, hopes to continue playing well enough to give Ancelotti a selection headache when the African quartet return.

"We played really well as a team," said Sturridge.

"We went out there from minute one to show everyone what we can do. A few of the boys have gone away to the African Nations Cup and everyone was probably doubting us and we went out there and put our best foot forward.

"It is good for confidence that the manager believes in us young players and hopefully we will be able to put on performances for him and when the big boys come back," said Sturridge.

"Hopefully we will be able to give them some problems so that we can get ourselves in the team.

"It was good for the team as a whole to get an early goal and it was good for me because I have been waiting to get more opportunities.

"I have been getting a lot more involved in the team over the past few weeks and I am delighted to get my first goal because I have been waiting a long time for that.

"If more opportunities don't come after this I am going to keep coming back anyway so it doesn't really matter whether I get my chance next week, a month later or in a year's time.

"I am at this club for a very long time and I have been learning from the best strikers in the world in (Nicolas) Anelka and Drogba so it has been no problem for me waiting around."

Meanwhile, Ancelotti has confirmed that Anelka will return against Hull at the weekend after recovering from his hamstring problem to return to full training.