Monday, November 30, 2009

Ancelotti: Chelsea can control title race

Chelsea manager Carlo Ancelotti believes his team can win the Premier League title following a convincing 3-0 win at Arsenal, but only if his players can remain focused and avoid complacency.

The Blues restored their five-point lead at the top of the league with victory at Emirates Stadium on Sunday as Didier Drogba scored twice and Thomas Vermaelen netted an own goal.

Chelsea's next league match comes against big-spending Manchester City at Eastlands and Ancelotti is adamant his players must maintain their focus if they are to stay on top.

"It is important for me that Chelsea continue to play as we did (against Arsenal) with determination and concentration," the 50-year-old said.

"We started the season believing we can win the title. We know very well our possibilities. We can win every game but also if we don't have determination and concentration, we can lose every game.

"We have to maintain a good behaviour in our work. We started the season believing we could win it. When I signed a contract with Chelsea, I believed we could win something."

The Premier League leaders out-muscled Arsene Wenger's young pretenders in all departments, but Ancelotti believes there is more to his team than their physical prowess.

"We have this quality of strength and when we have to use this, we can," the former AC Milan boss said. "I think this team has a lot of technical, mental and physical quality.

"We didn't want to use physical quality, we wanted to use intelligence to defend in our half and there we won the game."

Drogba's double-strike moves him to joint top of the Premier League top scorers' list with 11 goals. Ancelotti praised the 31-year-old's work-rate and also found time to applaud his strike partner Nicolas Anelka.

source:www.soccernet.com

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