Carlo Ancelotti Relaxed Ahead Of Chelsea's Trip To Sunderland

Chelsea manager Carlo Ancelotti has revealed that he has no major concerns as his squad prepare for their game against Sunderland at the Stadium of Light on Tuesday night, and that training has gone well after Saturday's opening day victory over Hull City at Stamford Bridge.

"Yesterday we recovered all the players and now today [Monday] we did a little tactical work," the Italian told the Blues' official website.
"It is no problem to recover the players at the start of the season. There is no problem to prepare a game for tomorrow because Sunderland played the same time as us, Saturday. We have the same problem.

"Ray [Wilkins, assistant manager] said to me that Sunderland is a very particular place. He said there is a lot of passion around this team and we have to know it will be a difficult game.

"We have to stay ready, to continue to win. This is only the second game in the league but we want to maintain the good atmosphere in the team.
"The journey is no problem with a plane. We want to play with the same system, with the same mentality. We want to attack, we want to win. We can try to do this."

As for the club's injured players, Ancelotti revealed that there may be some hope that Alex (groin), Yuri Zhirkov (knee) and Juliano Belletti (Achilles) may play some part in the first team soon.

"We hope to recover them for the next match at home," Ancelotti confirmed.

Joe Cole and Paulo Ferreira remain long-term absentees with knee injuries.