Chelsea goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois says his team must beat Manchester United on Sunday if they are to stay in the title race and have any chance of retaining their Premier League crown.

The Blues find themselves nine points behind leaders Manchester City who look as if they are running away with the league already, so it is vital that Chelsea win games and hope the Sky Blues can be stopped.

The game against United is huge on so many different levels, but Courtois is first and foremost hoping that his side can take all 3 points and keep the race for the title on.

“This is a must-win game,” the Belgian said. “Manchester City are already nine points ahead of us, Manchester United four and Tottenham one. We must win games like these to remain at the top and close to the other ones. We will try to get the three points and will give our lives for it on Sunday.”

Jose Mourinho will of course be making his return to Stamord Bridge, but so will Nemanja Matic, who transferred to United for £40m in the summer.

Courtois knows all about Matic’s qualities, and when asked whether he was surprised at the Serbian’s departure, he replied saying: “That’s not my decision to make. Those are questions you need to ask to the people who made that happen. If a player nowadays wants to go to a team, then he has – I don’t want to say the power – but if he has a strong will to leave and join another team then it is hard for the club.

“You cannot just ignore him and say ‘you cannot leave’ because then you have a disappointed player who won’t play at his best. So obviously for us you give a player to another big team, but they are choices that are made in football and we have some quality midfielder, so I hope we can show on Sunday that we are better.”

Courtois was then asked if Chelsea have missed Matic since his departure.

“I don’t know. We know Nemanja’s qualities, he is someone who last year gave us the balance as well. He decided to go to another team, so we won’t live in the past. Our midfield is very good, we have very strong players so I don’t know if we miss him. But if you have two injuries in midfield, then, of course, you can say yeah we miss Nemanja because he is another quality player and he is doing well in Manchester.”
[Quotes via Independent]