Carlo Ancelotti was pleased to bring three points back to London after a battling display at Wolves, and dedicated the victory to a cherished staff member.

A Didier Drogba goal in either half was enough to earn the win despite a disjointed display in the West Midlands, at the end of which the players removed their shirts to reveal a 'Get Well Bulldog' message - a show of support for players' assistant Frank Steer, who had heart bypass surgery this week.

'It is our friend and one of our staff who at this moment has a problem and is in hospital. We hope he will come back quickly to our training ground,' Ancelotti said afterwards, before reflecting on his side's afternoon.

'Tough game, very difficult and what is very important is to win this game after the defeat of Manchester,' the Italian said, referring to United's 3-1 loss at Everton. 'We had a possibility to improve our table and we did.

'Wolverhampton made a very good game and we didn't play so well but we had good spirit and battled for every ball, I think we deservd to win,' he continued. 'Now our table is better but we have to pay attention and there will be a lot of games until the end of the season and nothing is decided.

The win owed much to the form of Petr Cech, who made two superb stops to keep Wolves at bay.

'He did a fantastic save when we were up 1-0, it was very important and did a fantastic assist for Didier in the second goal,' Ancelotti said. 'We wanted to improve our performance but we stayed in focus and were concentrated, it was an important win.'

We now move into an important week, with the Champions League resuming on Wednesday against Inter, and Manchester City visiting Stamford Bridge on Saturday.

'Now starts the Champions League, another aim for us. We want to do our best,' Ancelotti confirmed. 'It will be a fantastic evening in Milan because Inter and Chelsea are very good teams.'

We enter the game with question marks hanging over a number of players' fitness, the latest being Yury Zhirkov who was forced off before the hour mark this afternoon.

'Now we have some problems with the full-backs because we have out Ashley Cole and Belletti, but we hope that for the next game Zhirkov can play,' the manager said. 'Zhirkov had a problem on his calf, it is tight and he can recover in two or three days for the next game. Carvalho will be ready for Milan, Lampard also and we hope also Alex. '