Chelsea’s permanently under-fire Italian supremo Carlo Ancelotti hailed his strike force the best in Europe after two goals for one of them, Frenchman Nicolas Anelka, overcame Danish champions FC Copenhagen in this week’s Champions League round-of-the-last-16 tie.

The win came four days after the Blues failed in their efforts to win a record-equalling three FA Cups in-a-row, losing a home to Everton on penalties in last Saturday’s fourth round replay.

This defeat added to the already considerable pressure on the three-times European Cup winner with Serie A giants Milan.

 

Experienced squad members have publicly expressed their fears of the consequences of Chelsea failing to reach the EPL’s top four at the end of the season.

And Ancelotti’s future was the subject of intense, if brief and unfounded, speculation when a Serie A managerial vacancy briefly appeared last weekend.

Meanwhile, Blues sporting director Frank Arnesen, who will be leaving the club at the end of the season, will take up the same role at Bundesliga side Hamburg.

Anelka’s double helped erase what memories there were of his shoot-out miss against Everton. Ashley Cole skied Chelsea’s fifth penalty and Chelsea lost the shoot-out 4-3.

Some sections of the UK media reported that Ancelotti’s job would subsequently be under threat if they failed to make the Champions League last eight.

And they linked Ancelotti to the vacancy at Serie A’s Roma, which arose after former Blues boss Claudio Ranieri’s resignation.

Ancelotti himself denied that he was considering resignation. He said: “I don’t have to consider my position; it is the owner that has to do that.”

In response, Blues’ talismanic centre-back John Terry offered support to his beleaguered boss in typically forthright manner, saying that the players had to “man up a bit as a group of players and take responsibility” for the team’s predicament.

Terry’s remarks followed midfielder Frank Lampard’s assertion that “it would be a disaster if we didn’t qualify” for next season’s Champions League, adding: “We must finish in the top four.”

Arnesen announced last November that he would be leaving Chelsea. And last weekend he confirmed that he had signed a three-year deal with Hamburg. Chelsea’s chief scout Lee Congerton will join the 54-year-old Dane in Germany.

Chelsea are without an EPL fixture this weekend because of Birmingham City’s involvement in Sunday’s Carling Cup Final, ahead of next Tuesday’s crunch clash at the Bridge against EPL leaders Manchester United.