• Club and striker confident of swift agreement
• Talks over Joe Cole’s new deal remain deadlocked

Chelsea have opened talks with Nicolas Anelka’s representative over extending the France striker’s stay at Stamford Bridge. The 30-year-old’s current contract expires at the end of next season, with discussions now under way to keep him at the club until 2013.

Anelka’s adviser, Doug Pingisi, was in London last week for preliminary discussions with both club and player confident negotiations will be concluded swiftly. The Frenchman moved to Chelsea from Bolton Wanderers for £15m and has been one of their most consistent performers over the last two campaigns, scoring 19 league goals last season.

His form, which has led to eight league goals to date this term though none since January, has impressed Carlo Ancelotti. “Anelka is a top player and this club needs to have a lot of top players,” the Italian said recently. “I’m confident he’ll stay with us. The club will try to find the right solution for both Chelsea and for him.”

The speed at which negotiations are expected to be favourably concluded contrasts markedly with the currently deadlocked talks with Joe Cole. The England midfielder, an unused substitute in Sunday’s 2-0 FA Cup quarter-final win over Stoke City, is seeking to increase his wages from £80,000 a week to nearer those of the higher earners at the west London club with compromise yet to be reached.

Both Chelsea and Cole – who was absent for seven months up to September after suffering a serious knee injury – remain hopeful that a deal can still be struck that will extend the player’s seven-year stay beyond the end of the season, when his current deal is due to expire. “Joe’s had a very traumatic time with his knee, and you get highs and lows,” said the assistant manager Ray Wilkins when asked about the midfielder’s recent dip in form. “But he’ll play plenty of games for Chelsea.”

Ashley Cole is expected to return to Cobham after the weekend after a spell undertaking rehabilitation on his fractured ankle in the south of France. The England full-back’s progress has been steady since he underwent surgery on the joint broken in a challenge with Landon Donovan at Everton last month, and he remains confident that he will prove his fitness well ahead of the summer’s World Cup finals.

ChelseaPremier LeagueDominic Fifieldguardian.co.uk

• Dip in form just temporary, says assistant manager
• Belletti, Ballack, Carvalho all out for Stoke match

Chelsea remain committed to extending Joe Cole’s stay at the club beyond the expiration of his current deal next summer, though the negotiations over a new contract remain at an impasse.

Talks between club and player have stalled over the midfielder’s wage demands as he seeks to raise his salary from £80,000-a-week and into the bracket of higher earners at Stamford Bridge. Cole’s inability to retain a regular place in Carlo Ancelotti’s starting line-up has undermined his negotiating position, with the England coach Fabio Capello having admitted last week that he did not appear to be “the same player” since returning from serious knee ligament damage in September.

The 28-year-old is expected to feature in Sunday’s FA Cup quarter-final against Stoke City, with Chelsea’s assistant manager Ray Wilkins insistent that Cole has just suffered a temporary dip in form and could even yet force his way back into Capello’s plans ahead of the World Cup finals. “We are desperate to keep Joe,” said Wilkins. “I know the club are and we as a management group feel the same. He is a very valuable asset to us. Joe himself is upbeat about his future here. He loves Chelsea and wants to stay. It is a contractual situation that he and the club, I am sure, will sort out. We sincerely hope he will be here next season.

“I would not have thought his form has been affected by the contract situation. I just think he has had a long lay-off, something like 10 months, and it is never easy to come back. Your form does drop, and Joe has just had that dip. He has got to get a little bit more consistency back and then there will not be a problem with him. But, as Fabio said, he has not been too impressed with Joe’s form over the last couple of months. That’s why he wasn’t involved against Egypt but, if he performs to the ability we know Joe has, then Fabio will take him.”

Chelsea’s options will be limited against Stoke with Juliano Belletti and Michael Ballack suspended, Ricardo Carvalho troubled by a slight hamstring problem and a number of other first-team players injured. One of their walking wounded, José Bosingwa, requires further surgery to repair knee ligament damage sustained against Aston Villa in October and will miss the rest of the season, together with Portugal’s participation at the World Cup finals in South Africa.

ChelseaPremier LeagueDominic Fifieldguardian.co.uk