• ‘He wants to know everything,’ says Italian coach
• 50-year-old admits language difficulties

Carlo Ancelotti has revealed the extent of Roman Abramovich’s involvement in first-team affairs at Chelsea, telling the club’s official magazine that the owner “wants to know everything”.

“Roman is very interested, for sure, in his team,” he said. “We meet maybe once a month and when he doesn’t have to travel with his job he likes to stay in Cobham [where Chelsea have their training ground]. We discuss everything. He likes football, Chelsea, the players and he wants to know everything – about injuries, the balance of the team, tactics.”

Ancelotti also spoke warmly of his assistant manager, Ray Wilkins. Having spent three years playing for Milan in the 1980s and also worked at the club under another Italian manager, Gianluca Vialli, Wilkins provides essential translation services. “I have difficulty to understand sometimes but I have a very good assistant,” Ancelotti said. “He’s not only an assistant, he’s a friend and he speaks very good Italian. And so he helps me to understand. It’s not easy because when you speak to the team you have to not only speak, you have to show emotion as well.

“The first time I was angry with the players I tried to shout at them in English – it was impossible! Now the players know that when I speak in Italian, I am angry!”

The 50-year-old, whose side are top of the league and in the FA Cup final, promising a golden conclusion to his first season in English football, said that Italy could learn much from the English game.

“I saw a lot of Premier League games last year,” he said. “The surprise for me is the atmosphere around the stadium and inside the stadium. It is very good and different to Italy. In Italy it is hard to find a full stadium and it’s very easy to have violence in the stadium – this is not good. Here there are no police, no barriers, just a fantastic atmosphere.

“I think England had the same problem about 20 years ago with the hooligans and other problems, but you changed the rules and respected them. Italy tried to change the rules, but there is not the respect, so we have a big problem. I hope Italy can have the culture that I found here.”

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• Midfielder hoping to play important role in title chase
• ‘There is no doubting what I can do. I just need games’

Joe Cole is putting his World Cup dream to one side in order to concentrate on making Chelsea champions again. Cole has endured a difficult time since returning from cruciate surgery in September and was left out of Fabio Capello’s squad for the recent friendly win over Egypt at Wembley.

At the time, Capello claimed Cole was “not the same player” as he had been before the injury and doubts were raised about the 28-year-old’s chances of going to South Africa. But after scoring Chelsea’s opener in the 2-1 win at Manchester United Cole was refusing to look beyond the title run-in.

“You cannot talk your way into the England squad,” he told the BBC. “If I am playing regularly in a team fighting to be champions I will have every chance. But my main focus now is Chelsea. It is very important this club gets back to the summit of English football. I want to be part of the team that becomes champions again.”

Cole admits he has found it hard to hold down a regular place in Carlo Ancelotti’s side. With fierce competition for places at Stamford Bridge Cole had to wait until a minor injury kept Drogba out of the 7-1 win over Aston Villa before being given another chance in a five-man midfield.

“It is not down to me to pick the team,” said Cole. “But I enjoy playing on that right side. We changed the system in January and things went really well. We also changed the system in the last three games and the same thing has happened. I never lost belief in myself and there is no doubting what I can do. I just needed a run of games.”

Cole’s recent performances might also break the impasse over a new contract, after the midfielder previously confirmed that talks were getting nowhere. United have been mentioned as a potential suitor, although Cole was offering no favours yesterday as Chelsea made their first-half dominance count.

With three home games in a five-match run-in that also includes trickier trips to Tottenham and Liverpool, Chelsea are in control of their own destiny again.

“The main thing now is that the team keeps winning,” Cole said. “It is all we can do. I want to keep my place but above all else Chelsea need to win.”

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Chelsea face the prospect of ending up as nearly men after dropping 10 league points since January

There were no angry inquests in the visitors’ dressing room post-match at Ewood Park. The mood among the Chelsea squad pegged back and held by Blackburn Rovers on Sunday was apparently more sombre and reflective than mutinous. One among them, Mikel John Obi, emerged to insist “the belief is there, the mentality is there, everything is still there”.

So, too, is the team’s ability to shape their destiny. Win their remaining 10 games in all competitions and the Londoners will have achieved their first League and Cup double.

All of which makes the creeping sense of panic which is steadily consuming the club all the more unnerving. After an exemplary January, Chelsea have dropped 10 league points and departed European competition with a whimper. The prospect of ending as nearly men has reared up yet again. This may be all be new to Carlo Ancelotti, hence his rather baffled expression as his team wilted on Sunday,, but those integral to this side have experienced such an unravelling before. All this is familiar and, if the slide is not checked soon, the repercussions could be just as recognisable.

There is no desire within the Chelsea hierarchy to dispose of Ancelotti, a manager Roman Abramovich had pursued in effect since José Mourinho’s departure in the autumn of 2007. He remains respected by the players, his training techniques not drawing criticism in the same way Luiz Felipe Scolari’s rather relaxed approach prompted dissent in the ranks. He is popular and needs time and money to make this side his own.

Yet if the immediate future is relatively assured for the manager, the same cannot be said for his squad. The next four games – Portsmouth, Aston Villa and Manchester United, and Villa again in an FA