Chelsea 2 Tottenham Hotspur 0: Ancelotti will ‘forget the past’ before selecting next line-up

Carlo Ancelotti has insisted his blunder in picking Fernando Torres for Chelsea’s Champions League defeat at Manchester United will have no impact on his team selection for Sunday’s must-win game at Old Trafford.

Chelsea are right back in in the title race after a fortunate win over Tottenham and United’s loss at Arsenal yesterday.

Frank Lampard’s equaliser late in the first half was given despite the whole of the ball appearing not to cross the line and Salomon Kalou was offside when scoring the late winner.

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Ancelotti admitted he made a mistake by selecting Torres against United earlier this month, a move which backfired as the Blues crashed out of Europe.

The Spaniard was relegated to the bench for the next three games and Chelsea duly rediscovered top form, with Didier Drogba running amok.

But after watching Torres finally score his first goal for the club in a win over West Ham nine days ago, Ancelotti decided to gamble again by recalling the £50m striker against Spurs.

The results were debatable, with Torres struggling to get in behind the Spurs defence and Drogba subdued on the right-hand side of a three-man attack until Ancelotti abandoned the experiment just past the hour mark.

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Chelsea were rewarded with the luckiest of victories to extend their run to eight wins and a draw from the last nine league games.

But Ancelotti claimed he would ignore the evidence of Saturday and events at Old Trafford almost three weeks earlier when picking his side next Sunday.

“To make a decision about the line-up, I have to forget the past,” he said. “I have to look at the next training session.

“It’s important to have players in good form, in good condition. If we want to win there, we have to use intensity.”

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Had Spurs goalkeeper Heurelho Gomes not dived over the top of Lampard’s tame 35-yard shot when the visitors were leading 1-0, poor officiating might not have been the focal point of debate.

Manager Harry Redknapp refused to “crucify” his goalkeeper, who has made several gaffes down the years.

Redknapp’s anger was vented more at the game’s lawmakers than the officials, although he did accuse assistant referee Mike Cairns of “guessing” and of being influenced by the Stamford Bridge crowd when awarding Lampard’s equaliser.

“He’s on the 18-yard line when the ball’s on the goal-line,” Redknapp said. “It’s impossible to judge. No one in this world can be sure if it’s crossed the line or not. He’s had a guess and he’s guessed wrong.

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“It was an honest guess, he hasn’t done it purposely because he wanted Chelsea to win or Tottenham to lose.

“The crowd all shout, ‘Goal’, and he goes, ‘Yeah, a goal’, and he’s given a goal. At home, you do tend to get decisions like that when everybody cheers and the crowd’s all up.”