Top-four finish still Di Matteo’s priority

Roberto Di Matteo praised Chelsea’s players after their FA Cup win against Birmingham, but insisted securing a top-four finish remains their top priority.

The 2-0 victory at St Andrews was a promising start to Di Matteo’s spell as interim boss and set up a quarter-final clash with Leicester.

But with Chelsea fifth in the table, the former Italy midfielder’s main task is to make sure the club qualify for next term’s Champions League.

He said: “We have to play in the Champions League next season. For us it’s vital to finish fourth, and that is our target.

“Only time will tell how difficult or easy that will be. We don’t like where we are in the table and it’ll be very tough to achieve what we want to achieve.

“But we have good players and we have a duty to try. We have to try to get the best out of these players.”

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