Anelka ruled out for three weeks

CHELSEA have been hit by the loss of Nicolas Anelka for around three weeks.

The France striker has been playing with a bruised toe in recent matches and was in the Chelsea side that lost 1-0 to Tottenham on Saturday.

That result all but ended their interest in the Premier League title race, while yesterday it was announced Anelka has pulled out of the France squad for their World Cup double-header against Lithuania.

Chelsea have yet to confirm how long Anelka will be sidelined for, but Paris St Germain striker Guillaume Hoarau has been called up to replace him by France coach Raymond Domenech. He is now unlikely to be available for the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final at former club Liverpool.

Meanwhile, goalkeeper Petr Cech believes Chelsea must take advantage of playing the opening leg of their European tie away from home. Cech revealed he had a sneaking feeling they would be again paired with the Anfield outfit prior to the draw. The winners will face either Barcelona or Bayern Munich in the semi-finals.

“I was saying to myself if the irony of fate would work and we would play Barcelona in the quarter-final and then Liverpool in the semis. And it has turned out to be exactly the opposite case,” said Cech.

“Maybe it is a pity that Liverpool, Barca and Bayern are all teams we have played against in the Champions League recently, on the other hand, they are all teams of top quality, so our fans can be satisfied with the draw.”

Chelsea’s defeat on Saturday has left interim coach Guus Hiddink looking ahead to both their the FA Cup and Champions League campaigns, believing it will be a difficult task to dislodge Manchester United.

Hiddink won the European Cup with PSV and admits it will be a dream to win it again with Chelsea.

“I won that as a very young manager with PSV and it would be the ideal scenario at the end, because I am getting a little bit grey,” he said.