It looks like Carlo Ancelotti made the break from AC Milan at the right time.
A few weeks into his first season in English football, his Chelsea team is top of the Premier League after a perfect start of four wins from four games, he has already won a trophy at Wembley and has the Blues fans believing the league title is coming back to Stamford Bridge after three years at Manchester United's Old Trafford.
Ancelotti has devised a new tactical system the players appear to like and he has two of the biggest egos in the game - strikers Didier Drogba and Nicolas Anelka - playing in harmony.
After Chelsea's 3-0 victory over Burnley sent his team to the top of the Premier League, Ancelotti surprised an interviewer by saying he wouldn't be watching their coverage on TV when his former club Milan faced Inter later in the day in the first derby of the season.
Maybe he knew Milan, with whom he won the European Cup as a player and coach, would be on the wrong end of a 4-0 drubbing.
Ancelotti's most recent triumphs with the Rossoneri were as recent as the 2007 Champions League followed by the European Super Cup although the team's last Serie A triumph was three seasons before that. He was criticized for hanging on to aging players for too long and Milan finished well behind Inter in the title race in his final three seasons at the club.
Now in the unfamiliar surroundings of English football, Ancelotti is out to help Chelsea regain the Premier League title and maybe capture their first Champions League crown.
Chelsea are top of the league on goal difference from Tottenham and it is the form of his team which has delighted Ancelotti, whose team also won a penalty shootout over United after a 2-2 draw in the Community Shield at Wembley.
"I am happy because we showed good play on the pitch and had good ideas to play," the Italian said. "We have to maintain this situation and now the play improves with improved confidence."
Asked whether his side could win the league title, he said: "We have a possibility.
"We started well but we know the season is very long. It will be difficult for sure this season but we have the possibility to step up.
"Every week we work to play well and for a coach it is important to see that the players play well. The most important thing for me is that we are on the right track, to train and to work."
In the league, Chelsea have so far faced four clubs who are likely to finish well below them in the standings - Hull, Sunderland, Fulham and Burnley. The first real test of Ancelotti's impact on the Blues will come when they meet Tottenham on Sept 20 with games against Liverpool, Man United, Arsenal and Manchester City in the following months.
But Ancelotti - the fifth man to lead Chelsea in two years - is relying on the stars who flopped in the league last season, rather than importing some of his big names from Milan.
As well as getting the best out of Drogba and Anelka, he has revived the form of Portuguese midfielder Deco, who was a big disappointment last season under Luiz Felipe Scolari and Guus Hiddink.
Ancelotti has even ended Andriy Shevchenko's troubled spell at Stamford Bridge.
(AP via China Daily September 2, 2009)
