ANCELOTTI: TAKING A SPANISH STEP

Carlo Ancelotti will play his strongest team against Atletico Madrid, knowing a win will put the team back on track after the Villa Park pain and well on the way to Champions League progress.
Healthily-placed in Group D after two wins, a third victory on Wednesday night won't guarantee a place in the knockout stages but it will put the Blues very close with a visit to the Spanish capital to come in a fortnight.
Ancelotti will not have Jose Bosingwa available for selection this midweek. The right-back was in line for a return having served a two-match European suspension but now a new obstacle is in his way.
'Bosingwa had a problem with his knee in the game against Aston Villa,' reports Ancelotti. 'He will not play tomorrow but I think it is not a big problem and I hope we can use him on Saturday.'
Branislav Ivanovic replaced the Portuguese defender in the second half of the Villa defeat and was right-back in the Champions League wins over Porto and APOEL.
Michael Ballack, missing at the weekend, returns to the squad but John Mikel Obi remains out with an ankle injury.
With Alex completing 45 minutes in the Reserves' win on Monday, the manager will have a player new to him available soon.
'Alex after his injury played very well. He now has to train and he will be ready on Saturday,' Ancelotti reports.
Chelsea's set-piece defending has been the talk surrounding the club ever since Villa headed in two corners. Training has worked on it but Ancelotti believes that can only go so far. Similar to taking penalties under high pressure, there are elements of match play that are hard to replicate at Cobham.
'But we need to improve,' he adds, 'because you can do a good match but if you don't pay attention over six seconds, you can do a bad result.'
He also defends Petr Cech's performances this season.
'Petr is in good condition. He has a fantastic approach because he takes a lot of risks because he likes to go out and catch the ball. Sometimes he can do a mistake but I want him to go out to catch the ball in the air.'
A win tomorrow will open an eight-point gap between Chelsea and Atletico Madrid who were expected to push us hard for qualification pre-tournament. That is not yet impossible warns the boss.
'At this moment for them it is not easy because also Porto is in a good position, but over four games they can still arrive at the top.
'They didn't start well the season but they have good quality, above all in the forwards. They have [Diego] Forlan and [Sergio] Aguero who are dangerous strikers. We have to pay attention to this because Aguero has fantastic quality and can change a match with it.
'It is a good team but at this moment they didn't find a good disposition tactically on the pitch.
'We must not only beat them to return to winning but also to control the next three games in the group.'