YOHAN Cabaye says battered Newcastle United must bounce back quickly from damaging defeat to Chelsea.

United lost both first-choice defenders in the course of a 3-0 loss to Andre Villas-Boas’ Blues to add to mounting injury concerns at St James’ Park.

And they have not won for three games, slowing the momentum created by their terrific start to the season.

Cabaye has also had to get used to playing alongside a new midfield partner after Cheick Tioté’s “minor knee injury” became a long-term concern that may well rule him out of Saturday’s trip to Carrow Road. Cabaye said: “It was a cruel game. In the second half we had control of the game. We hit the crossbar twice in that period and Petr Cech had to make some saves, so it is difficult to take.

“We have to recover very quickly for the next game. We have to focus on the Norwich game, where we have to win. We want to win that one and we will work very hard during the week to do so. We have to be ready for that game.”

They will be forced to compete without two of their most important players at Norwich, Fabricio Coloccini and Steven Taylor having suffered injuries during the Chelsea reverse. Taylor will miss the rest of the season with a ruptured Achilles.

“It was a big blow to lose both centre-halves. The worst thing to happen was losing those two,” he said.

“They are very important players for us. They have a very special partnership going and I feel for Steven Taylor, it’s a bad thing what happened to him and he needs to be very strong to get back as soon as possible.

“This is football, we have had the same defence all season, but Perch is a good defender. I hope Colo is not out for too long. Cheick could be back soon too, I hope so. He is such a good midfielder and he is treatment and could be available. We miss him and we need players like him back, even though Danny Guthrie has been playing well.”

Although momentum has been checked, Cabaye believes European football is still on the agenda.

“For us a good season would be stay roughly where we are and to get in to Europe,” he said.

“It would be a real step forward if we got in to European competition and it doesn’t matter if we are in the Europa League or the Champions League, it would be great for the club. The fans want to see us back in Europe and so do we. That is the aim.”