Antonio Conte says Chelsea must keep fighting for a Champions League place until the end of the season, having closed the gap to fourth-placed Tottenham to five points.
The Blues have struggled to keep place with the Premier League’s top four in recent weeks, but they started to make up ground on Spurs as they beat Burnley on Thursday – 48 hours after Mauricio Pochettino’s men were held by Brighton and Hove Albion.
And while Conte acknowledges it will be difficult to catch their London rivals, he insists there remains “the possibility”.
Editors' Picks
Sarri vindicated for dropping Kepa as Chelsea & Pedro impress in Spurs win Magnificent Mane takes centre stage as league leaders Liverpool put on a five-star show Lukaku sends reminder that his Man Utd career is far from over Man City monitoring Barcelona & Chelsea target Jovic
“There is a gap between us and Tottenham – we are talking about five points and there are four games to go,” he said ahead of facing Southampton, who they beat 3-2 in the Premier League last weekend, in the FA Cup semi-finals. “It won’t be easy.
“You depend on the other results and, at the same time, you have to try to get three points in every game.
“The only way we can keep the hope until the end is to play with the same desire, the same will that we showed against Burnley and in the second half against Southampton.
“Maybe with this desire, with this will to fight, this will to get a result, we have the possibility [to reach the top four].”
Chelsea were beaten by Arsenal in last season’s FA Cup final and Conte is hopeful they can reach the showpiece again.
“We must always have great motivation to finish the season as strongly as possible,” he said.
“We have this opportunity to play at Wembley and to win against Southampton to play an important final for the second time in a row.”