Town boss Mick McCarthy believes the Blues will be taking on the Championship’s best side when they face Derby County at Portman Road this afternoon (KO 3pm).
Since their early-season 2-0 home victory over Burnley, the sixth-placed Blues have fallen short against teams currently in the top five, something McCarthy wants to see change.
Following today’s game against the Rams and QPR’s Boxing Day visit to Portman Road, Town travel to second-placed Brighton on December 29th and then Burnley on January 2nd.
"Tomorrow I think we’re playing the best team and the best squad in the league, and we need to get a result against one of them because we’ve lost to Hull, we’ve lost to Brighton, we’ve lost to Middlesbrough, but it’s a different game.
"Derby’s a big club but there are a lot of us think we’re big clubs and think we should be in the Premier League.
"This division has about 18 teams which have been in the Premier League, might be more now.”
He added: "We lost to Brighton, lost to Middlesbrough, lost at Hull. But it’s what you end up with come May.
"I don’t know what’ll happen over the next four games and how many points we could take, I’ve no idea. I’ll concentrate on this and try and beat them. But they’re a good side.”
McCarthy felt the Blues played well against Boro at Portman Road a fortnight ago before eventually falling to a 2-0 defeat.
"I think we probably shaded it slightly but we were certainly even-stevens [until they scored] and there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be like that in all the other games and maybe we’ll nick the goal instead.”
Does he believe facing their promotion rivals brings the best out of his side? "It has in the past. I think it’s a motivating factor. I don’t think we’ve got any shrinking violets that tend to shy away from it.
"We’re more up for it and in your face for it because it’s a challenge. And that’s what it’ll be on Saturday.”
The Town boss says he’s targeting a top two finishing this season, even if he admits it will be a big ask for his side, particularly with the tough fixtures over the holiday period.
"Derby, QPR, resurgent QPR, I might add. Sparky [U21s coach Mark Kennedy] went to watch them the other day, they’ve got Junior Hoilett, Charlie Austin and other players who have been on the sidelines back.
"Brighton away, Burnley away. That might just put a bit of manners on us the fact that we’ve just won two away games against the MK Dons and Fulham, these are different games.
"Get in the top two? We’re aiming for that. But I look at Derby and the money that they’ve spent and Middlesbrough with the money that they’ve spent, Hull City and the money they’ve spent, Brighton have got a really good squad too, although to be fair to Chris Hughton I don’t think he’s shelled out that much money.
"It’s a tougher league, it really is a tougher league and I see some of them below us, Reading, Sheffield Wednesday, they’ve had good runs.
"I think it’s going to be hard to get in the top six. Getting into the top two, if we get there then we will have punched above our weight. Let’s hope we’re in that promotion mix at the end of the season, whatever it might be.”
He says he doesn’t know his Derby counterpart Paul Clement well and can see why Derby would have appealed as his first job as a manager having previously been Carlo Ancelotti’s assistant at Real Madrid and on the staff at Chelsea and Paris Saint-Germain amongst others.
"Of course, at a club that had the squad that they had and the resources to go out and add to that squad and make it better,” McCarthy continued.
"They’re playing a really good brand of football, pretty expansive, they’ve got good players in every position.
"I’d argue whether there is a better squad in the league and I think most managers in this league would probably say the same.
"Middlesbrough could be a question mark, Burnley have kept relatively the squad but have added Andre Gray. I just think it’s a tougher league, a harder league than it ever was before this season.”
The Town boss says he’s setting his team no targets during the Christmas-New Year period: "No because we could be unbeaten and end up with four points. We could win two and lose two and be in a far better position - ‘You were unbeaten over Christmas’, ‘Oh great, four points.’
"We could win one and draw one and have the same. We could win them all. I doubt that very much, I have to be honest, I’m not going to be sat here and say, ‘We’re going to win all four of these games’.
"But we’ll try and win all four and we’ll try and get as many points as we can. All that goal setting, if you talk to the psychologists it’s all great I’m sure, but if I set that goal and we don’t get anywhere near it over Christmas then [it’s not so good].
"Always my goal is just to win on Saturday and then whatever happens on Saturday, if we’ve won and we’ve got three points in our pockets, we’ll try and win the next game.
"If we don’t we’ll still try and win the next game. That’s always been my approach, just the next one in front.”
Having won four away from home on the trot for the first time in 11 years, McCarthy is determined that the Blues’ home form will improve.
Town have won just once at Portman Road - the 2-0 victory over Bolton - since defeating Burnley back on August 18th and their record at home this season reads played 10, won three, drawn five and lost two.
"It would be nice to show the home crowd the form we’ve shown on the road,” he admitted. "It’s not like we’re trying to play well away from home and not at home.
"We’re trying our damnedest to do it at home as well. For 65 minutes I think we had great support because they knew we played well against Middlesbrough. But we lost. But I’ll settle for playing like that.
"If we play like we did against Middlesbrough for 65 minutes for the whole game, whatever happens I’ll be happy enough.”