Chelsea boss Thomas Tuchel has promised his team will give everything in an unlikely attempt to reel in Premier League pacesetters Manchester City and Liverpool.
The Blues made light of the off-field issues surrounding the club on Saturday evening to ease their way into the FA Cup semi-finals with a comfortable 2-0 sixth round victory at Championship Middlesbrough.
They will hope their ongoing ownership issues are resolved by the time they run out at Wembley next month and in the meantime, will set about the task of attempting to close a 10-point gap to the second-placed Reds, who trail the reigning champions by a single point.
Asked if they could still involve themselves in the race, Tuchel, whose side have lost only once in 14 games in all competitions – on penalties to Liverpool in the Carabao Cup final – said: “The problem is they are also on a run since a long time.
“They are like three years on a run, I have the feeling, it seems like they are three years on a run and it’s like our 13 games is not enough.
“We have to be honest. We will never admit anything before things are decided, we will always push ourselves and push ourselves to the limit. We cannot do anything else.
“But we should not get carried away. Two teams took advantage of our problems, so full credit to them and they deserve where they are and we need to make sure to catch as many points as possible.”
Chelsea’s latest win, their sixth in succession, came in regulation style on Teesside as first-half goals from Romelu Lukaku and birthday boy Hakim Ziyech sent them into game-management mode.