Frank Lampard has become the first Chelsea player to welcome Carlo Ancelotti to Chelsea, and has expressed his excitement at the club's future.

The 20-goal midfielder is currently in Kazakhstan on England duty, but was able to speak about the incoming Italian's appointment at Stamford Bridge.

'Everything that has come back about him has been completely positive, as a man and as a manager,' Lampard said. 'I've seen that from afar and it's nice to hear that from everyone, all us Chelsea lads here are very excited about the future.'

Since Ancelotti was announced as our new manager on Monday, we have been linked with bringing a number of top players to west London, and Lampard believes things are looking bright.

'[It is] very exciting and that's what we want. In the last two years we've been very close to things but not quite winning them. We've got a very strong group at Chelsea anyway, but to see us linked with those names and that quality of player, I don't want to go into individuals, but the intention seems there from Chelsea, with the manager,' he explained.

'I think the fact we're looking at that calibre of players, our squad's very strong, and if we can add one or two of those names then we'll look forward to next season and challenging again for the league and Champions League and everything.'

The 30-year-old is joined in Almaty by Ashley Cole and captain John Terry, both pivotal parts of the side that won the FA Cup at Wembley on Saturday. He believes that success can help spread confidence elsewhere in the England squad.

'I hope so. A huge part of football is confidence and we obviously bring confidence and a winning feeling with us which is nice for all of us Chelsea boys. Even the Man United boys who lost the Champions League Final must take great credit and confidence from the way they played this season.

'Hopefully the glories we had last week will help but generally as a group we are confident,' he added, 'you learn to switch off from club football to country football as soon as you get here. We're together and confident and that's the main thing at the moment. Everyone is fit and fresh and whether they have won or lost cup finals with their club teams they are very focused.'

Fabio Capello has overseen England's best ever start to a World Cup qualifying campaign with five straight wins. Lampard is convinced two wins this coming week against Kazakhstan and Andorra will be a huge step towards South Africa 2010, but insists England must be better than in the 5-1 home win against the Kazakhstanis last October.

'We were not at our best in that game and will have to be more concentrated on Saturday. We have watched a re-run of the Wembley game to refresh our minds about how we performed in that game,' he said.

'If we can get six points in those two games we know we will take a huge step towards qualification for next summer's finals.'