English Premier League: Nicolas Anelka earns praise from his manager
Chelsea’s manager Ancelloti has come out and stated that Anelka is in the finest form of his career as the striker became the star of the show against Spartak Moscow. Anelka scored in Chelsea’s four goals to one win over Spartak in the UEFA Champions’ League
group stages at the Stamford Bridge. It was Anelka’s fifth goal of the season in European competitions which was accompanied by a penalty from Didier Drogba and two goals from Ivanovic. Nicolas Anelka’s goal against Spartak was his tenth goal of the current
club season, something that has impressed Chelsea’s manager Ancelloti massively.
The French international has spend his entire career playing at high level European clubs such as Real Madrid, Arsenal and now Chelsea. Ancelloti sung his player’s praises as he said, "All the players played a good game. We had more difficulty in the first
half, but we played better in the second. Anelka was the key to opening up the game. He scored a fantastic goal - the most important this evening. I think he is happy at this moment. He's the same compared to last year and the same Anelka I found when I came
here, nothing has changed. He has experience. He maintains very good skill, ability, and speed. Overall he is in the best moment of his career."
Ancelloti was in buoyant mood as he spoke about his team’s chances of making it to the final of UEFA Champions League at Wembley Stadium. Chelsea have been quite impressive thus far in the UEFA Champions League. Even before the tournament started, the blues
were being touted as the team to beat in the competition. Chelsea will be looking to win the English Premier League as well as UEFA Champions League, something that they have not managed to achieve in their history as a football club.
Ancelloti told the press, "There will be a long race getting to the final, when you reach the first aim, which is to win the group, the next aim is to reach the final, and then to win that. I don't know if we can do this, but we have a possibility. We have
the motivation to do this, but sometimes you have to be lucky also. We are working to play the last game at Wembley, in the final. It is important to start well and it's still important to finish in first place in this group.”
Speaking about the later stages of the competition, the ex-A.C. Milan manager said, "But I think that the decisive time for the Champions League is in February and March. Then we have to be ready. Now we're in a good moment and we're hoping to avoid injury
and keep people fit. Every one of us has motivation. There are a lot of things to think about - a final in London and the fact that no London team has won the Champions League. I think that helps to improve the motivation. It is the same for all of us. I'm
not English. I'm working for Chelsea and have a particular feeling for this club. If there is a final, it's an extra motivation for everyone, not just the English players."
Spartak Moscow’s manager Karpin was also quite expressive after his team’s loss to Chelsea in London. Valery Karpin said, "Nothing has changed in terms of our chances of getting out of the group. If we win our last two games, we will qualify. When you're
losing 4-1, there's not much joy in having scored at Stamford Bridge. It would only have been significant if the score had been 0-0 at the time. The main positive was us gaining experience. We have a young team and they've played one of the best teams in Europe,
maybe one of the best in the world.”
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