Trust me, we’re really doing good! Even after a run of form that looks like that of Wolves, an ‘unlawful’ dismissal, an unwanted appointment and injuries to key players including the captain, we are still No.1. We are still the team to beat. Let the recent defeats not erase the fact that we’re the best team in the league. Otherwise, we wouldn’t be on top of the table consecutively for so many weeks. You may have your opinion on how well Chelsea plays but what I say no matter how well Chelsea play, they happen to have played better than the 19 other teams in the premier league. You won’t get to create premier league history every season. As long as we’re the best of the lot this season, I’d be happy.

The win over Zilina was very important. When you’re going through a rough patch, nothing pulls you up than a win. I’m very happy that Carlo played the youngsters. It showed that he’s not succumbing to pressure. If he had, he’d have played a ‘safer’ team in the fear of another draw or a defeat. I’m sure he wanted to win at any costs. He couldn’t have afforded to continue the current form. There’s even rumours about him getting the sack and he had to respond to those questions. Despite all this, he took the risk and put the youngsters in the game. You know what, it paid off.

I was pretty pleased to see guys like Josh, van Aanholt, Bruma and Kakuta starting the match. It was like Carlo Ancelotti visited www.bluechampions.com and read this article . Now I want to see these players being fielded in premier league matches. There will be howlers and there will be blunders but if we don’t expose them at all, we’re getting into more serious trouble in the future. We should brave up, put the kids in alongside the greats and it’s only a matter of time the kids become first choice starters.

It’s true that I wasn’t fully convinced that Carlo was the right man for the Chelsea job. But then, he’s come and won the premier league title. What can I say? I never doubt the winners, especially the league title winners. To be honest, I don’t mind if we win the league title this season. On the other hand, if we are not winning it, that should be because we are laying a very strong foundation for the future in terms of the squad and also a playing philosophy. I have a strong belief that Carlo will rebuild the Chelsea squad while retaining the Chelsea identity and creating a distinctive playing style. Which is why, even if Chelsea lose so badly nowadays, I tend to go easy on him. Carlo has a lot of passion. He plays to win. He’s terribly angered and disappointed with our draws and defeats. But he keeps his cool with the press and the opposition. He seems to work hard. He deserves a lot of time and patience. See what Kalou says about Carlo:

He is very important, he doesn’t put pressure on the players. Even without winning we are still training the same way and doing the same things. He has that calm and brings it to the team making us play to our full potential. There are periods where everything doesn’t go as you want, and now is that period. This was a good opportunity for us to go back to the confidence zone, and then you can play to your best. When you play for Chelsea and the team is under pressure, you don’t want the whole team to be scared because it’s difficult to perform. He has that belief that everything is going to be good if we work hard and continue to train the way we do. It worked in the past, last year we had a difficult time too, we didn’t change anything. He brings that self-belief and it helps to keep the pressure off the team.

This is a testimony to Carlo being cool under pressure and being the source of inspiration than sorrow and disaster. I can’t end this paragraph by not talking about Rafa Benitez here. Granted, he took a tough job – he inherited a treble winning team and had to replace someone like Jose Mourinho – but he’s continuing with his tag of ‘big club destroyer’. Inter have fallen so low in the league and are not flying high in the champions league. I have never thought Rafa can inspire players. I can be totally wrong but he doesn’t come across as him. Meanwhile, I like the way Carlo deals with defeats and I like the way he reacts. He has this look of ‘I’ll get you next time’ rather than ‘which is the best excuse today’.

Surely, Carlo is in the most tricky of times at Chelsea. Our pillars are getting older and more injury prone. We’re no longer the big spenders. We want to be self sufficient. We want to win as well. He’s got a massive challenge, probably the toughest in the league. Arsene Wenger’s failed project doesn’t come close because he can consistently finish at No.4 and can come under no pressure. Carlo on the other hand, has to carefully rebuild this squad by phasing out the senior legends and also grooming the youth and while he’s at it, he should be winning titles too. Generally, where there is pressure to win, there’ll be money to support the desire. Where there’s no money, the pressure won’t be there as well. For Carlo, he’s got to win with the given constraints. Not an easy thing to do. If he pulls it off, this could be the biggest achievement of his career, even better than his champions league titles with Milan.

For now, the recovery is not over yet. A home victory over Zilina (of whom most of us hadn’t even heard of) doesn’t mean much except that we’ve tasted a win in a long time. Things change quite quickly in football. It takes only three or four rounds of premier league matches to restore all the early season glory. Let’s hope that it starts with Newcastle on Sunday.

And Carlo, if you’re reading, just play this team – oh well Cech for Turnbull please.