Rafa Benitez adament Chelsea will catch up with League leaders

Rafa Benitez has insisted that Chelsea are very much in the Premier League title race.

Chelsea could be a huge 16 points behind PL leaders Manchester United by the time they play Aston Villa next Sunday, all be it with two games in-hand.

Rafa is currently in Japan, preparing his Chelsea squad for the World Club Cup final tomorrow, vying to be called World Club Champions. Chelsea face Corinthians at 10:30 AM GMT.

Benitez spoke to the press in Japan, on the reported ‘two-horse race,’ saying: “I’ve been asked if it’s a two-horse race now and I know that people want to create that story, but it’s not like that.

“Neither United nor City look unbeatable and no team is going to run away with the championship, so if you win two of three games in a row, then you will have more confidence.

“If we win here and play like we did against Monterrey in the semi-final of this competition, this team can go on to win games in a row easily. How many? I don’t know, but if you win three or four in a row, confidence will be so high.

“I will be able to see if I can do it here after our Premier League match against Aston Villa next Sunday. If we can do against Villa what we have done here, play at the same level, it will start building that confidence.

“At Valencia we were well behind, eight points down in January or February, but I told the players that they would go on to win the league.

“The way we trained was key and, with the way we train here, I’m confident we will be better and better every single week.

“At the moment, I do not have that time to work with the team as much as I would like. Every session I can just do possession and the idea of keeping tempo, but if we have a week it will make a massive difference.

“Three hard sessions to adjust things and you will see a difference. Already this team plays better, especially the defence.”

It has been evident over the past week that we have been playing with a lot more confidence, dominating games. The fact that Fernando Torres is scoring again is a catalyst of that, and I think Chelsea are well over the worst of it.

I would love for us to win the league this season, but we are currently some way away from that. I believe we will catch up with the Manchester clubs and could be a part of the biggest three-way dog fight for the title ever.