And now for the main course

THIS was the anti-pasti for Carlo Ancelotti ahead of the main course in Milan on Wednesday night.

Wolves were a functional appetiser, consumed with the minimum of fuss before the altogether more mouth-watering prospect of devouring Jose Mourinho with a satisfying glass of Chianti.

Securing the Champions League trophy has been Roman Abramovic’s motivating force ever since he arrived at Stamford Bridge while to claim Inter Milan and the Portuguese as victims en route to European club domination would greatly add to Ancelotti’s sense of satisfaction, especially because of the typically arrogant way Mourinho has been taunting his former club in the build up to the first leg in the San Siro.

Mourinho has not been slow to remind Roman Abramovic that Chelsea have won nothing but the FA Cup since he left two and a half years ago. He has pointed out that four coaches have been put in place since he secured two Premier League titles and two FA Cups and has intimated that the club no longer have the special relationship between players and manager, which he claims existed when he was there.

Little wonder then that Ancelotti, who endured an abrasive relationship with Mourinho when he was in charge of Milan rivals AC, has added incentive to make his predecessor choke on his words and he could not be in better shape to do so after opening up a four-point gap over chief rivals Manchester United in the search for that elusive first title since Mourinho left.

Didier Drogba’s goals and the saves of Petr Cech, that frustrated Wolves, will be nothing new to Mourinho, as the pair regularly performed such feats whilst he was their mentor and the acerbic comments of the Inter boss are nothing unusual for the Czech Republic goalkeeper. Cech saw Mourinho get under the skin of numerous people when he was in his pomp at Chelsea and he is wary of getting caught up in the mind-games that were the norm a few years ago.

Familiarity with his old squad might breed contempt for the Portuguese, but Cech is warning the rest of his team-mates to ignore the rocks being hurled from Milan and to concentrate solely on silencing their old manager with actions, rather than words. He said: “It’s always interesting (facing Jose). We all know what a great past he had at this club. But for this fixture, you can’t change what happened in the past, only what will happen in the future.

“The future for us is to win this game and go through to the quarter-finals. That’s going to be the aim. It will be the first time Jose will lead another team out at Stamford Bridge. But the players’ main focus is what will happen on the pitch. He knows how we can play. He knows the players here. We know him. And how he likes his team to play.

“Then we will see on the pitch who will take advantage. It’s 11 v 11. The best XI on the pitch will make the difference. He always has a reason to say these things. He wants to prepare the game his way. All we are worried about is what will happen on the pitch.

“It’s always sad when a manager has to leave when he has been so successful. We all know what happened in the past, but life goes on.”

Playing poorly and winning, which is what Chelsea did at Molineux, prompting Mick McCarthy the Wolves manager to suggest his team had let the “champions elect” off the hook is surely a sign of league winners and with Drogba in such explosive form with 25 goals, they have the weapons to deflate Mourinho in Milan.

All that was left for Wolves was to take heart that they had forced Chelsea to rely so heavily on their goalkeeper. Cech made three excellent saves to deprive Wolves of the reward they deserved and if McCarthy is sick of getting patted on the back in defeat, Kevin Doyle feels their struggle against relegation can gain extra impetus from pushing the league leaders so close.

“We were the better team and had the better chances,’’ he said. ” If it had not been for Cech we could have won the game. It’s hard to take, but that has to give us more confidence for what lies ahead.”

MATCH RATING: *** – The poor state of the pitch did not suit Chelsea and allowed Wolves to spoil their possession. Wolves grafted hard and deserved something.

REFEREE: Kevin Friend (Leicestershire) 6 – Few contentious decisions to deal with and did his best to allow a poor game to gather some kind of momentum.