Chelsea defender Andreas Christensen has warned the Blues are ready to build on the resurgence that has lifted them back into the top four.
Thomas Tuchel’s men beat Newcastle on Monday night to land their fourth Premier League win on the spin and move into a Champions League place for the first time since December.
Christensen, back in the side after losing his place under Frank Lampard, said: “We had a little dip. But I think when the group came together we had one goal
“It is not just aiming for top three or top four whatever, we just wanted to get back on track and we knew if we did that anything was possible. At the moment we are getting the wins. We might not play beautiful football for 90 minutes, but we are getting there.
“ Manchester City are flying at the moment. But again now we are in the top four, we obviously want to stay there, and make sure we play Champions League again.
“I have played four games in a row now, it has been a while since I have done that.
“All the manager says is just be comfortable. If you don’t need to play the ball, you don’t have to. Wait for someone to come and take the ball, don’t take last second decisions, know what you’re going to do and make it happen.
“He has basically told us to be comfortable. To believe in ourselves.”
Man of the match Timo Werner bagged his first Premier League strike in 14 games during Monday’s win while £71million keeper Kepa recorded another clean sheet as begins to rebuild the belief he’d lost under Tuchel’s predecessor.
Christensen said: “Yes, maybe Timo needed that. He always works hard and I think the team appreciates that. That's all we ask of him and that he keeps going.
“But I think it was more important for him personally to get his goal and keep scoring.
“Sooner or later it was going to happen. Even the amount of chances he has, he always pops up in the right places, so we knew he was going to get the chances, it was just a matter of time. Hopefully this was just the start.”
Tuchel maintained after Monday’s win that Eduoard Mendy remains his first choice keeper but Christensen believes Kepa’s confidence will pay dividends as both men compete for the no.1 jersey.
“I think he made a couple of good saves against Newcastle,” he said. “That was important for his self esteem and also for the group. It was nice to see him out there. We felt comfortable, even though I think we needed him two times in the second half.”
