Ancelotti ruled out any outside appointment, including reported targets Gianfranco Zola and Paolo Maldini, after Wilkins was sacked yesterday midway through a reserve-team game against Bayern Munich.

The 54-year-old was given his marching orders by chief executive Ron Gourlay in a meeting that had been organised earlier that morning.

But as the focus switched to a replacement for Wilkins, the Italian coach confirmed the club are not looking to appoint anyone from outside the club.

"I read in the Italian papers that I want to take Italian assistants, but this is not true," confirmed Ancelotti.

"I have fantastic assistants in Paul Clement and Steve Holland. I have a lot of assistants within the club. It will be someone from within, not from outside. I'm sure it won't be an Italian.

"I have a fantastic relationship with Ray and I'll maintain that. I don't have a problem. He doesn't have a problem. The club has made a decision.

"We will maintain the same kind of training at the club. We don't want to change it. We have a possibility to continue to work how we worked last season. I think the staff are able to maintain the same job without Ray.

"Nobody will forget what Ray did for this club. No one would. I don't think this decision shows disrespect for Ray. Everyone has respect for Ray."

Chelsea have also lost the services of midfielder Frank Lampard for another three weeks.

Lampard was recovering from hernia and tendon injuries when he injured his adductor in a training session on Thursday and is out of the game against Sunderland at Stamford Bridge tomorrow.

"It is a different problem," said Ancelotti.

"He had a problem before with the tendon on his hamstring.

"Obviously he's not happy because he'd like to play. He played a lot of games last season and over the course of his career, and now he's not happy.

"But he has strength. Now he has to rest before starting to train next week. It's not been a problem of him doing things too quickly. We were patient and took time putting him into the training session."

Chelsea are also without defender Alex who has failed to recover from his knee injury but Nicolas Anelka is back after missing the Fulham win with a back problem.

Midfielder Michael Essien starts his three-match ban for his red card against Fulham in midweek.