Ancelotti expects title boost to aid Euro mission

Carlo Ancelotti believes Chelsea’s vital Premier League win at Wolves was the perfect boost ahead of Wednesday’s Champions League encounter with their former manager Jose Mourinho and his Inter Milan team.

After collecting just six points from their previous six away games, Ancelotti felt it was crucial to improve at Molineux on Saturday and take full advantage of Manchester United’s defeat at Goodison Park.

Ancelotti was happy to let his players know United’s result prior to kick-off and they responded with a 2-0 win, secured by two Didier Drogba goals, that stretched their lead at the top of the Premier League to four points before taking on Mourinho in the San Siro.

“It will be a fantastic game and it is a very important game,” Ancelotti said.

“Inter and Chelsea are very good teams and I am looking forward to playing the game. I will not play the game myself, but we are going there to play.

“I don’t know whether we will have to be better than we were against Wolves. I do not know what is going to happen in the game.

“Now we can go to Milan for a big game. It is very important and the Champions League is another aim of ours this season. We would like to win that competition, but it is not going to be easy.”

There is little love lost between former AC Milan boss Ancelotti and Mourinho as both have stated they are not friends in recent weeks and the Inter manager has been taunting his old club, suggesting they made a mistake in sacking him four seasons ago.

Since then, after winning two Premier League titles and two FA Cups with Mourinho, they have had four managers and only have the FA Cup won by Guus Hiddink to show for it, but they have the look of champions again.

“It was very important to win this game after the defeat of Manchester United. We had a chance to improve our position in the league and we have done that,” said Ancelotti.

“I knew and the players knew that Manchester United had lost and I think that was an important factor for us, for sure. We had prepared very well for the game.

“We did not play so well, but we had the spirit to battle for every ball and I think we deserved to win the game. It is important when you do not play so well that you can win the game.

“Our position in the table is better, but we still have to pay attention. There is a lot of games to play and nothing is decided yet and we wanted to improve our form away.”

Chelsea will have Frank Lampard and Ricardo Carvalho back from illness and injury for the first leg in Italy and Russian defender Yury Zirkhov is expected to be fit, despite not finishing the win at Wolves with a tight calf muscle.

Wolves have won just once in their last eight games, but remain outside the relegation zone, but that is of little comfort to manager Mick McCarthy.

“I am fed up of talking to people after games and saying that we played well and got beat. I am unhappy with life,” McCarthy said.

“I am annoyed. We should have got something from the game and we were well on top when Petr Cech made two excellent saves.

“Then we go and give them a goal at the other end. It was a poor piece of defending and we could have all packed up and gone home after that, because the players were so deflated.

“We let them off the hook, the Champions elect. I might take some heart out of the performance on Monday but not for the rest of the weekend.”