Chelsea defender Gary Cahill believes his team is ready to go on another long unbeaten run as they look to get back to winning ways in the Premier League against Hull this weekend.
Jose Mourinho's side suffered a shock first defeat of the season against Newcastle last weekend, but Cahill insists confidence remains high in the Blues dressing room after their 3-1 Champions League win against Sporting Lisbon on Wednesday.
"It's important to go on another run because at the end of the season we want to be top of the league," Cahill told reporters as he reflected on the end of their 23-game unbeaten run. "You see how close Manchester City at this moment are to us, even with that unbeaten run, so we need to do it again.
"We think about that. How hard we worked to go on that unbeaten run and how well everyone spoke about we were playing, yet we're three points in front with many games to go. That's why when the manager was playing down the unbeaten thing.
"It's unbelievably hard to go through a season without losing a game; everyone realises when you're in the league it's so hard to do that.
"Of course you want to keep it going, but no one was really speaking about it. We wanted to get positive results and keep that gap. At this stage to be top by three points is really good for us."
Cahill went on to suggest Chelsea can be a threat in the Champions League this season, as he claimed most teams in the draw for the last-16 on Monday will be keen to avoid a meeting with the Blues.
"We're dangerous," he added. "I'm sure teams won't want to come up against us, but there are loads of dangerous teams going into the next round. We're no different but I'm sure teams won't want to come up against us.
"Maybe teams look at that and see that we're top and that we're doing some things right. I think we're a good team. I think we're certainly playing well aren't we? I'm sure people will have taken a lot of notice of that unbeaten run."
The Blues, who were beaten by eventual runners-up Atletico Madrid last term, could be drawn against Juventus, Basel, Bayer Leverkusen, Paris Saint-Germain or Shakhtar Donetsk in the first knockout round, which takes place in February. The draw is Monday.
"It was crazy when I first came, then after six months we ended up winning [the 2012 European Cup]," added Cahill, who signed from Bolton in January 2012. "On the flip side the year before last we went out with 10 points.
"Last year we were so close. It hurt us a lot to go out in the semifinal. I feel that we're going stronger this season so let's see."