SOCCER/ ENGLISH PREMIER LEAGUE: CARLO ANCELOTTI insists he will keep on tinkering with his Chelsea squad after watching them dispatch west London neighbours Fulham 2-0 with consummate ease yesterday.
Chelsea made four changes from the side that defeated Sunderland last Tuesday but it made little difference to the cohesion as goals from Didier Drogba and Nicolas Anelka fired them to a 2-0 victory at Craven Cottage.
Ancelotti left midfielders Deco and Michael Essien on the bench along with centre half Branislav Ivanovic and striker Salomon Kalou and promised that his rotation policy would continue.
“Deco was out and Essien was out for this game,” said Ancelotti. “But it was a good line-up. Essien has played all the games so far, so I wanted to give him a rest.
“He will play the next game. We have to follow this line.”
Ancelotti was also left drooling at the Drogba-Anelka combination in attack.
The pair were untouchable against the home side even though Anelka was playing in behind lone striker Drogba instead of alongside him.
They created goals for each other and Fulham had no answer to their power, pace and trickery.
“I am sure they can play together because they are fantastic strikers and have different qualities,” said Ancelotti.
“For the first goal, Nicolas put a fantastic pass through for Didier and for the second goal, Didier put a fantastic pass through for Nicolas. They did a very good job together.
“Nicolas is a very complete striker. He can play in the centre and on the right and left; he can play behind the striker.
“Our idea today for Nicolas was that he would stay a little bit behind Didier.
“In the first half he played a little bit on the right and our play was not so good but it improved in the second half because he took a position more in the centre.”
Chelsea are now second in the Premier League with a 100 per cent record from three games and Ancelotti admitted it had been the perfect start to his reign at Stamford Bridge.
Fulham manager Roy Hodgson accepted that Chelsea had been the better side and revealed how Jonathan Greening’s agent prevented him from signing in time to play any part in the game.
Greening has joined the club on a season-long loan from West Bromwich Albion but Hodgson said the deal was held up for six hours while the player’s agent waited for his own fee to be agreed.
Hodgson also hinted his side looked tired after their midweek Europa League victory over Russian side Amkar Perm.
“We certainly played like we were tired,” said Hodgson. “I thought our energy levels were low. We kept Chelsea at bay for long periods by keeping a decent shape but we never got close enough to disturb them as much as we would have liked.
“In the end we lost – and deservedly so. Looking at this game over 90 minutes I thought Chelsea deserved to win it. Both their goals came from clearances that bounced back to them.
“We didn’t look like conceding a hatful of goals but on the other hand I didn’t think we had anything near enough like the possession we would have needed to cause them more problems.
“They have the technique and pace to cause problems for the opposition and they caused problems for us today and we lost the game.”
*The English FA are to review TV footage of Nemanja Vidic's off-the-ball incident with Hugo Rodallega to see whether the Manchester United defender should face a disciplinary charge. Vidic appeared to strike Rodallega in the face and referee Howard Webb had to restrain the Wigan striker.
“It looked like that,” said Wigan manager Roberto Martinez when asked whether Vidic had struck out. “Hugo is an honest man and he was devastated in the dressingroom. He felt it was a very unsporting action. Probably the referee couldn’t see it, but the linesman was in a good position to spot it.”
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