Ancelotti hopeful of Chelsea return

CARLO ANCELOTTI is hoping to be back in the dugout today after rushing home to Italy to be with his seriously ill father.

The Italian coach learned that his father Giuseppe, 86, had been taken sick after Chelsea’s 4-0 thrashing of Atletico Madrid in the Champions League on Wednesday night.

His father was in a stable condition on Thursday night and the club’s assistant boss Ray Wilkins is confident that Ancelotti will be back in time for this evening’s 5.30pm home game with Blackburn in the Barclays Premier League.

“I am sincerely hoping that Carlo will be back,” said Wilkins.

“His father is not in the best of condition. I spoke to Carlo last night and his father was stable, so we are keeping our fingers crossed that he will be back. Carlo will decide who plays.”

Wilkins will take charge of the side against Rovers if Ancelotti remains in Italy as the Blues look to get back to winning ways in the domestic league.

Last week’s defeat at Aston Villa came courtesy of two defensive lapses from corners.

Although Chelsea bounced back against Atletico in midweek, they conceded the leadership of the Premier League to Manchester United.

With United playing Liverpool tomorrow, Chelsea have the chance to return to the summit against Sam Allardyce’s team.

Much of the build-up to the Rovers game has concerned Chelsea’s bid to get FIFA’s transfer ban suspended via the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

A suspension would allow Chelsea to strengthen their squad in January during a period when they will lose Didier Drogba, Salomon Kalou, Michael Essien and John Mikel Obi to the African Nations Cup.

However, Wilkins said: “We have got a massive game against Blackburn tomorrow and as far as the transfer situation is concerned I am not overly concerned about that.

“It would be very pleasant to be able to bring people in because we lose some influential players in Kalou, Drogba, Essien and Mikel, but we have a squad here that is more than capable of coping with that situation.

“If we are able to bring people in then all well and good and if we are not, we’ll just crack on with what we have got. We are quite confident with what we have here.”

Frank Lampard scored his first goal in 10 games against Madrid but Wilkins insists the club had never been concerned by his poor run.

“Frank is a world class footballer and when someone who normally scores lots of goals and then doesn’t do so, people keep thinking his form is on the wane. But the other things he gives us are his defensive qualities and making of goals.

“I think he’s made more goals this season already than he did last season. So his contribution to the team has been first class. We were not overly concerned that he had not scored. We have no qualms with that whatsoever.

“Frank is always going to score but what else he gives to the team and the club is first class.”

Kalou, who scored twice in the demolition of Madrid in midweek is pushing for a place in the starting line-up but may have to settle for another stint on the bench.

Wilkins also insisted that Ricardo Carvalho, left out of the side against Madrid, was rested and not dropped following their defeat at Villa.

“Salomon has not done his case any harm by scoring two goals,” added Wilkins. “But that is what we have a big squad for, for people to come in and do their job.

“Ricardo was not dropped on Wednesday night. He was rested. We are perfectly happy with the way Riccy has been playing.

“We made a couple of errors at Aston Villa but every club in the country makes errors at set-plays. We have worked on them.”