What kind of reception do you think Carlo Ancelotti will get on Sunday?
A very good one, he's very well respected in house and to the fans.
We all respect his period at the club. A gentleman, a fantastic manager, I loved working with
him personally and he'll get a great reception.
What that your best season under him?
I'm not sure. It was a good season.
What was he like as a manager?
A great man-manager, really great on a personal level great at striking up relationships with
the players, to try to get the best out of them.
Very good tactically, a really calm manner, never too high, never too low.
And someone I really enjoyed working with, we had a very successful year in that first
year to win the double. And from then on I've kept in touch with him now and again.
And I have huge respect for him.
Surprised he was sacked in his second season at Chelsea?
Not surprised, no this is football, these thingshappen all over the world in elite football. So no
Coronavirus, games could be played behind closed doors. How will that affect you?
It wouldn't affect anything in terms of preparation, you'll take on the opposition in front of
you. It would obviously affect the atmosphere clearly.
We'll have to see. But that takes away a lot from the game without the fans in the stadium.
It's part of why we love the sport here, because of what that generates.
But there are some things that are more important clearly, and if that's the path that gets
chosen by the authorities, the government, then you would go with that.
Anything changed for you behind the scenes?
We're not shaking hands, we're following the protocol that's recommended.
We're doing everything that we can with our ears open as things change.
Olivier Giroud said that he wanted to stay this Sunday?
I keep saying the same with every player, the destiny is in their own hands to a degree
with contract situations. I'm not jumping ahead to the summer on any
player. We've got a big job in front of us now to
try to do as well as we can in the league, the FA Cup, the Champions League when we travel to Munich.
to play with pride for the club and that's all.
Billy Gilmour, how has he been after the performance on Tuesday night?
The same. The same. We had a day off. So I'm sure he enjoyed it, he should do, his family
were here for the game. Knowing Billy, even at a young age he's a
very determined young lad, he's very smart. He'll understand it was a very good game for
him, but that the hard work starts now. I think he should quite rightly enjoy the
moment, and I'm delighted for him. But in terms of how I've seen him around the
place, it's the same attitude, same training, same ethics, same quality, so all good.
Injury news... how are Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Christian Pulisic?
We've just had an in-house game here, that Ruben and Christian Pulisic took part in.
Great to see Christian get some minutes, he's still short of match fitness, but it's the
first time the injury's gone up to a level to get him on a big pitch in a relatively
competitive match, so it's a big step forward hopefully.
I'll found out how it went later, but I just watched it.
And Ruben played half of that game himself, and is trying to find match fitness. He's
short of that, and Ruben's saying that himself and I can see that.
So there's work to be done with Ruben.
Tammy Abraham, will he be back before end of month?
I hope so. He's not training with us at the moment.
Callum Hudson-Odoi, a set-back with his hamstring injury?
He had a re-injury, yesterday. We're having a scan on him this afternoon. So he will be
longer than expected.
A frustrating time for Hudson-Odoi?
It's tough, he wasn't rushed back, we had all the signs that he was fit to train. Then
he re-injured it on his first training session with us.
So it's frustrating for him definitely, a young boy who's keen to play as you'd expect.
And it's frustrating because it's another injury to us.
It hasn't been spoken about that much, but we've had probably the worst injury list of
certainly the top group of the table I think, lots of numbers injured, important players
injured, Kante, Loftus-Cheek et cetera. We started the season that way and it's happened
again in the middle of the season. And we're working against that to try to get
the best results.
Mateo Kovacic and Willian?
Kovacic isn't fit, his Achilles injury will take him out of the weekend, but hopefully
it will not be long after that. And Willian we are assessing, he's a question-mark
for Sunday.