CARLO Ancelotti insists he will not be rushed into buying new players in January, even though the Court of Arbitration for Sport has suspended their transfer ban.

CAS agreed yesterday to suspend their FIFA-imposed transfer ban until a final decision is made in relation to their appeal.

FIFA banned the Blues from any transfer activity until 2011 after they were found guilty of inducing teenage Gael Kakuta to breach his contract with French club Lens.

Chelsea appealed to CAS against the punishment and also requested the ban be suspended until their case had been dealt with in full.

That is now likely to take place well into the new year.

The Blues will lose Michael Essien, Didier Drogba, Salomon Kalou and John Mikel Obi to the African Nations Cup in January but Ancelotti remains confident they can cope without them.

“Now, thanks to this decision we have time to look for new players,” said Ancelotti.

“But we don’t want to take a decision in this moment. At the moment, I’m very happy with the squad, these players, and it’s not necessary at the moment to take new players.

“I know we will lose four in January but if we maintain the players’ fitness we can do a good period also without the African players.

“Now our focus is on the game on Sunday. We can buy players in January, but now we have other questions to answer.

It’s not important now what we can do in January.”

Carlo Ancelotti has tried to play down the importance of his side’s meeting with Manchester United at Stamford Bridge tomorrow.

The Chelsea boss wants his side to extend their two-point lead over United at the top of the Barclays Premier League but has tried to calm the fervour surrounding the fixture.

‘‘Psychologically, it will not mean more,’’ said Ancelotti.

‘‘We have to play against a strong team. We will play against the second team in the list of the Premier League, but I think that it’s just a game that carries three points like the others.

‘‘It’s a very important game.

It’s important because we play against a fantastic team, but we know very well that it will be a very difficult match but also a very interesting one.’’ United will be without calf injury victim Rio Ferdinand but Ancelotti does not think Sir Alex Ferguson’s side will be vulnerable as a result.

‘‘I think Manchester United have a very good team,’’ added the Italian. Like us, they are doing very well because they have qualified in the Champions League and have done well in the Premier League.’’