Chelsea increased their lead at the top of the Premier League to four points after Essien's 30th-minute header gave the Blues a 1-0 home victory over Fulham on Wednesday night. Essien's injury-time dismissal took the shine off his performance and Chelsea's victory - but Ancelotti was adamant he did not think Essien's tackle was dangerous. "I don't like to judge the decision," said Ancelotti. "But I can say that maybe it was not a red card because Essien made a strong tackle, but on the ball. "There was not a risk on the opponent. I think he went for the ball, the last ball of the game, an important ball. "I don't think he did a silly foul. He tried to do a tackle, he won the tackle. And I'm not sure it was a sending-off. "I'd like to see it again but directly, on the pitch, I didn't think it was a dangerous tackle. I hope we won't lose him for three games. That would be a problem if we lose him for three games. We have to wait, I think. I want to watch the replay before doing anything." But Ancelotti was pleased with the performance of his side, who bounced back from their 2-0 defeat a Liverpool on Sunday. "It was a good performance," said Ancelotti. "We started well from the beginning with a high tempo during the game. "The first half was very good and we had good control in the second half. We had a little problem at the end, but this is normal. "When you are just 1-0 up it's more difficult to control the game. We played well continuously over the course of the game, so it was a good performance. "The Manchester result was good for us, though, to be four points clear. That's a good gap. Nothing is decided, but that's a good gap. We'd like to stay there in that position." Chelsea also equalled a club record of clean sheets at home. It was the ninth in succession and Ancelotti added: "It's important to maintain clean sheets. "Defensively we did well. We are working to put more pressure on them, and we did that well in the first half when the midfielders worked hard together." Fulham boss Mark Hughes insisted that Essien deserved to be red-carded and also raised questions over Chelsea's goal. Didier Drogba was injured in the Fulham penalty area when Essien headed home and Hughes conceded his side were caught off guard. "The guy has jumped in with two feet, so it's a straight red," declared Hughes. "As for the goal, that's a disappointment from our point of view. We were distracted by Drogba lying prone in the box. "You still have to play to the whistle, so maybe we were guilty of expecting the referee to blow up. "He didn't and we paid the penalty. It's confusing the way the game is viewed in terms of when players go down: are they faking, and do you kick the ball out? "We had that in the second half when we had the ball in a promising position, and ended up having the ball put out near our goal-line. Which was a bit ungentlemanly. "I was pleased with the second-half performance. We showed belief. As the game progressed, we started to make more of an influence in the game and had two great efforts on goal. "A goalkeeper with less ability than Petr Cech would have struggled to keep them out. "We took the game to Chelsea in the second half and, with a bit of luck, might have got back on level terms. "But I'm pleased we responded in that second half. I've been to games here where teams have gone under very quickly because they didn't show the qualities needed. My team did show that quality.
