Chelsea must 'win ugly' to close gap on United, says Branislav Ivanovic - The Guardian

Branislav Ivanovic has urged Chelsea to "win ugly" and go on a run of victories to restore confidence as Rafael Benítez's side attempt to catch Manchester United, who top the Premier League and lead the west London club by 13 points.

The gap could be stretched to 16 points by the time Chelsea host Aston Villa at 4pm on Sunday and Ivanovic said: "We know that [we have been inconsistent] and we are still building this side. Sometimes it is very difficult for us to keep growing but the more time we have on the pitch the better we will become. It is important for us to sometimes win ugly as that develops belief and confidence in the players. I think that is what we have to do. We now have three days to prepare for a very important game against Aston Villa which will be a very hard game."

Chelsea beat Leeds United 5-1 in Wednesday evening's Capital Cup quarter-final at Elland Road after trailing 1-0 at the break to bounce back from losing the Club World Cup final to Corinthians in Japan on Sunday.

Of the win over Leeds, Ivanovic said: "It was a difficult game because it has come at a very difficult period for us as we have not had a lot of time to adapt. We controlled the game after they scored and we delivered a good performance in the second half. We tried to win and in the end it looks as though we have won easily but it was not like that.

"It was very important for us to show the right reaction after such a disappointing game in Japan. This is though just one game and we have to do that in every match by showing the right focus. We need to win the next couple of games and it is only by doing that, that we will get back the winning mentality which we had before."

Luciano Becchio opened the scoring for Leeds after 37 minutes before second-half goals from Juan Mata, Ivanovic, Victor Moses, Eden Hazard and Fernando Torres sealed Chelsea's passage into the two-legged semi-final with Swansea City. "We were a little bit scared in the opening minutes because we didn't know how we would react to the flight back [from Japan]," Ivanovic added. "But we improved as the game wore on and now we have to recover. We have some time now and we can continue to recover from the journey."

Of the challenge presented by Villa, Ivanovic added: "At the beginning of the season they did not start well but now they are full of confidence and every game they are getting better and better. When they come to our ground they have nothing to lose and will have extra confidence after winning at Liverpool, so it is going to be very difficult, especially for us as we have spent a week in Japan. We have to be mentally ready but at least we are at home and there will be no flying."