Carlo Ancelotti admits that Chelsea's hopes of winning the Premier
League had suffered a blow after they only managed a 1-1 draw at
Blackburn.
Chelsea had gone in front through Didier Drogba's 22nd league
goal of the season but let the lead slip and were punished by
El-Hadji Diouf's header late in the second half.
Chelsea have dropped out of the top two for the first time
since the second weekend of the season and are now four points
behind Manchester United and two behind Arsenal, though with a game
in hand.
The Chelsea manager said: "It will be more difficult now to
win the title but it's not impossible.
"We are disappointed because I think we lost two points here,
and important points.
"We had prepared well for the game, we had tried to win to
cancel out the game against Inter and for one hour we did well.
"It's not an easy moment for us and we have to maintain our
confidence and our composure.
"Manchester United are now top of the league and we have to
run more and do better and leave this behind us as soon as
possible."
Chelsea travel to Portsmouth on Wednesday and Ancelotti said
they could afford no more slip-ups. Their recent record is four
wins, four defeats and one draw in their last nine games.
"It's important to win on Wednesday," added Ancelotti.
"Our difficulties started against Manchester City in an
unbelievable game [Chelsea lost 4-2] and the only situation is go
forward and win.
"We have less probability to win this title but we want to
give it our best.
"We need to work together, stay compact and the next game
against Portsmouth is very important, we can stay close to
Manchester United.
"I don't know how many points we need to win the title but I
know we have to win on Wednesday and then prepare game by game."
Chelsea are likely to be without Branislav Ivanovic against
Portsmouth after he suffered a knee injury but keeper Petr Cech and
Michael Ballack should be available.
Ancelotti admitted his players had "lost composure" against a
rugged Blackburn side whose determination was summed up by an
awesome league debut by central defender Phil Jones, who only
turned 18 last month.
Blackburn boss Sam Allardyce said: "It was a great
performance by a young man who is looking like he has a bright
future.
"As big a team as Chelsea are we felt it was time to give him
the chance.
"It's nice to see a player that excites you like that -
especially when he's a centre-half like I was.
"We have recommended him to the England under-19s and said he
should be playing at that level but there is a still a long way to
go for him to be a regular Premier League centre-half."
Allardyce said he hoped Blackburn would continue to affect
the title race by taking point off United and Arsenal.
He added: "Obviously we have dented Chelsea's chances a
little bit but we have Arsenal and Manchester United to come and we
hope we have a big effect on who wins the league by taking points
off the big boys."
