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Gary Cahill plays down top-four finish for Chelsea

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Gary Cahill reveals an honest assessment on Chelsea's hopes of qualifying for the Champions League

Gary Cahill believes it will need a "very, very surprising" turn of events for Chelsea to finish in the top four.

Chelsea beat Southampton in Sunday's FA Cup semi-final to set up a Wembley meeting with Manchester United on May 19, but Cahill said they must be realistic about their league prospects.

Chelsea are five points behind fourth-place Tottenham with four games to go, including a home fixture against Liverpool live on Sky Sports Premier League.

"I am not being negative by any stretch, but the games are running out and the teams in there are very good, so if they do let it up it'll be very, very surprising," the defender said.

"There is that gap and the point difference, but the obvious thing is all we can do is win our games.

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"We got a decent result at Burnley and we just need to keep winning."

Chelsea head to Swansea next Saturday evening, before back-to-back home games against Liverpool and Huddersfield are followed by a trip to Newcastle.

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By the time of the Newcastle fixture, Chelsea's top-four ambitions could be over, allowing Antonio Conte to focus on the cup final and making amends for last year's final loss to Arsenal.

"We need it and we wanted it," Cahill said of the semi-final display.

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Chelsea manager Antonio Conte says Alvaro Morata and Olivier Giroud could start together again in Sunday's FA Cup semi final

"It was important that we tried to reach the final, so it gives us a good opportunity now.

"The final didn't go great for us last year, so we want to try and make amends, but we did the job that we needed to do."

The Chelsea captain was glad to be back in the side after some time out of the team this season and was happy with Sunday's display.

"I thought individually there was good performances and that will help us moving forward and to have a decent run-in to the end of the season," he said.

"Olivier Giroud and Alvaro Morata both got on the score sheet, so I am delighted with that, but most important was obviously just to get the win but Southampton made it difficult.

"I felt like it was a really professional performance. I felt that we controlled it even at 0-0, nobody kind of lost their nerve it at any stage and we managed the game very well to finish obviously 2-0."

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