Chelsea manager Carlo Ancelotti will not be making any hasty signings following his side’s disappointing pre-season as he feels the side will hit top form (Chelsea 13/8 – Premier League Outright) once his World Cup players get back to peak fitness.

The Blues boss was remaining calm after witnessing his double-winning side crash to a 3-1 defeat against Manchester United in the Community Shield at Wembley on Sunday. It was the fourth successive defeat for the west Londoners in pre-season and raised some question marks about their chances of retaining the Premier League title ahead of their opening game against West Brom (Chelsea 1/7, West Brom 11/1, draw 11/2 – 90 Minutes) this Saturday evening.

However Ancelotti, who is thought to be close to snapping up Ramires, has so far only signed Yossi Benayoun this summer. And, despite calls his squad could do with further strengthening, the Italian tactician is happy with his lot and just feels the players who returned to training late following their World Cup exploits are still slightly short of fitness.

“Fortunately, it’s pre-season,” he said. “I think that there is time to come back to win.”

He added: “It was not a good pre-season for results. We lost four games but I think we did our best.

“We need for the players who came back on July 26 to have more time to train.”

Ancelotti is pleased that the likes of John Terry and Frank Lampard will feature in England’s international friendly against Hungary to help boost their fitness levels.

“The England players are very close to being fit,” he said.

“It’s good for them to play an international game. They could play 70 minutes without a problem.”

In the meantime Ancelotti felt his side did need to improve on their display against United at Wembley on Sunday ahead of the big kick-off this weekend.

He added: “We have to have more time in possession.”

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