Florent Malouda aims to seize chance at Chelsea

Carlo Ancelotti has urged those fringe players thrust into the Chelsea first-team during the Africa Cup of Nations to seize their opportunity as the logic behind the Italian's reluctance to buy in January becomes apparent. Florent Malouda expressed his frustration at a bit-part role in a meeting with his manager ahead of the Premier League game at Birmingham City on Boxing Day. The France international, who still hopes to be involved in the summer's World Cup finals, started Sunday's FA Cup third-round match against Watford in which Yuri Zhirkov and Daniel Sturridge also prospered, justifying Ancelotti's decision not to dip into the market but, instead, offer his squad the chance to impress. "We had a meeting, as a manager and a player would, and I spoke about my frustrations about not appearing in the big games," said Malouda. "It's just that it is a World Cup year and I have ambitions with the French team and want to start the big games. As I said to the coach, there are choices to be made. He told me I have to take my opportunity now. That's what I tried to do from the beginning of the season, and I will try to do it until the end of the season. That's the situation." Chelsea are braced to be without their quartet of African players – Didier Drogba, Michael Essien, Mikel John Obi and Salomon Kalou – for up to four Premier League matches over the next month and, while there is potentially money available for Ancelotti to spend this month, the Italian was already conscious of the disruption new arrivals might have within the squad before his meeting with Malouda. Those fringe first-team players would stand even less chance of featuring should signings be made. "It could be a question of upsetting the balance of the squad," said the Chelsea manager. "But we think this squad is good enough, and this period is now an opportunity for the players." Malouda was impressive against Watford, though the real test of his ability to maintain a first-team place will come in the Premier League games ahead. Chelsea lead the table by only two points from Manchester United and Arsenal can cut their lead to one by beating Bolton Wanderers on Wednesday – though Ancelotti's squad believe that the chasing pack may have missed an opportunity. Chelsea's narrow victory over Fulham on 28 December was only their second in the league in six matches, yet they have retained top place with the likes of United unable to capitalise. "If they [the chasing pack] had won all their games it might have been different," said Malouda. "When you start the season you know there will be difficult moments when you drop points. We had one of those in December, but so did everybody else. What is important is that you keep trying to play the same way. That is the key. We were struggling against Birmingham and Fulham, and it was really difficult, but even then we picked up four points out of six. We looked at the other clubs and saw they were struggling too. "Having a big squad might create problems for the manager, but it is also our strength. Everybody is ready to compete and ready to help the club reach our targets. We want to win everything we can win, and to do that we need everybody. I think that is the difference between this year and last year. We have players with character, big leaders in John Terry, Didier Drogba, Michael Ballack and Frank Lampard. We all analyse and pick out when things are going wrong, and that helps you stay focused."