I'm not saying we are going to be gung-ho

Last updated : 28 August 2009 By Tony Scholes
Owen Coyle has come face to face with one Welsh manager and two Scottish managers in the league games so far, but tomorrow he'll be opposite Italian Carlo Ancelotti who has taken over as Chelsea boss this summer.

Ancelotti will probably not have seen Burnley play, other than on television, but said today: "They like to play football and tomorrow will be a very good match, a spectacular match, and I don't think that they come to Stamford Bridge only to defend. I am impressed with this team and the quality of their play.

"I think that with Burnley it is important to take control of the game. They have good quality for attacking. They can use the wing, they can use the long ball, they can use the quality of their midfielders. It will be an open game.

Clarets' boss Owen Coyle confirmed Ancelotti's thoughts and said he would not be going to defend. "I always felt that when I had my team, that whoever we were playing against we would always look to try to win the game," Coyle said.

"I'm not saying we are going to be gung-ho. We will look to have a nice shape, but if we do have possession we will look to commit players forward.

"I think if you set up defensively, ultimately the qualities of the Chelseas, Manchester Uniteds and Liverpools means they will pick you off anyway and you will end up losing the game having contributed nothing. I would much rather have a real go at the game and if it is 2-0 or 3-0 at least you've tried to win the game.

"When Burnley play these top clubs there won't be a result every time you play against them, you know that. But I think you have to go into every game knowing that you are going to try and be positive and if you get the ball commit players forward.

"We know that we are expected to get turned over and then some, but we have to go into it knowing that if we get to our best we've got a chance."

He continued: "We will have supporters who have travelled far and wide, worked all week and paid decent sums of money to come and watch. Now will they want to come and watch a team with eleven men behind the ball and not offer anything to the game? I don't think so.

"As much as we want to stay in the Premier League, which is our priority, I still think we have an obligation to try and entertain and win games while doing that."

Coyle looked back at the Carling Cup game at Chelsea last season and said: "We played Fulham at home but to go to Chelsea was a different matter. They paid us a lot of respect because the Lampards and the Drogbas all played.

"We went a goal down and at the start of the second half I turned to Sandy Stewart and said whatever way it goes, even if it is three or four nil, I was so please because we were still carrying the game to them.

"That was a big, big moment in the season. It told us that we had the spirit. It had been evident up to that but we knew then we had a realistic chance. We had always believed it, but it's one think believing it, it's another to actually deliver it.

"We knew game by game that we were getting stronger and there's no doubt that Chelsea game set us up well for the rest of the season."