Just a point separates Manchester City in fourth and us in sixth in the Premier League table ahead of the weekend slate, which includes our trip to Villa Park tomorrow evening.

It is set to be a race that goes down to the wire, and depending on English teams’ results in European competition this season, fifth place might also be enough for Champions League football next term.

At his media conference today, Maresca underlined Champions League qualification was the goal, and he also touched upon the broader ambitions at Chelsea.

‘I have been clear since day one,’ Maresca said. ‘I am not here to survive. I am here to win games and bring this club to fight for titles. I have said this many times.

‘The problem is, when you win games, you look humble, and when you don’t win games, you look like you lack ambition. Since day one when I joined this club, my intention is to win games, win titles, and bring this club to where it deserves to be.

‘I am ambitious, the club is ambitious. We have the same manager, the same players, the same owners and the same sporting directors as two months ago when we were second in the league. The only thing that changed is we are dealing with many injuries, and this has affected the level of the team a little bit.’

‘We have said many times that we have spent almost the whole season in the top four,’ stressed Maresca.

‘Now we have just 13 games to go, so for sure the target for us is to finish in the top four. We are going to try to do our best to achieve that, knowing the most important reason for the difficult moment we have now is because of the injury situation. We are going to try our best to win games, even with the amount of injuries we have.'

Maresca says it is only natural the mood in the camp has also been affected by our form, but he is confident his players will come out the other side stronger for it.

‘The team spirit for sure in this moment has to be upset,’ said Maresca.

‘We are upset because we are not happy with the results we have at this moment. We are all aware we are in a club where I said at the beginning, we are not here to survive, we are here to win games and come back to win titles.

‘I have tried to convince the players they are the same players that for 19 or 20 games were in the top four for most of the season. Now it’s a bad run. We need to deal with that, embrace that, and for sure after this moment they are going to be better players and better professionals.’