Ancelotti's being haunted by ghost of Scolari

Simon Johnson
30 Sep 2009

The winning streak has come to an end, the smile has been replaced by a frown and suddenly the pressure is on.

It can only mean one thing - the honeymoon is over and Carlo Ancelotti has discovered what being in charge of Chelsea is really like.

At £6million-a-year he is the best paid coach in English football and over the next five days he will get the chance to prove he's worth it.

Up until last weekend, he couldn't have wished for a better start to his reign at Stamford Bridge than six straight League wins, plus one in the Champions League and Carling Cup.

Just a few days ago the thought of taking on Cypriot minnows Apoel Nicosia in the Champions League seemed more an excuse for a holiday rather than a test of his managerial credentials.

Cyprus is certainly a perfect spot for a honeymoon with it's warm temperatures, sandy beaches and the guarantee of several hours of sunshine a day.

Yet Ancelotti arrived for his pre-match press conference yesterday looking like a man desperate for a hangover cure.

The cause was obviously the shocking 3-1 defeat to Wigan on Saturday which certainly saw it's fair share of rows on the pitch as the players turned on each other with each goal conceded.

And it didn't stop there for captain John Terry and Didier Drogba who continued the criticism of the side's general lack of fight and character after the final whistle.

One had sensed before the trip to the DW Stadium that Ancelotti was beginning to wonder what the fuss was about regarding managing Chelsea.

With each press conference, his confident demeanour increasingly shone through and he also appeared to be having fewer problems with the English language.

Only five days ago he joked about how he almost got the sack near the start of his coaching career, had trained to be an electrician, but was now targeting finishing his coaching career with Chelsea in 2015.

However, in Cyprus the humour was gone and replaced by the haunted look which has been sported by many of his predecessors during the Roman Abramovich era at Stamford Bridge.

He knows a successful season depends on maintaining momentum and with the side facing title rivals Liverpool at home on Sunday, it is vital they get the Wigan debacle out of their system as quickly as they can.

For a team that has only just lost their first game, there is a level of apprehension around the squad - with the spectre of Luiz Felipe Scolari surely on players' minds.

The Brazilian got off to a similarly good start before Liverpool brought him back to earth with a shuddering halt following a fine 1-0 win at Stamford Bridge.

Rafael Benitez was the first manager to find a way to nullify Scolari's preference for his full backs to provide the threat on the flanks and Wigan boss Roberto Martinez did the same to Ancelotti on Saturday.

Scolari paid the price for being unable to reverse the slide when he was fired in February and while talk of a repeat in Ancelotti's case is far too premature, he significantly bristled at being compared to the former Portugal coach.

He said: "I don't want to know what happened last season. I have a focus about this season. We lost one game, this can happen and we have to fix it next game.

"We want to do the best. We consider this game important for the group nothing else. The players will be focused on this match, we are not thinking about Liverpool.

"We have time to think about that, but now I want us to take three points for us and stay top of the group.

"We will have to have a good reaction from the match at Wigan. We analysed the mistakes for sure, but I don't want to spend a lot of time on this match because it was not a good one. We understood this, but now we are looking forward.

"It was not a good day and against Apoel I want to see action, not just reaction.

"I would like to see Chelsea play like they did in the previous matches in the Premier League and the Champions League."

Significantly the smiles which previously adorned the players' faces have largely disappeared too, with winger Florent Malouda coming out on the defensive ahead of the challenge of beating Apoel.

When asked if he was concerned whether history could be about to repeat itself in terms of the decline experienced under Scolari, he added: "It's a new season so I hope you don't expect that from us, we want to win.

"No-one was saying this before the Wigan defeat and just because we have one loss, we're not going to lose every game.

"We don't want to be in trouble. We know if we don't win we will have questions like this and people will start asking questions over what we're capable of.

"You can call it as you want, but when you lose like the way we did against Wigan no-one can be happy with that.

"We all spoke about it and now we have the opportunity to act because against Wigan we were only reacting. We were late on everything. We now have an opportunity in another competition."

But the 29-year-old has warned his team-mates not to take Apoel lightly when they face them in the GSP Stadium.

It is the Cypriot side's first ever Champions League group game at home and they have already been boosted by securing a creditable 0-0 draw away at Atletico Madrid in their first match two weeks ago.

Malouda added: "There is no easy game in Europe and in the Premier League. They drew against Atletico away and it means they can perform.

"I saw a video of them and they can play football. It won't be easy. We have a lot of respect for them."

Even if Chelsea do secure a victory against Apoel as expected this evening, a true measure of whether Chelsea's defeat against Wigan was just a blip or a sign or more woe to come, will be decided against Liverpool.

Two wins this week and Ancelotti may just be worth that huge salary after all.