Ancelotti: No Need To Rush

Chelsea manager Carlo Ancelotti has confidence that goalkeeper Ross Turnbull will help the Blues to defeat Inter Milan in the second leg over their Champions League Round of 16 tie on Tuesday night.

Turnbull was in goal on Saturday for Chelsea’s 4-1 win over West Ham United which sent the Blues back into first place in the Premier League.

With first choice keeper Petr Cech still struggling with a calf injury and back-up Henrique Hilario suffering from a groin injury he picked up against Stoke City last week the young Englishman Turnbull will have to help Chelsea overcome a 2-1 deficit at Stamford Bridge on Tuesday night.

Ancelotti is positive that the 25-year-old keeper will assist Chelsea’s attempt to earn a spot in the Champions League quarter-finals.

"We can play with a good goalkeeper on Tuesday. Ross was not involved a lot of time in the game but he did a good save in the last minute of the match,” he told The Sun.

"He played with confidence and a good game. There was no worry. This is important.

"He deserved to play this game because he trained very well in the last month to improve his quality. We have confidence in him. I think he will play Tuesday." Carlo Ancelotti insists his side will play a patient game against Inter on Tuesday night.

The Blues need to score and to win to overcome the 2-1 deficit from the first leg but with a single strike enough to go through to the quarter-finals, it is just as important to keep the Serie A side away from our goal over the 90 minutes.

'I don't think we have to score early,' says Ancelotti. 'We need to play well, in a game with balance, because then we can still score in the last minute of the game.

'We want to start the game well and play well but we don't need a goal straight away.

'The Champions League takes out a lot of energy,' he continues, 'not only physically but mentally and it is not easy. But we have to do a very good job to maintain concentration in every game.'

Inter don't come into the game in great form having lost to Catania on Friday and drawn three and won just one of the four league games before that. They have also seen red cards shown to Sulley Muntari, Walter Samuel and Ivan Cordoba in that period.

'In Italy they have a problem with this,' reckons Ancelotti, 'they have been drawing a lot but this is a different competition, with different referees and different atmospheres.'

Chelsea are more concerned with an injury list that will again see several major players missing on Tuesday.

'I don't think too much about this because all the teams in this moment have this problem,' the manager says. 'It is important but you cannot do anything about traumatic injuries, it happens.'

For the British sports media, there will only be one story that occupies them in the build up to this week's game - Jose Mourinho's return to Stamford Bridge.

'Mourinho deserves to have a good reception because he did a fantastic job,' says Ancelotti. 'Together with Roman [Abramovich] he put a team into the best position in the world.

'I just hope that in the future, in a very long time, when I come back to Chelsea, I'll have this same reception.'

Cole Bombshell For England

Ashley Cole’s World Cup dreams are virtually over after it was revealed he will not play for Chelsea again this season.

And even the most optimistic reports from the Stamford Bridge medical team put his chances of making the England squad as 'touch and go'.

Cole broke his left ankle on February 11 against Everton and underwent an operation to have three pins inserted in the bone.

He has spent three weeks in Biarritz undergoing intensive rehabilitation but is still on crutches and cannot put any weight on the foot.

There is still major swelling around the injury and Chelsea doctors fear his recovery has fallen behind schedule because of the seriousness of the break.

A Chelsea source said: "Ashley is still in a bad way. We were hoping he would be further on in his recovery but the signs are not good as far as the World Cup is concerned. At best, it's touch and go for South Africa.

"It's hugely unlikely he will play another league game this season and that only leaves the FA Cup or Champions League finals to prove his fitness."

That would not be enough time for Cole to convince Fabio Capello that he is fit enough to travel to South Africa.

Capello's 30-man preliminary squad joins up on May 17 and travel to Austria where the England boss will cull seven players.

The Italian has made it clear he will not risk ANY injured players in the tournament which leaves him with a major problem at left back.

Wayne Bridge does not want to be considered for England duty while John Terry is in the squad.

That leaves the inexperienced pair of Leighton Baines and Stephen Warnock as Capello's only options should Cole be ruled out.

Barcelona To Battle Manchester United And Chelsea For Angel Di Maria

Benfica winger Angel Di Maria looks like being one of the major names in the summer transfer window with Barcelona the latest club to show an interest in the Argentinean.

Spanish newspaper El Mundo Deportivo claims that Barcelona are already considering a summer swoop but face competition from Premier League giants Manchester United and Chelsea.

The Catalan giants believe they can secure Di Maria for less than they would have to pay for Franck Ribery as Pep Guardiola aims to sign a replacement for Thierry Henry on the left side of their attack.

Di Maria has a buyout clause of 50 million euros but Benfica will reportedly accept a fee of close to 25 million.

Alongside Barcelona, Chelsea and Manchester United, fellow Spanish giants Real Madrid are also keeping an eye on developments.

Reports in recent months claimed Chelsea had sent Frank Arnesen on scouting trips to watch Di Maria whilst Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson sees him as the long term replacement for Ryan Giggs.

Chelsea Midfielder Deco Hopes To Join Corinthians After World Cup

Portuguese international midfielder Deco has said on Brazilian television that he expects to leave Chelsea at the end of the season and hopes to join Corinthians.

Speaking to the "On the Road" program, Deco said: "I am anticipating a return to Brazil. I would like to go to Corinthians but if I have another good proposal from a club in Brazil I will end up going."

Deco explained that he will leave Chelsea after the World Cup as he has "some family problems" even though his contract expires at the end of the 2010/2011 season.

The 32-year-old added: "I want to go back to Brazil… the dream of playing for Corinthians is perhaps the only thing in my career left to achieve."

Deco has played 18 games for Carlo Ancelotti’s Chelsea side in 2009/2010, scoring two goals and providing one assist. He was an unused substitute for the 4-1 victory over West Ham on Saturday.

Reaction: Confidence Flo-Ing

Having watched his team run out comfortable winners against the only London side to have previously taken a point off them, Carlo Ancelotti was confident the Manchester City defeat is now out of Chelsea's system.

It could have been one of those afternoons when it all went badly wrong with West Ham equalising Alex's opener with a goal they had barely threatened. But the side that drew 1-1 with us at Upton Park in December and on their visit to Stamford Bridge last season were blown away by a second-half Didier Drogba brace and a Florent Malouda goal.

'We played a good match and were better in the second half,' decided Ancelotti as he assessed the 4-1 win that put Chelsea back on top.

'It was important to have a good performance and to return to playing our football with confidence. I am happy for this, not only for the result. Now we want to maintain this concentration and determination because every game could decide our future.

'It was important to have a good reaction after losing to Manchester City. We had that against Stoke City and improved on that in this game. It was a bad day against Manchester City and we came back the right way.'

Key to the win was the performance of Malouda who not only scored the third goal but tortured West Ham right-back Jonathan Spector all afternoon, supplying the delivery for Chelsea's first two goals; two of 16 crosses from the France international during his 86 minutes on the pitch.

'That was the best performance of Florent Malouda,' praised his manager.

'He did very well, worked for the team, did fantastic assists for goals and I hope that he will play like today on Tuesday. He won't play left-back,' Ancelotti smiled.

West Ham boss Gianfranco Zola had surprised many with his team selection by leaving out the creative Alessandro Diamanti in favour of player s he believed could do a better job counter-attacking.

'It was tough after Chelsea's second goal,' said the former Stamford Bridge favourite. 'Before that we looked okay and Scott Parker in the middle was dominating the scene. But then John Terry came through the middle and we made a mistake because Behrami and Spector both went to challenge him and Terry put the ball wide.The cross was perfect as you'd expect from a quality player like Malouda. The rest was easy for Drogba.

'That is the difference. Teams like Chelsea really punish you when you make mistakes. I believe the score at the end was too much. It doesn't reflect the game.'

It took until the final minute of the second-half for West Ham to properly test Ross Turnbull for a second time in the game and the Chelsea league debutant keeper was up to that task.

'Turnbull was not involved a lot of times but he did a good save at the last minute and he played with confidence. This is important,' said Ancelotti.

'He deserved to play this game because he has trained very well.I think he will play on Tuesday.'

Ancelotti Praises Malouda Show

Chelsea manager Carlo Ancelotti labelled Florent Malouda the best player on the pitch after his side's 4-1 win over West Ham.

The Blues went back to the top of the Premier League with the win, although they were held 1-1 at half-time by the Hammers at Stamford Bridge.

Malouda was a constant force down the left and his performance paid dividends as he drove Chelsea to a comfortable victory after the break.

The Frenchman set up Alex to head home the opener, and crossed for Didier Drogba to score the second before adding a third himself.

Ancelotti told Sky Sports: "He was the best player on the pitch today.

"He scored a fantastic goal, did a fantastic assist for the first goal and the second goal for Didier."

Despite the scoreline, it was not an emphatic performance from Chelsea, which makes the result even more impressive.

And Ancelotti says confidence in the squad will be high ahead of the visit of Inter Milan in the UEFA Champions League on Tuesday night.

"We scored four goals and it was an important performance for us to improve our confidence," he added.

"In this period it is very important to have confidence because every game is important, every game can decide the future.

"I think the first half we played well. It was unlucky because West Ham broke with a fantastic shot from distance.

"But we played well and we wanted to maintain balance, we wanted to maintain confidence in our play.

"We did in the second half because we scored the second goal and had good control of the game until the end of the match."

The Blues go top as Manchester United do not play until Sunday, as the race for the league title starts to hot up.

Although the win puts them back on the summit, Chelsea's Italian tactician knows there is still a long way to go this season.

He remarked: "There will be a long race to win this title.

"There are strong teams - Manchester United, Arsenal - so we have to maintain our confidence and we have to maintain our play."

"We want to play our best every game.

"I knew very well that in England there are very strong teams, but we have stayed in the top for eight months and we want to stay until the end of the season."

Ross Turnbull played his first ever Premier League game for Chelsea between the sticks, and he could do nothing about Scott Parker's superb strike in the opening period.

The former Middlesbrough keeper is likely to play against Inter in midweek as Ancelotti confirmed that Petr Cech and Hilario are not expected to recover from their injuries.

He said: "Hilario and Petr Cech I think are not able to play on Tuesday."

Chelsea Special: Florent Malouda Develops Into A World-Class Star

With last weekend's FA Cup tie against Stoke City forcing Chelsea's players to wait to truly put to rest the memory of their Premier League capitulation against Manchester City, today's emphatic victory over local rivals West Ham United was just what the doctor ordered.

It was a familiar name that adorned the scoresheet in the 4-1 win, with Didier Drogba netting twice in a game the home side controlled throughout, but also could only make their superiority count in the second half.

For all their dominance in the possession statistics, however, the game could have gone in a very different direction if it hadn't been for one player — and not the Ivorian hit-man. Instead it was Florent Malouda who masterminded this victory, torturing Jonathan Spector throughout the first half and finding a cutting edge in the second that led to an assist (giving Drogba the easiest of headed chances) and a goal he fully deserved.

It was just the latest in a long line of impressive performances from the 29-year-old, who has been one of his side's most consistent performers this season. It is hard to remember the last time he had a truly poor game.

This is the Frenchman's third season in London, but he has not always enjoyed the best of times. The former Olympique Lyonnais star joined the club for around £13 million in 2007 with a big reputation, having just been voted the best player in Ligue 1, but initially struggled to make an impact in a new league and unfamiliar surroundings.

He was — prematurely, but perhaps not unfairly — labeled a bust, despite the likes of Drogba and Cristiano Ronald having similarly struggled to adapt in initial seasons before blossoming into stars of the highest order.

After settling down Malouda was making that sort of progress last season, although Luiz Felipe Scolari's unsuccessful tenure as manager rather obscured that fact. But his goal at the end of the season in the FA Cup final, under the watchful eye of caretaker Guus Hiddink, underlined the truth that everyone seemed to have missed — that he had finally arrived as a major threat in Chelsea's A-list line-up.

And then Carlo Ancelotti rode in, and Malouda had to prove himself all over again. Ancelotti's proposed diamond formation seemed to have no natural spot for the Frenchman, but he was gifted the spot on the left of the diamond after injuries to other midfielders and took the opportunity with both hands, developing a rapport with Ashley Cole that went a long way to propelling the Blues to their fantastic start.

Despite that, Ancelotti seemed reticent to play him in the biggest games — against Liverpool, or Manchester United — something that Malouda did not take kindly too.

"Before the match against Birmingham [on Boxing Day, a game in which he was sent off], I talked to the coach to tell him about my frustration," he told L'Equipe in a controversial interview late last year, where he also complained Frank Lampard received too much credit.

"The frustration is above all for the big games. I'm ready to look elsewhere. Finding another club is not a problem. But the club has closed the door to any departure, whether it be in January or in June. The coach is counting on me. We'll see from now until the end of the season."

And what we saw today was a winger at the top of his game. Malouda was at times unplayable as he weaved down the left and occasionally floated inside, and did more than any other player to ensure Chelsea got the three points they desperately needed.

What is more, he has been playing that way — with the odd exception — for a good month now. Ancelotti is quickly coming to rely on the player only six months ago he seemed unsure of. He acknowledged as much as he withdrew Malouda late on so Stamford Bridge could give him the round of applause his performance deserved.

Drogba, Nicolas Anelka and Lampard are the traditional threats people think of when they assess Chelsea's danger. Malouda is quickly adding himself to that list — and for that he deserves a lot of praise.