Terry unfazed by Bridge meeting: Ancelotti

Carlo Ancelotti is confident Chelsea captain John Terry will be unaffected by his on-field meeting with Manchester City?s Wayne Bridge at Stamford Bridge on Saturday.

Terry and Bridge will meet for the first time since it was reported that Terry had had an extra-marital relationship with the mother of Bridge’s young son.

The fall-out from the revelations led to Terry being stripped of the England captaincy and culminated in Bridge this week announcing his withdrawal from the England set-up, claiming his position in future squads had become “untenable”.

All eyes will be on the pair before kick-off to see whether they shake hands.

But Ancelotti is insistent the matter will not be allowed to affect the form of his team or his captain.

“Tomorrow will be Manchester City against Chelsea and we have to stay focused on this,” said the Chelsea manager. “Manchester City are a good team with players of quality and we have to stay focused.

“I think John Terry is professional and he doesn?t have a problem to stay focused on the match. I haven?t spoken with him about this because it was not necessary to speak about this. I prefer to talk about football.”

Terry’s recent performances in the away defeats at Everton and against Inter Milan in the Champions League have been less than convincing but his manager insists the player remains unaffected by speculation about his private life.

“He’s having good performances,”said Ancelotti. “I don’t see his condition has gone down. He is doing a good job for the team.

“He is in focus, he has a good mentality, He’s had a fantastic season and he will continue to do well until the end of the season.”

Manchester City boss Roberto Mancini meanwhile has expressed similar confidence in Bridge’s ability to cope with the pressures generated by Saturday’s match.

“I am sorry for Wayne and for England because it is important for any player to play for the national team,” said Mancini. “He didn’t speak to me before he made the decision. I don’t know what has changed, but he has changed his decision because I thought that he would play for the national team.

“But I respect what he has done. It is not affecting the club or the dressing room. He is a strong character, who has a strong mentality. Tomorrow Wayne must only think about the game because it is an important match for us.”

City will have Carlos Tevez back following his trip to Argentina for the birth of his daughter but will miss Emmanuel Adebayor, who starts a four-match ban after being sent off in the FA Cup defeat by Stoke in midweek.

Chelsea will be without goalkeeper Petr Cech due to a calf injury, with Ancelotti instead forced to rely on his understudy Hilario.

“He (Hilario) hasn’t played a lot of games but when he has played he has had confidence so I am very calm about this,” Ancelotti said. “We want to extend our lead over Manchester United. We know tomorrow will be a difficult game.”

With Russian wingback Yuri Zhirkov and Ashley Cole both out injured, Ancelotti hinted that he could continue with winger Florent Malouda at left back, following an impressive performance in the Champions League in Milan in midweek.

“Malouda had a very good performance against Inter,” the Chelsea boss said. “I had a surprise about that because he has never played in this position this season. He played there for Lyon a long time ago but it was a big surprise.”