Carlo concedes top four finish now the focus

CHELSEA manager Carlo Ancelotti admits a top-four finish and not the title is now his focus in the Barclays Premier League.

A poor run of form has seen the champions slip nine points behind leaders Manchester United.

And while Ancelotti is a long way from giving up the title, he concedes a Champions League place is “the most important thing”.

Ancelotti, who has long-term casualties Alex, Yossi Benayoun and Yuri Zhirkov still unavailable but no new injury problems ahead of tonight’s trip to Wolves, said: “There are a lot of teams involved in the first positions.

“To stay in the first places of the table is important for the future.”

And he admitted he is lucky to have kept his job as manager after presiding over the worst run of form under the reign of owner Roman Abramovich.

“I am a lucky man,” he said “I understand that a lot of coaches are sacked with results like these.”

Chelsea have taken just two points from their last five away league games, but Ancelotti believes they will get back on track at Molineux.

Ancelotti, who is looking to strengthen in the January transfer market but has ruled out any interest in signing David Beckham on loan, said: “We won’t lose. We will win.

“We are improving and the team is very close to moving on from this moment. I have confidence that the team improves a little bit and instead of drawing games we can win in the last minute.”

Ancelotti also dismissed the idea that there was unrest in the Chelsea camp after John Terry and Didier Drogba apparently left the pitch arguing after the 3-3 draw with Aston Villa.

He said: “It was not an argument. They were speaking about the position on the goal. It is normal that the players can speak about this.”

Ancelotti even maintained that but for bad luck, his team could be leading the Premier League.

He said: “We won against Bolton, drew against Everton and in the 86th minute we conceded a penalty.

“We conceded a penalty in the last minute against Tottenham and we conceded a goal in the last minute against Aston Villa. We lost six points in the last minute. With six points we would be at the top.

“We have to keep going. The performance is starting to be better. Sometimes we are not able to play for 90 minutes as we want but everything quickly will be okay.”

Wolves were yesterday boosted by the news that Kevin Doyle will return to the squad for the clash with champions Chelsea.

Doyle has been absent since sustaining a thigh injury in the defeat at Blackburn a month ago.

“It’s a big plus for us that Doyler will be involved and is in contention,” Wolves boss Mick McCarthy said.

Wolves Irish international Kevin Foley insists Wolves have genuine belief they can pick up a result tonight.

“There’s pressure on them — obviously there’s pressure on us too, but what’s important is how we cope with that.”

“Our recent form has been quite good — we’ve won three out of our last six so if we can get a result against Chelsea, we’ll all be happy again.

“It’s all about keeping our spirits up and although we lost on Saturday, I’m looking forward to facing Chelsea.”