Left wing-back Marcos Alonso insists Chelsea cannot afford to take their foot off the pedal despite their excellent start to life under Thomas Tuchel.
Since the German chief replaced Frank Lampard towards the end of January at Stamford Bridge, the Blues have made an electrifying start to his tenure, going the first 11 games of his stewardship unbeaten, winning eight of them.
The Blues continued their impressive form on Monday evening with a comfortable 2-0 home win over fellow top-four challengers Everton, meaning they cemented their spot in fourth-place and moved four points clear of the Toffees in the table.
But although the win over Carlo Ancelotti's side maintained Chelsea's unbeaten start to the Tuchel era, Alonso has issued a rallying cry in the direction of his teammates, insisting that they have got to keep winning and striving for success.
"We are in a good position now but we have to keep winning games, and the only way to do that is to keep working hard," Alonso said, as quoted by Chelsea's club website.
"We are training well, working hard, but we need to take advantage of this momentum now and try to keep winning games and get closer to the top.
"Now we have another tough game on Saturday at Leeds. We just need to focus on having a good recovery and then be ready for that one."
The trip to Elland Road to lock horns with Leeds United will be another difficult test for Tuchel and his players, despite the Whites having lost three of their last four matches.
For Alonso, though, he will be determined to retain his place in the team for the trip to west Yorkshire as Tuchel has been renowned for rotating at left wing-back, regularly interchanging between Ben Chilwell and Alonso.
But after the Spaniard's performance against Everton, which featured in assist ahead of Kai Havertz's effort deflecting into the back of the net of Ben Godfrey, he will be looking to hold onto his starting berth.
On his own performance against the Toffees, Alonso added: "It is not easy to go through the middle, so I like to do these runs from wide to inside.
"I’m happy I got the assist and I am a little bit disappointed with that chance. I was close to scoring but I have to keep working and hopefully the next one will go in.
"When you are controlling the game like we did it gives you a little bit more freedom, but all we need to get together and defend well. That’s what we aim for, and that’s how it has to be to keep improving in the right way."
