Lampard unfit to take penalty: Ancelotti

Carlo Ancelotti has revealed Frank Lampard was not fit enough to take the penalty that cost Chelsea victory over Spurs on Sunday.

After starting with Didier Drogba and the returning Lampard on the bench, Chelsea trailed 1-0 to a Roman Pavyluchenko goal at White Hart Lane.

Drogba came on to equalise for the champions, but the Ivory Coast man then missed an injury-time spot kick that would have gained Chelsea the three points.

After the match, Ancelotti admitted that although he threw Lampard into the fray, the regular penalty taker had not recovered to the point where he was able to strike the ball.

“Frank Lampard was not able to shoot because he was not able to train,” Ancelotti said.

“Didier missed a penalty but he had a good performance and scored a good goal. It was very important to win, we deserved to win, but we didn’t.”

“I think we are on the right way. This game shows we are on our way back.”

“We played well, started well. When we were down we didn’t lose composure or control.”

“We deserved to win. We were very close, we will win our next game.”

While disappointed that his team failed to land the killer blow, Spurs boss Harry Redknapp was encouraged by how close the home side came to beating the title holders.

“They pressed us in the second half, their mindset was to come on to us and we took a backwards step,” Redknapp said.

“I told them we had to keep being positive but credit to Chelsea, they’re champions and they don’t give up.”

“It was a good, open game. They attacked us and we attacked them.”

“It says that we’re as good a side as almost anybody. We’ll only get stronger.”