Team news

Wolves preview
Wolves boss Mick McCarthy took the unusual step of naming an unchanged side in advance of Saturday's home Barclays Premier League clash with leaders Chelsea.

McCarthy is to keep faith with the players who earned Wolves a 1-0 win against Tottenham at Molineux to lift them out of the Barclays Premier League bottom three.

But he will have to make an alteration amongst the substitutes as on-loan Blues utility man Michael Mancienne is ineligible to face his parent club. Holding midfielder Segundo Castillo and striker Stefan Maierhofer will come into the equation for a place on the bench.

McCarthy admits it would be "bloody hard work" to hold onto Wolves' record signing Kevin Doyle if one of the Premier League's big guns show an interest in signing him this summer.

But McCarthy insists the Republic of Ireland striker is "loving it" at Molineux and predicts he will make life uncomfortable for Chelsea skipper John Terry and his fellow defenders in Saturday's home league clash.

Doyle cost #6.5million when moving from Reading in the summer but McCarthy believes he has already been worth "every penny" with his contribution to Wolves' bid to stay in the top flight.

He has scored six goals and in recent games has led the attack effectively in a revamped 4-5-1 formation which has helped Wolves to earn a draw with Liverpool and a win over Tottenham, lifting them out of the bottom three.

When asked if Doyle could become a target for clubs this summer, McCarthy admitted: "Look, when someone plays well, that goes with the territory.

"I never lose any sleep about anything like that, because I can't do anything about it.

"It doesn't concern me at all. Doyley came here and is loving it and, if we stay up, we are a Premier League club and he would still be loving it.

"But if someone like a Manchester United come in and ask and offer, it is bloody hard work then isn't it?"

Chelsea preview
Chelsea have been rocked by the loss of two players.

England midfielder Frank Lampard will miss the game with a virus but will be fit to travel to Italy for their Champions League clash with Inter Milan next week.

Brazilian defender Alex is out with a knee injury he sustained in training on Thursday.

Ashley Cole (ankle), Michael Essien (knee), Jose Bosingwa (knee) Juliano Belletti (knee) and Deco (knee) are all sidelined.

Chief executive Ron Gourlay has read the riot act to Chelsea's misbehaving stars in a tough-talking showdown with the squad at the club's training ground this week.

Gourlay, who was speaking on behalf of the club's owner Roman Abramovich, organised the meeting together with coach Carlo Ancelotti in response to weeks of lurid headlines involving club captain Terry and his England team-mate Ashley Cole.

Gourlay reminded the players of their responsibility to protect the image of the club and warned of 'severe disciplinary consequences' should any player step out of line in the future.

The meeting, which lasted around 10 minutes, was the club's response to weeks of headlines that have tarnished the Blues' image and led to Terry being stripped of the England captaincy by national coach Fabio Capello.

The message from Gourlay was blunt and to the point and it was made clear to all the players that the club would not tolerate any further public embarrassment.

Gourlay's speech was followed by a talk from coach Ancelotti, who reminded the squad and the staff of the need to protect the image of the club.

"We had a meeting this week with the players," revealed Ancelotti. "It was a good meeting. Ron Gourlay was there as well.

"We spoke to the players and explained to them the behaviour that is required of the players in this club.

"Now they know very well what they have to do and what behaviour is expected of them when they're in the Chelsea shirt.

"We are interested, me and the club, in protecting the image of this club. Not only the players and the manager, all the staff - the people who work in this club - have to protect that image.

"That is one of the most important things, the image of the club. We want to carry that forward. And I think the players and all the staff know very well what they have to do.

"All the players were there. Ron spoke for the club, for the owner, and the players listened.

Wolverhampton vs Chelsea

Last modified 21:32 20/02/10

Pause Play

Left

Right

View thumbnails View full screen Turn captions on/off

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

• 
• 
• 
• 

Prev

Next

• Page 1
• Page 2
• Page 3

Jose Mourinho will see on Wednesday night that the heart of the team he left behind at Chelsea has not changed.

It’s still Petr Cech who keeps the goals out at one end, John Terry who is the spiritual leader in front of him. And most of all it’s Didier Drogba who scores the goals.

That was the formula that made Mourinho’s side champions four years ago. That is what Inter Milan will have to deal with this week.

Drogba finished one from close range in the first half and bullied his way to another in a one-on-one in the second – and apart from that Marcus Hahnemann never had to make a save.

But on a day when Manchester United had already slipped up it was all that was needed to build a four-point lead in time to head for the San Siro and a date with Jose.

“We didn’t play so well,” admitted Carlo Ancelotti. “But we had good spirit, we battled for every ball and I think we deserved to win.

“We wanted to improve our position at the top of the table. The players were aware before the game that Manchester United had lost and I wanted them to know.

“I think it was an important factor for them. It’s a good sign to win on a day when you don’t play well, but you cannot say too much because there are a lot of matches to come.”

Chelsea’s manager was probably right not to read too much into this win. Chelsea have never had trouble bullying the Premier League’s new boys.

It’s now 54 matches since they last lost to a promoted side when Charlton stole a 2-1 win at Stamford Bridge in April 2001.

But until yesterday Chelsea had taken only six from the last 18 available on their travels, and they didn’t exactly ooze confidence early on.

Kevin Doyle, growing as a Premier League striker, caused Terry problems, forcing Cech to a sharp save after 14 minutes and then hitting a perfect pass for Kevin Foley to bring an even better stop from the keeper.

It wasn’t a great day for Ashley Cole. As if it wasn’t bad enough seeing pictures from LA of Cheryl hanging around with another man, he also discovered Chelsea could get along without him quite nicely, thank you.

Spending £18 million on Russian defender Yuri Zhirkov seemed just an indulgence for Roman Abramovich but the former CSKA Moscow defender stepped easily out of Cole’s shadow and played a fabulous part in the build-up to Drogba’s first goal after 40 minutes.

He swapped passes with Michael Ballack before picking out the big striker on the back post for a tap-in.

If Wolves boss Mick McCarthy hoped that might signal a fightback he was wrong. Christophe Berra got rolled by Drogba on the halfway line as both watched Cech’s kick drop over them, and the Ivory Coast star bulldozed his way through for his 19th of the season.

McCarthy said: “We should have got something out of it. We had the game by the scruff of the neck, Cech had made two really good saves, and then we gave them a goal and it demoralised us so much that we had no chance to come back.

“You can’t afford mistakes like that. I’ve got a back four and they should know how to handle a long kick up the middle.”