Ancelotti gives up on Chelsea title dream

Chelsea manager Carlo Ancelotti admits his team have very little chance of winning the Premier League title as they prepare to face Fulham on Monday.

The defending champions are rocking after losing to Liverpool last week in Fernando Torres’ first match for the club and now Ancelotti is having to reset his targets with Chelsea 10 points behind leaders Manchester United.

“It’s difficult to think we can come back to fight for the title, it’s better to think game by game,” he said.

“We have to reach minimum fourth place. To close the gap is very difficult; we have to be honest about this. But the most important step is to be fourth in the table and fight with the other teams.”

Ancelotti admitted he was shocked at the way his side, seemingly back in form, lost to Liverpool last week.

“I think it was a surprise the defeat against Liverpool because I saw in the days before the game that the team trained well with motivation and power,” he said.

“But now we have to look forward to Fulham and maintain high our confidence; you have to have confidence when you play above all the Champions League.”

“Our aims now are very clear, we have Champions League, we have FA Cup and we have to close the gap. It’s difficult to close the gap but we have to reach fourth to keep Chelsea in the Champions League.”

New boy David Luiz, signed from Benfica for 21 million pounds, will make his full debut for the Blues in Monday’s game at Fulham.

The Brazilian defender has been told he will face Mark Hughes’ side as Chelsea bid to recover from their loss to the Reds last week.

“He will start. David Luiz is a very good defender because he has ability and skills to play all the positions in the back four. He can play centre-back, right-back, he hasn’t played left-back but he has the ability to play there,” Ancelotti said.

“He’s Brazilian so he has very good technique. He can help us to build our play better from the back. I think he will be one of the best defenders in the world in the future.”

“He’s young but he already has fantastic experience because he played in Benfica, he played in the Champions. Sadly he cannot play in the Champions League for us but he can show his quality in the Premier League and FA Cup.”

Chelsea expect to go into the match at Craven Cottage with no new injury problems after the international break.

“The players came back yesterday, they don’t have a problem. Everything is ok. Just (Jose) Bosingwa has a little problem and we hope to recover him in time. Some players played 90 minutes but we have time to prepare them.”