Chelsea made four changes from the side that defeated Sunderland last Tuesday but it made little difference to the cohesion as goals from Didier Drogba and Nicolas Anelka fired them to a 2-0 victory at Craven Cottage.

"Deco was out and Essien was out for this game,'' said Ancelotti. "But it was a good line-up. Essien has played all the games so far, so I wanted to give him a rest. He will play the next game. We have to follow this line.''

Ancelotti was also left drooling at the Drogba-Anelka combination in attack. "I am sure they can play together because they are fantastic strikers and have different qualities,'' said Ancelotti.