Set-piece problems plague Blues

The Blues extended their lead at the Premier League summit to two points after a 1-1 draw with Hull at the KC Stadium on Tuesday night, but their ongoing difficulties at deadball situations were exposed. Steven Mouyokolo put the Tigers ahead as he left the Chelsea defence for dead to head home a Stephen Hunt corner after half an hour. Then, just moments after Didier Drogba equalised with his 20th goal of the season, Anthony Gardner missed a glorious chance to make it 2-1 after getting on the end of Tom Cairney's free-kick. Chelsea have been struggling all season from similar situations and Ancelotti admitted it was a concern. "We know about it. I know very well how many goals we have (conceded) from set pieces," said the Italian. "Every team here in England has a very good jumper and a very good striker and it can happen that you concede a goal. "How we score, sometimes we can concede. "I think we did our best but it was a tough game and Hull played well and put a lot of pressure on us." Despite dropping two points to a side who remain stuck in the bottom three, Ancelotti was far from downcast. "We don't have to be disappointed, sometimes it can happen that we draw. But we have two points at the top of the table and we have to look forward," he added. "We are in a good position, we are top and we know Manchester United are a very good opponent. It will be a long race until the end of the season but for now we are happy to be two points ahead. "Every game now is very, very important. Every game can decide the future of the season." Ancelotti also admitted last night that captain John Terry may be granted a leave of absence when his side face Cardiff in the FA Cup on February 13 following allegations about his private life, though a final decision has yet to be made. Brown earlier confirmed his side had worked hard on exposing the visitors' weaknesses. "It's my job to investigate how to score goals against Chelsea and they've conceded something like nine out of 10 of their goals, or something like that, from set pieces," he said. "If that's the Achilles heel for Chelsea then we have to exploit it." Brown will also have been buoyed by the performance of Republic of Ireland winger Hunt, who caused Branislav Ivanovic plenty of problems on the flank little more than 24 hours after the Tigers rejected a deadline day £5million bid from Wolves. "The chairman has done that, he's proved he wants this club to stay in the Premier League," said Brown. "Five million is a lot for a player, especially when you just paid £2.5million for him at the start of the season. "When it went to £5million the chairman asked me the question and I said I didn't want to sell him at all, that's the right kind of message to send to everybody."