The old men of Chelsea have rejoined the ranks of also-rans

IT’S hard to dislike Carlo Ancelotti. He has none of Wenger’s waspish wit, or Mourinho’s bombast, or Fergie’s cunningly calibrated outrageousness.

He simply bumbles along, in his cuddly-bear manner, a harmless character who has now, surely, been dealt a mortal blow by that serial hunter of managers, Sir Alex of Govan.

Carlo was, typically, thoroughly decent in defeat the other night, stating that United were the better team and deserved to go through, thus short-circuiting all the Blues fans’ complaints about the first leg’s refereeing decisions. You can imagine if the boot was on the other foot that Ferguson would be facing calls for a charge after lambasting the officials, and banning any journalists within ten miles of Old Trafford for daring to breathe a word of dissent.