change it, spray everything with degreaser or brakeparts cleaner, let it all run off and dry itself. No elbow grease involved at all.
I'd like to one day meet those in charge of filter and drain plug locations on ford vehicles. Many many designs put the filter on top of the starter and exhaust so they run down all over everything. I affectionately refer to it as the starter lubrication system. A few older cars such as explorers have the oil drain plug pointing out horizontally so the oil can go nowhere other than onto the frame or suspension 3 ft to the side, some even run out onto the tire. The fwd v8 cars have a design where you have to take off the filter, pull it out sideways, turn it around backwards, force it up and over the swaybar, pulling it forward, then turn it 90 degrees and pull it back to center and down past a couple of parts it barely fits thru. All when covered in scalding hot oil, its lots of fun. Moral of the story, the zetec placement is kinda the suck, but its not nearly as bad as a few other designs. Spray chemicals are your friend.
g