Chelsea 5 Watford 0

CARLO Ancelotti is confident two-goal Daniel Sturridge can fill the void left by Didier Drogba’s departure for the African Nations Cup.

Drogba has scored 19 goals this season but the Ivory Coast striker, along with Salomon Kalou, Michael Essien and John Mikel Obi, will be missing for most of January.

Sturridge showed he can help Chelsea overcome Drogba’s absence with a superb double as FA Cup holders Chelsea despatched Watford 5-0 to reach the fourth round.

A John Eustace own goal and further strikes from Florent Malouda and Frank Lampard were sandwiched between Sturridge’s double.

They were his first goals for the club and Ancelotti was understandably pleased with Sturridge’s contribution, especially as Nicolas Anelka remains sidelined with a hamstring injury.

‘‘I am happy because it was important to start the new year well, and to play this game well,’’ said Ancelotti.

‘‘If we hadn’t taken the game in the right way, it could have been difficult. But we started well, played well and were 3-0 up after 20 minutes.

‘‘It was a good performance and Sturridge played very well. It’s important for us to have him in good condition because, without Drogba, it is important to have him in good condition.

‘‘He scored two goals and that’s important for a striker, to score. But he deserved that.

He played very well for the whole match.

‘‘This performance was very important for him. It’ll improve his confidence. He has a lot of potential and great quality, and he can show that on the pitch in January.

‘‘I think that we can do a good January, good performances without the African players. I had good answers about other players. Juliano Belletti played very well in central midfield. I think we can do good performances without the other African players.

‘‘My players know very well how important the FA Cup is for this club, for this country.

We want to do our best and arrive in the final. We won the FA Cup last year and we want to do the same. We want to put our best in this competition.’’ The Italian coach also revealed how he had spoken to Malouda after the France international had voiced his frustration at being left out of the side for top games.

Malouda had spoken out in French newspaper L’Equipe over the weekend, but Ancelotti said: ‘‘I spoke with Malouda before the game against Birmingham (Boxing Day) and explained my position to him.

‘‘He explained his position.

For me, that was finished then and there. After that, he spoke in the French press. But there’s no problem.

‘‘It’s normal that a player wants to play every game.

Above all, the important games. For us, for me, Malouda is an important player.

‘‘For me, every game is important and he plays a lot of games. I was a player and when I didn’t play, I was a little bit frustrated. It’s important, when a player doesn’t play, to have a good reaction.

Malouda is doing professional work.’’ Watford boss Malky Mackay had his afternoon ruined when Chelsea went 3-0 in front inside the opening 20 minutes.

‘‘To lose a goal in the first five minutes, from a scrappy corner, doesn’t help,’’ said Mackay.

‘‘It gives you an uphill battle.

You want to keep it as tight as possible, so that didn’t help. It’s hard. We’ve got to learn from that. We go back and watch the DVD and we’ll be honest with ourselves.’’