Carlo Ancelotti reacted angrily to questions surrounding the debacle surrounded his captain John Terry.
Following the humiliating 4-2 defeat at home to Manchester City, the first time the Blues had lost at home since Arsenal defeated them in November 2008, Ancelotti was visibly flustered at questison hurled at him about his captain’s behaviour.
Asked if Terry’s performances were being affected Ancelotti bellowed: “John Terry did not make one mistake today.
“The first goal was not his fault and I see no reason to take him out of the side."
Perhaps the most damming comment from the Italian when asked if the Chelsea players are united behind Terry, Ancelotti shouted: Another question”.
Clearly if the manager cannot hide his frustration, then it’s bound to affect the players - as it’s certainly affected theChelsea fans who booed Bridge before the game, during it and when he was substituted near the end.
When pressed about the pre-match ritual of hand-shaking with your opponents, which Bridge failed to do with Terry, Ancelotti again demonstrated his dislike for this kind of grilling.
He responded: “I am not interested in the non-handshakes.”
Ancelotti was clearly on happier ground trying to explain the defeat which stopped them going four points clear of Manchester United.
“We made mistakes,” he said.
“We lost an important game at home.”
Then acting like a poor middle manager who remembered his pre-written script, he added: “But we must look forward again and regain our confidence - we are still top of the league.”
Ancelotti was clearly peeved at the indiscipline of some of his players: "We could have avoided some of the behaviour which led to sendings off,” he said.
“Ballack (who was send off) obviously made a mistake.”
Trying to put a technical spin on the lamentable secon- half performance, Ancelotti added:” We lost our balance and City counter-attacked well.”
But the name John Terry would not go away and when asked about Craig Bellamy’s TV comments that "Everyone in football knows what Terry is like off the pitch. He’s a great player on it," Ancelotti said: “It’s Bellamy who has the problem, go ask Bellamy about his comments.”
Manchester City boss Roberto Mancini did his level best not to smile from ear to ear over doing the double against Chelsea.
“It was an important result,” said the Italian.
“I don’t know if it’s the best result I’ve had so far.”
When asked about his left back he said: “Wayne Bridge had a good performance as did Carlos Tevez.”
He too did not want to comment about the lack of handshake - clearly the media people from both sides were on message with that one to their managers.
Mancini went on to praise a “fantastic Ancelotti and Chelsea side” before
saying that his team had one just three more points for the desire to get the fourth spot in the league.
“We were very motivated as it could change our season,” confirmed the City boss.
“I told my players at half-time that we had a good chance to win the game - in the second half we played really well. Attacked well and defended well.”
Ancelotti admitted Bridge could still play for England but respected his decision not to.
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