Ancelotti purring despite injuries

2009/11/21

LONDON: The international break may not have been kind to Chelsea but Carlo Ancelotti could hardly have wished for a better fixture than the visit ofWolves to ease his injury-weakened side back into league action. Ancelotti’s medical team have been working overtime after Frank Lampard, John Terry, Didier Drogba and Michael Ballack all returned from their latest stint of national service carrying injur ies.

Terry and Lampardwere affected by thewave of injuries that afflicted Fabio Capello’s England squad last week with Lampard expected to be out for three weeks with a torn thigh muscle while club captain Terry faces a late test on an ankle problem.

German international Ballack has an infected knee while Ivorian Drogba is carrying a knock but even if he were to lose all those senior players for this game, it is impossible to imagine the manager is overly concerned about the impact on his squad as a whole.

Wolves, after all, are enduring a troubled season and currently sit second-bottom of the Premier League while Ancelotti’s side signed off before the break with the victory over Manchester United that left them five points clear at the head of the table.

The task now facing Chelsea is to make sure they avoid any unnecessary slip-ups that would give United and second-placed Arsenal an opportunity to close the gap.

Yet while Ancelotti’s side have occasionally appeared vulnerable on their travels this season, at Stamford Bridge they have posted a perfect record of 10 wins from their 10 home games.

The Italian is understandably satisfied with the start to his first season at the club and said this week: “I’m quite happy here in London, I have a three-year contract, I like everything here, the club, the fans, English football.

“Not to speak of the results, so far they are not that bad: I’ve won 10 out of 12 in the league, three out of four in the Champions League, it’s an awesome progression. I do not have the slightest problem, not even with the food.” The only problem looming on Chelsea’s horizon is January’s African Cup of Nations, when they will lose Drogba and Salomon Kalou to the Ivory Coast, Ghana’s Michael Essien and John Mikel Obi of Nigeria.

That is not the problem it once seemed, though, now that the club have succeeded in getting the Fifa-imposed transfer ban suspended for January when they may make a renewed bid to bring in Atletico Madrid’s Argentine striker Sergio Aguero. —AFP