Emmanuel Petit believes Chelsea can be a ‘threat’ in the Premier League title race given their form and enticing run of fixtures to come.
Goals from Nicolas Jackson and Enzo Fernandez gave the Blues a deserved win at the King Power Stadium.
Jordan Ayew’s injury-time penalty gave the visitors a late scare but they held on to seal the three points and – temporarily at least – close the gap to Liverpool and Manchester City at the top of the table.
Enzo Maresca’s side have already played six of the current top eight so far this season but have lost just one of their last 11 in the league since an opening-day defeat to City.
And with their attacking quartet on song and the defence slowly improving, Petit feels the Blues could be a dark horse in this year’s title race.
‘They’ve played all those games so far against top teams and they are third – only six points behind Liverpool,’ the former Arsenal midfielder told Premier League Productions.
‘They played very tough games at the start of the season – Manchester City in their first game. I still believe when I look at the schedule, especially starting from January – they are all winnable.
‘If they can continue until Christmas time with what they are doing, they will be a big threat in the title race.’
Speaking after the game, Blues boss Enzo Maresca was full of praise for his side but singled out Fernandez for his contribution.
‘Enzo did really well today. He is doing very well since we started,’ the Italian said. ‘The same as I said many times for Joao Felix, the problem is it depends on the game plan; we use different kind of players.
‘Today I thought was the right game to use Enzo even if he was back from international duty [late]. I think he did very well.
‘I’m trying to convince Enzo in the same way as I did last year with Ndidi and Kiernan [Dewsbury-Hall] that attacking midfielders need to arrive in the box.
‘The reason why he scored today was because he was inside the box and if he was outside of the box, he wouldn’t have scored the goal. We are happy in the way Enzo is doing.’
Chelsea face Heidenheim in the Conference League before a tricky home fixture against Aston Villa next weekend.
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