Carlo has managed to get Drogba to finally grow up

CHELSEA taught Wigan not just one, but several lessons on Saturday.

In the process, it was obvious to see what Chelsea had learnt under Ancelotti.

Wigan found out the hard way that their fitness is not at the standard required to test a top Premier League side for 90 minutes. They also discovered that should you try and kick or bully our players they will kick back – twice as hard. This game saw a reversal in our starting striker partnership with Drogba playing the unfamiliar role of provider with Anelka and then Kalou taking advantage of Didier’s benevolence.

The Drogba of old would have been frustrated at his own blank scoresheet and would have become surly and selfish but instead we saw a player revelling in his benefactor posting. Although he was the very personification of modesty when collecting his man of the match champagne, he positively glowed when his role was publicly acknowledged. Has Didier finally grown up? This has to be Ancelotti’s influence.

The team also looked more patient and less panicked even in that first 20 minutes where Wigan went for the jugular. Chelsea weathered the storm and patiently and calmly let the Latics run out of puff. Once they did that, they then methodically and deliberately took their opponents apart.

Perhaps Wigan would perform better if they had a passionate crowd behind them but Dave Whelan is flogging a dead horse in a rugby town. Wigan has a population of over 300,000 people; a ground with a 25,000 capacity; the away team taking around 5,000 tickets and season tickets cost an average of 250 quid. If you can’t get a full house to watch Premier League football with those numbers, then there is no hope.

Whether Chelsea score one goal or six, I go mental. I jump up and down cheering my head off so hard, that sometimes I go dizzy. For me, its part of going to football – this total abandonment amongst others in the same state of euphoria is just an amazing feeling. But in recent years I’ve noticed that fans just don’t celebrate the way they used to.

Indeed, sometimes you “come to” after a goal celebration to find some other “fans” looking at you with a mix of puzzlement and more than a hint of wariness. I thought initially that this was a phenomenon bought about by the amount of success that Chelsea fans have seen in the last few years. But having studied opposition crowds it looks like a sport wide malaise. With the exception of last minute winners or technically exceptional strikes, crowds can barely haul themselves out of their seats and applaud or cheer for more than five seconds. It’s a sad state of affairs.

A snippet from Ancelotti’s forthcoming autobiography describes the traditional post match drink with Alex Ferguson in the United manager’s office. Following the Chelsea win Fergie refused to acknowledge Ancelotti or Wilkins, nor even look at them, preferring instead to watch a horse race with his back to the Chelsea pair. Ferguson being a bad loser is hardly news is it? It was a critical game – ultimately a league defining game and it must have hurt to lose.

Ancelotti seems a very calm individual – I can’t imagine him delivering the asciugcapelli (hairdryer) treatment at half -time. But however he puts his point across, it seems to work and the players seem to respond.

He encourages senior players to speak, a ploy which not only makes them feel valued respected but encourages them to work harder to maintain this level of co-operation for the good of the team.

So Ancelotti has, in his own way, harnessed the previously much maligned, “player power” that was always thought of as a negative situation, and used it to make the Chelsea team a stronger, more united unit – and with that many egos at Stamford Bridge, that’s no mean feat.

We will have increasingly sterner tests and with a smaller squad than last season he will need to get more out of each player and pray to the footballing gods for an easy time with injuries. It’s the Stoke City Bruisers on Saturday. Six goals for the third week running anyone?

* Contact Trizia on [e-mail]