Ancelotti admits Chelsea face test of character

AFTER surrendering the Premier League summit for the first time in more than seven months, Carlo Ancelotti admits Chelsea face a huge test of their character to reassert themselves at the head of affairs.

With Manchester United having trashed Blackburn 7-1, yesterday’s 1-1 draw with Newcastle leaves the reigning champions two points behind their biggest rivals. Salomon Kalou’s 45th-minute strike cancelled out Andy Carroll’s early opener on Tyneside, but despite dominating much of the second half, Chelsea were unable to claim a winner.

Ancelotti’s side are struggling at the moment, having won just one of their last five league games, and the Italian admits the next few weeks will be a huge test of their mettle. To add insult to injury, their flight home was cancelled due to blizzard conditions in the north-east, leaving them with a seven-hour coach trip back to the capital.

Ancelotti said: “It’s an opportunity to show our character and personality now, Maybe it could be a good motivation to do better. It’s obviously disappointing to not be on the top of the league. But in the last four away games, we’ve only scored one goal and that’s obviously not good enough.”

Chelsea have clearly missed John Terry, Frank Lampard and Michael Essien in recent weeks, but the trio could all be available for next weekend’s Premier League visit by struggling Everton. Alex will miss that game as he is due to undergo surgery in Brazil tomorrow, but Ancelotti admits the return of both Terry and Lampard will be a massive boost. He said: “The next week for both of those players will be a very important week. They will start to train with the rest of the team and that is important. We will have to see how they do, but I hope that both — maybe more so for John Terry — will be available to play against Everton.’’

Mid-table Newcastle have gone four games without a win, but have claimed four points from matches against Arsenal and Chelsea in the last month. Rather than claiming the biggest teams have gone backwards this season, Hughton feels the rest of the league is catching up.

The Magpies manager said: “I don’t think it’s a case of the bigger teams not being so strong, I think it’s more a case of the rest of the league doing better than some people might have expected.”

Chelsea had earlier dismissed reports that Pep Guardiola was being lined up for Ancelotti’s job as “total nonsense”.