Ancelotti – We could have played better, but we deserved to win

Chelsea continued their nervous run of form with an unconvincing 2-1 win over Avram Grant’s Portsmouth, But Carlo Ancelotti thinks the team were good value for the three points.

This puts Chelsea back ahead of Man Utd in the race for the title, but Ancelotti admits that he was worried after Portsmouth were gifted a lucky equaliser.

“I am happy because it was becoming a difficult game,” he said.

“The 15 minutes in the second half after they levelled was not good, we lost our composure, we lost our ideas to play, but then we did a very good reaction, we changed something on the pitch, we put some fresh players on and had a good reaction to the end of the game.

“We deserved to win and that was the most important thing after four games without victory. That was the first aim.”

“The defence played very well. There was only one shot on the goal in the first half. After the equaliser I don’t think it was nerves but in that situation we can do better because we have a lot of players with strong personality and communication in this case is the most important thing.”

It was down to Frank Lampard to redeem himself after missing a penalty against Man City, but Ancelotti always had faith in him.

“I have trust in him,” he said. “He missed a penalty against Man City but he is the best shooter for us and he did a very good penalty. It was not easy because there was a lot of pressure on that penalty.”

The important thing was for Chelsea to winning ways, and now we have to go to Upton Park, which is always a difficult game around Xmas time.

Let us hope the Blues continue their improvement.