Grant backs Blues to bridge gap

CHELSEA manager Avram Grant is confident Manchester United will drop enough points to make next month’s visit to Stamford Bridge a significant moment in the race for the Premier League title.

United boast a five-point advantage over Chelsea, who moved into second place thanks to Sunday’s 1-0 win over Middlesbrough and are a point better off than Arsenal.

The champions are due in London on Saturday, April 26 and Grant predicted that his side would still be hunting down United – just as they have already done with Arsenal and Liverpool.

He said: “I don’t think that each of the three teams will take all the points. Since I’ve been here, we’ve been chasing after other teams. First it was five teams, then four. We’ve gone past Liverpool and now Arsenal. We have to keep winning and hoping that, when United come here, it will be important.”

For that to happen Chelsea must first overcome a fixture congestion problem brought on by television schedules, with a home clash against Wigan on Monday, April 14 then followed by a trip to Everton 72 hours later. Chelsea have vowed to carry on campaigning to have the Everton game moved back to its original April 19 slot.

Chelsea’s main priority this week is to return from Istanbul tomorrow night with a favourable score from their Champions League quarter-final first leg with Fenerbahce. The two teams have never met before in European competition but midfielder Michael Essien can boast a 100% record against the Turkish champions having played against them while at Lyon.

He said: “We won both games so I have a good record against them and I hope we can keep that up. Their home ground is a special place and the atmosphere can be fantastic. Their fans are very noisy so we will just have to close our ears, focus on our own game and do all we can to keep a clean sheet.”

That they managed to shut out Middlesbrough was largely down to luck as Gareth Southgate’s side hit the woodwork no fewer than three times in the second half.

Substitute Afonso Alvez was the main culprit, striking a post and then the bar after he had planted a free header wide, as Boro left London knowing they could have replicated their 1-1 draw at Arsenal earlier in the month at the very least.

Southgate, who expects to lose striker Mido for the rest of the season due to a hernia operation, challenged his players to be more ruthless in future.