Chelsea
midfielder Nemanja Matic has refuted the suggestion they are title
favourites despite Saturday's 1-0 victory at Crystal Palace securing an 11th
consecutive league win.
Diego Costa's headed goal at Selhurst Park ensured Antonio Conte's side
equalled a club-record run set in the 2009-10 season under Carlo Ancelotti
and surpassed another under Jose Mourinho in 2005-06.
Chelsea are guaranteed top spot over Christmas and in a strong position
going into the New Year with no European football to distract them but Matic
is not getting carried away with their progress.
"It is a long way to go," Matic said. "We are now almost halfway through the
season and we still have many hard games so we are not favourites, we are
just one of the teams that can now win the title.
"I am sure there are more than five teams that will try to catch us for
first position.
"We can improve of course. Sometimes when we are 1-0 up we have to find a
way to kill the game because 1-0 in the Premier League against a team like
Crystal Palace is very dangerous, because they can score at any time.
"They have good attacking players so I am sure that we can improve and that
he [Conte] knows what we have to do in the future.
"We are very happy because of our form. How we play is very good and our
confidence is high because to win 11 games in a row in the Premier League is
not easy.
"We are very happy especially because the last three games we played in a
week we won all nine points and I hope we will continue like this."
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