ESPN FC’s Alison Bender previews Chelsea’s clash with Manchester United, with Chelsea currently seven points atop the Premier League.
Chelsea midfielder Nemanja Matic believes his side have shown a title winning mentality in their last three matches as they close in on winning the Premier League’s top prize.
Jose Mourinho’s side have not been at their best in recent weeks, but unconvincing wins against Hull, Stoke and QPR have put them on the brink of winning the club’s first Premier League title since the 2009-10 season.
“The last three games were very difficult and we showed we have good character and we showed lots of qualities,” Matic told the Chelsea website.
“The game is 90 minutes so if you score in the first minute or the last minute it doesn’t matter, what matters is how many points you get from that game. Of course we always try to score early, but it is not always possible, although especially early in the season we scored a lot of times in the first 10 minutes.
“We still have seven games and maybe we start again to score in the beginning of the game, but every game is a different story.”
Matic accepts he has something of an unglamorous role in the Chelsea side, as he is charged with retrieving the ball and giving it to the more gifted attacking stars in Mourinho’s line-up.
The statistics confirm that Matic has made more tackles than any other player in the Premier League this season [79] and the Serbian hopes he is able to contribute to the Chelsea team dynamic.
“Maybe the reason is because we are attacking a lot and I am the player who has to win it when we lose the ball,” he added. “This is my job, get it back and give to my players to attack again.
“Midfielders not only in our team but all teams play the most passes. We control the game and this is very important, we have to pass and we have to be those players who decide when to attack and when to calm the game.”
Despite his huge influence in Chelsea’s successes this season, Matic has not scored in the Premier League since their 6-3 win against Everton back in August and he is keen to put that right in the final weeks of the campaign.
Matic scored with a spectacular acrobatic effort for Serbia against Portugal last month and he is hoping to repeat that kind of strike in his club colours.
“If the chance comes like this for Chelsea, I will try to score the same but it doesn’t matter,” he said. “I can score from just a yard. I will try to do it.”
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