Ancelotti – Drogba will start against Aston Villa

The Chelsea coach Carlo Ancelotti is refusing to take Aston Villa lightly, despite the fact that Chelsea brushed them aside 7-1 just a couple of weeks ago, and he has confirmed that Didier Drogba will start the game after being left on the bench for the previous two matches.

“I’m sure it will be a different game. We will not think about that match,” Ancelotti said. “Aston Villa will play a different game, they will have a good direction, so we will play attention.

“It is a semi-final of an important championship and they will be doing their best to win. Saturday will be different.

“They have players with experience and strength and I have a good opinion about this team.

“Martin O’Neill is a good psychologist and a very good coach.”

Although Drogba didn’t come on in the 7-1 match two weeks ago, he was unleashed against Man Utd in the second half, and scored the decisive second goal. “Drogba will not stay on the bench on Saturday. He will play from the beginning,” Ancelotti confirmed.

“Didier did this very well against Manchester United. He was fresh when he came on the pitch and he did a fantastic job. He scored.”

The Aston Villa coach Martin O’Neill says his team are keen to erase the memory of Chelsea’s destruction of his team, and also the fact that they got beaten by Manchester United in their last appearance at Wembley.

O’Neill said: “The appetite for this game is even stronger having been to Wembley once this season. It is a great incentive for us.

“We lost the League Cup final and you could see by the second half performance in the FA Cup quarter-final at Reading that there was a renewed determination to get back there again.

“Of course, we face Chelsea. That won’t be easy, particularly after what happened a fortnight ago, but the players are ready to go.

“There is no question for a few days we were all pretty despondent after the Chelsea defeat, but the great thing is you get a chance quickly to put things right.”

If Chelsea can repeat their performances from the last couple of games, Villa are in for another roasting! Aston Villa can only hope that the Blues have a bad day at the office.