Carlo - Drog not an issue

Ancelotti: Rested Drogba

Chelsea boss Carlo Ancelotti insists nothing can be read into his decision to drop Didier Drogba to the bench for their derby draw with Fulham on Monday.

"I don't know if Didier was happy, but every player knows every game is important. It doesn't matter." Quotes of the week

The Italian tactician opted to start with new £50million signing Fernando Torres instead of Drogba.

The Ivorian came on for Torres, who again failed to open his account for The Blues - but Ancelotti insists that all his players are capable of rotation.

"I don't know if Didier was happy, but every player knows every game is important. It doesn't matter," he insisted.

"We wanted to rotate to maintain his condition and to give everyone great motivation.

"Maybe in the next game we will use both.

Fresh

"We wanted to have more control of the pitch in this game.

"Fernando played well. He had some opportunities in the first half and I took him out just to use Didier fresh and with power. That's the only reason I changed him.

"His performance was better than that against Liverpool. Every striker wants to score. I don't think he's frustrated because he needs time to play with us and, after one week, he was really better tonight after that first performance."

Despite Chelsea's failure to win, which sees them remain behind Spurs in fifth, Ancelotti remains up-beat about the champions' faltering campaign.

"I'm an optimist and there's good reason to have confidence," he added.