Calm Ancelotti opts for continuity as Marseille visit

Chelsea FC welcome Olympique de Marseille off the back of their first league defeat this season at Manchester City FC on Saturday but manager Carlo Ancelotti is not making any radical changes as he faces a side coached by his former Juventus charge Didier Deschamps. For his part, the Frenchman is relishing a return to Stamford Bridge ten years after his season there as a player.

Carlo Ancelotti, Chelsea manager
We have to pay attention; Marseille need points from this game because they lost their first match, but I don't need to see a reaction from my players [after losing on Saturday]. Marseille are a good team. They have good organisation and attacking play and are quick. From the start I wouldn't change anything about how we line up and we have good players on the bench who will be able to come on if necessary.

Deschamps was a player of mine for six months at Juventus. I have a very good relationship with him. He is having a fantastic career in management, did very well with Monaco to get them to the final of the Champions League and won the title last year. I am very happy to meet him tomorrow and maybe I will offer him a glass of wine – Italian wine, though, not French!

Didier Deschamps, Marseille coach
Chelsea are a European power and always one of the favourites to win this tournament. It's totally different to when I was here. Roman Abramovich brought in lots of investment in terms of buying players and the fantastic training facilities at Cobham; we didn't have anything like that in my day. It really has added another dimension to the Chelsea I used to know and has allowed them to take a seat at the top table of European football. I've got great memories of my time here. You played in front of a full stadium every week and the fans were right behind you no matter what.

Those few months I spent working with [Ancelotti] were very special. He was a great guy to work with and it will be nice to catch up with him again. You could say that Chelsea are a superior team on paper but football isn't played on paper. The worst thing we could do is to come here and try to defend. What's important is that we play our own game and not settle on staying back. We want to cause them problems as well and give a good account of ourselves.

Team news
• Chelsea
Yossi Benayoun (calf) and Salomon Kalou (thigh) have been ruled out for three weeks, while Frank Lampard has not played since a hernia operation at the end of August. José Bosingwa has not featured since October 2009, when he suffered a knee injury. Former Marseille player Didier Drogba is suspended.

• Marseille
For the first time this season Deschamps has a fully-fit squad at his disposal, though Leyti N'Diaye has not played since injuring his shoulder in training with Senegal on 2 September.

Weekend results
25/09/10 Manchester City FC 1-0 Chelsea
(Tévez 59)
Chelsea's 100% start to the Premier League season was ended by Carlos Tévez's sixth goal in his last six matches against the Blues. The defeat was Chelsea's first in the league since a 2-1 loss at Tottenham Hotspur FC on 17 April.

25/09/10 Marseille 2-1 FC Sochaux-Montbéliard
(Taiwo 19, Lucho 61; Maurice-Belay 76)
Souleymane Diawara made his first league appearance of the season, fit-again Loïc Rémy made his home debut and left-back Taye Taiwo opened the scoring with his third Ligue 1 goal this term. He has registered three times in each of his last four league seasons.

Did you know?
The sides' only previous meetings came in the second group stage of Chelsea's debut UEFA Champions League campaign in 1999/2000. They beat Marseille 1-0 at Stamford Bridge through a Dennis Wise goal while the French side turned round that scoreline in the return with Robert Pirès getting the winner. That was OM's only victory in the section while Chelsea reached the quarter-finals, eventually losing to FC Barcelona.

For more information see the match background.