Carlo Ancelotti’s name was mud only last weekend when we discovered that he’d opted to leave Didier Drogba on the bench, despite the Italian’s assurances that he would start at Old Trafford. Today Ancelotti has reclaimed a few brownie points by opening up his physio room and giving us some welcome updates on two key players.

Branislav Ivanovic is the first name of significance. The Serbian defender has been sidelined for three weeks having sustained a knee injury against Blackburn. He is apparently back in contention now though and likely to feature on the bench against Villa in the weekend Cup semi. Ivanovic can now come back into our thinking for Chelsea’s remaining league matches. Ancelotti’s defence have three Stamford Bridge dates to come – against Bolton, Stoke and Wigan; all three look decent clean sheet candidates. Ivanovic has recently seen his Fantasy Premier League value drop from a peak of 6.1 to a current price of 5.8.

Ashley Cole is further away from the starting eleven but today’s latest on Chelsea’s official site pencils him in for the home game with Stoke on April 25. That gives Yuri Zhirkov just another couple of games as an assured starter, denting his fantasy potential rather considerably.

Carlo was also kind enough to confirm that he would go with an unchanged defence and midfield against Villa, presumably with Drogba coming back into his attack. Ancelotti’s new habit of announcing his lineup is a nice little late season development, providing he doesn’t pull another Drogba incident on us.