Keep Carlo! Cech insists Ancelotti is best man for the job, despite European setback

By Sportsmail Reporter
Updated: 12:57 EST, 13 April 2011

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Petr Cech has urged Roman Abramovich to keep faith with Carlo Ancelotti despite Chelsea's disappointing Champions League exit.

The Blues were dumped out of Europe after losing 2-1 to Manchester United at Old Trafford on Tuesday night.

Abramovich is desperate to win the Champions League, and Ancelotti's failure to land the coveted trophy is unlikely to go down well with the club's owner.

Pick yourselves up: Petr Cech has demanded his Chelsea team-mates bounce back from their Champions League disappointment

But Cech says the Chelsea boss shouldn't take the flak for their Euro misery.

'We win together, we lose together,' the 29-year-old stopper said. 'We are all on the same boat and we try to guide the boat to the harbour as safe as possible.

'The players need to finish the season well for ourselves, the club, for everybody. We are not only playing for the manager or the owner, we are playing for the entire club. The supporters who are all over the world, the staff and everyone involved with Chelsea.

'It is always disappointing if you are part of a big club and you don't win a trophy. After winning the Double last season everyone thought we would defend the titles. We had a good start and then the season became difficult.

'But we were doing well in the Champions League until the two games against United. We were very unlucky in the first game, but overall I have to say they deserved to go through.'

With only the league left to focus on, Cech stressed that Chelsea, in third, have plenty to play for and must strive to finish as high as possible or risk not qualifying for Europe's elite competition next term.

The Blues are 11 points behind runaway league leaders United but only two points above fourth-placed Manchester City with just five points separating them from Tottenham in fifth.

With the risk of their season ending in tatters, Cech is determined that his team-mates pick themselves up this weekend at West Brom as they attempt to close the four-point advantage held by their London rivals Arsenal in second.

'This is the year to learn from and to pick ourselves up and finish the season strongly because there is still plenty to play for,' Cech said.

'We want to finish as high as possible in the league, we have to pick ourselves up and get ready for the next season.

'If we win most of the [remaining] games we can finish second.'

Second best: Cech wants Chelsea to finish runners-up in the league after losing to Manchester United in Europe

Second best: Cech wants Chelsea to finish runners-up in the league after losing to United in Europe

Cech is adamant that Chelsea displayed unity in defeat at Old Trafford and has no fears that his side will disintegrate now they have little to play for.

He added: 'You could see [at Old Trafford] the team is together,' he said,.

'if you are not together and you go down to ten men losing 1-0 the team falls apart but we didn’t do so.'

Cech, however, rued Chelsea's crucial collapse when Park Ji-Sung won the tie for United just moments after Didier Drogba had offered them hope in scoring an equaliser.

The Blues, reduced to ten men after Ramires was sent off, witnessed their European hopes crushed by the Korean who scored less than 60 seconds after the Ivorian levelled on the night.

'We did well, it was a pretty equal game and down to ten men after Ramires’s 70th-minute sending-off] we managed to get our goal,' Cech said.

'I believe that they would be under a lot of pressure but we were thinking too much about scoring the second goal and we conceded straight away after we scored, which was the decisive moment of the game.'