Anelka impresses Wright-Phillips

Chelsea winger Shaun Wright-Phillips has hailed the abilities of new signing Nicolas Anelka after the Frenchman helped the Blues to a 2-1 win over Wigan in the FA Cup fourth round.

Anelka, signed from Bolton earlier this month, got his first goal for the club and set up Wright-Phillips for the second before Antoine Sibierski gave his side hope with a fine volley.

And England international Wright-Phillips has been impressed by Anelka.

“He’s an absolutely great player to be honest, you saw what he did today and it was a great finish.

“He’s always going to provide for the team, he won a lot of headers today and that’s really important.”

The 26-year-old was also full of praise for a Wigan side who nearly snatched a replay late on when Marcus Bent struck the crossbar in injury-time.

“We always knew it would be a difficult game. They have a great set of players and great strikers so we set our stall out and kept plugging away,” he told BBC1.

“I thought we could have kept the ball a bit better at the end and tried to run the clock down but I suppose we went for goals or to attack.