Chelsea boss, Carlo Ancelotti, has warned his side not to underestimate Athletico Madrid when the Spanish side play at Stamford Bridge this evening. Ancelotti wants a marked improvement on some inconsistent recent Chelsea displays and says that if his side are going to win the Champions League they will need to grind out wins from matches like this.

Chelsea should be able to name a very strong side and Ancelotti does not have many headaches to deal with. He will be happy at the fact that his team are still competing and not out of any thing even though they have not been playing as well as they could do.

He said: “Atletico didn’t start well but they have very good qualities. They have Aguero and Forlan, they are dangerous strikers and we have to pay attention to this. Aguero has fantastic quality and he can win matches. They are a good team.”

“We have a possibility to move eight points ahead of Atletico and that is very good because we want to arrive in first place in the group. We have a great opportunity to do this. To get first place in the group we need 12 or 13 points so it is important to win on Wednesday.”

Chelsea will want to finish first because if they do it will mean that they will get an easier game in the first knock out stage of the Champions League. However, every match seems to be a tough one in the modern day and Athletico will still be entertaining their own ideas of reaching the later stages.

Chelsea should be able to welcome back Germany’s captain, Michael Ballack, but right back, Jose Bosingwa, will miss the match with a knee problem. Otherwise the Chelsea gauntlet should be at full strength and it will be full steam ahead as they look to carry on their Champions League quest.

Chelsea will probably still feel a little bit of heart break from the final defeat they suffered two years ago at the hands of Manchester United. This should be enough inspiration to spur them on this season and they will go out of their way to make sure that there are no repeats of any last minute goals, like the one that knocked them out at the semi-final stage last year.

Chelsea are capable of going all the way but they need to work very hard at keeping a level of consistency that will allow them to compete with the better sides in the competition.