SOCCER/FA PREMIER LEAGUE:CARLO ANCELOTTI has backed his Chelsea team not to relinquish their lead at the top of the Premier League and questioned whether Wayne Rooney's absence with an ankle injury may have caused irreparable damage to Manchester United's hopes of winning the title or the Champions League.
Chelsea’s 2-1 victory at Old Trafford on Saturday left them two points clear of Alex Ferguson’s team and three ahead of Arsenal with five games left to play.
“The players have a great desire to win this title because it has been a lot of years since Chelsea last won the league,” Ancelotti said. “They have had a fantastic reaction from the Inter game [losing in the Champions League]. I’ve been very impressed with their character, their strength and the way we have bounced back to play some really good football.”
Chelsea have now beaten United and Arsenal home and away and they will have the chance to do the double over Liverpool when they go to Anfield in their penultimate match of the league season. “I think we should be further clear,” Ancelotti said.
“We have done very well against the top four but have lost points against the other teams. The important thing now is that we maintain good control.”
United have lost seven times in the league this season – no side has won the title with that number of defeats since the move to a 38-game format. They trail Bayern Munch 2-1 going into their Champions League quarter-final second leg on Wednesday.
Ancelotti hinted that Rooney’s absence could be key in that match.
The Italian said: “They have lost a very important player. It’s not easy for United to maintain their characteristic and momentum without him. It’s going to be difficult for them now, having lost against Munich, having lost Rooney and now this game.”
Rooney will miss United’s next league game, at Blackburn, and has only a slim chance of being available for the game at Manchester City on April 17th.
“United are not the same team without Rooney,” Ancelotti said. “He is a fantastic player, very difficult to replace. [Dimitar] Berbatov is good, but Rooney is totally different.”
Ancelotti spoke of his belief that Chelsea were the better team, not just over one match but the course of a season. There were eulogies for Joe Cole, who appears to have reinvented himself, and Florent Malouda, a renascent figure who might have single-handedly ripped up Gary Neville’s late application for a World Cup call-up.
When pressed, though, Ancelotti admitted his players had been lifted by the absence of Rooney’s name on the teamsheet. He knew that United’s record of eight wins in the nine previous matches Rooney had missed was a deceptive statistic.
One wonders whether Ferguson, somewhere at the back of his mind, wishes he still had Carlos Tevez at the club. Ferguson is not usually one for regrets and Tevez might not have the touch of Berbatov or the appreciation of space.
But he has 22 goals in 21 league games for Manchester City this season and could yet squeeze on to the shortlist for Footballer of the Year. One by one Ferguson’s fingers are being prised off the trophy, even if Chelsea still have to go to Tottenham and their penultimate game is at Liverpool.
Title Run-in
1st Chelsea (74pts)
Tue, Apr 13th: v Bolton (h)
Sat, Apr 17th: v Tottenham (a)
Sun, Apr 25th: v Stoke (h)
Sat, May 1st: v Liverpool (a)
Sun, May 9th: v Wigan (h)
2nd Manchester Utd (72pts)
Sun, Apr 11th: v Blackburn (a)
Sat, Apr 17th: v Manchester City (a)
Sat, Apr 24th: v Tottenham (h)
Sat, May 1st: v Sunderland (a)
Sun, May 9th: v Stoke (h)
3rd Arsenal (71pts)
Wed, Apr 14th: v Tottenham (a)
Sun, Apr 18th: v Wigan (a)
Sat, Apr 24th: v Manchester City (h)
Sat, May 1st: v Blackburn (a)
Sun, May 9th: v Fulham (h)
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/YVIRIOZQ35EWRPZXR27KGMO6YU.png)