Essien: Carlo's been brilliant!

Michael Essien has taken time to speak of the way he has been playing so far this season and of boss Carlo Ancelotti and has nothing but praise for the Italian, which is always great to hear. Essien said:

Carlo Ancelotti has totally changed my style of play. He has given me more freedom, I have more chances to score goals and I feel more comfortable than ever about my game.

He's been brilliant, not only in winning the Premier League for Chelsea but also in his relationship with the players.

People believed we would play an Italian game but he's mixed the best concepts of continental play with what we offer naturally as players and we have become very difficult to beat.

It's great. I suffered last season because I could only watch and not help out but now I want to march on and win more titles, especially the Champions League.

We are the favourites for the Premier League again. The race will be interesting and emotive but we confirmed our chances of retaining the title from the very first day of the season."

Essien has it spot on in my book. You see that's the thing when you have an Italian manager come to your club, you believe the sterotype of the Italian mentality in their game. You think their mentality would be to defend first, remain solid and nick a 1-0 or 2-0 win.

If you are a regular reader of my blog you will know that ever since we made the switch back to 4-3-3 after Blackburn away last season, you can see that Carlo has also focused on our attacking play and you have to say no matter who you support that we have been impressive.

This season someone such as Michael Essien who missed out on last season, has flourished so far and has really picked up his form from where he left off. Once Frank Lampard is back next to him I can only see things getting better and better for Essien and for Carlo's Chelsea this season.

KTBFFH.