CARLO Ancelotti says Chelsea must forget about their Barclays Premier League showdown with Manchester United on Sunday and concentrate on qualifying for the knockout stage of the Champions League.
Chelsea warmed up for their Group D clash with Atletico Madrid tonight with a 4-0 drubbing of Bolton to keep them top of the league, and while England midfielder Frank Lampard admits these are heady times, Ancelotti wants his squad to focus on bea
ting Madrid instead of looking ahead to their clash with Sir Alex Ferguson's side. "Usually all the people think about the game against Manchester United but we have another important game before it and we want to prepare well," said Ancelotti.
"It is very easy to prepare for Manchester United because it is a very important match, but we need to maintain concentration in the Champions League at this moment."
Chelsea have now scored 17 goals in their last four games without conceding and victory over Madrid, who they thumped 4-0 at Stamford Bridge a fortnight ago, will almost certainly put them into the last 16.
Lampard, who scored his fourth goal in as many games from the penalty spot against Bolton, agrees with Ancelotti that a singular attitude towards games is the key.
"We play Manchester United at the Bridge next Sunday and we wanted to be top, but not because we are facing the champions," said Lampard.
"You must have a singular attitude to every game. Now we have done well at Bolton, we have a Champions League game before we face United, and these are very exciting times for us.
"We are top of the league and we aim to create a gap at the top because we know that Manchester United are a good team and they will make things difficult for us if we don't do that.
"We want to maintain our gap over United in the league, but I don't think that is a psychological boost amongst big teams when they meet. That doesn't matter when the top teams meet each other. Look at what happened when Liverpool beat Manchester United last month.
"League position or form doesn't count much between the big clubs, it is all about form on the day. There's a danger Manchester United can close that gap, so we must make sure they don't."
Didier Drogba is available again against Madrid after serving his three-match European ban and may well get straight back into the side with Salomon Kalou now carrying a slight knock.
Drogba was on the scoresheet against Bolton and Ancelotti has been delighted with the Ivory Coast international's partnership with Nicolas Anelka.
Chelsea also have doubts about Ashley Cole (ankle), Yury Zhirkov (knee), John Mikel Obi (knee) and Jose Bosingwa (knee) ahead of the trip to Madrid.
It's not just the Londoners who have two big games in the space of a week as Atletico face Real Madrid at the weekend in La Liga. "It's a good thing to have to play these two matches because the fans will have to come to the stadium and be very positive," said Sanchez Flores, who only took charge of the Rojiblancos last week following the dismissal of Abel Resino.
"From a psychological point of view it would be very important to win these next two games.
"Chelsea is a match that we could win. We really have to think we can beat them. We must be positive and we have to feel we can win it."
