Chelsea boss Rafael Benitez predicts his team will finish above City

Chelsea manager Rafael Benitez has warned Manchester City his players have set their sights on climbing above the champions in the Premier League table.

Benitez's team will move within one point of second-placed City if they beat Roberto Mancini's men at Eastlands today and the Spaniard believes that could prove the springboard to a strong finish from the west Londoners.

Neither side go into this clash in the most positive mood after traumatic seasons, but Benitez sees signs Chelsea can take advantage of City's stumbles.

Mancini's club have gone three league games without a win, leaving them 15 points behind leaders Manchester United, and Benitez said: "We have a lot of respect because City are a great team, but we have to go there with confidence.

"If we are close, I think that we can fight for the top two. The priority is to win: if we win this game, we will be closer, but if we cannot we have to keep fighting.

"What I can see now is a team with confidence, we are confident we can beat City or anyone if we do things in the right way. We are creating chances in every game, so I'm confident we can do it."

With Arsenal, Everton and Tottenham also having designs on qualifying for the Champions League next season, the race for the top four is likely to be a long one.

Benitez admits he envisages the battle going right down to the wire. "The race for the top four will go on until the end of the season," he said.

"Our last game is against Everton so I'm sure that, until the end of the season, we will be winning games or losing games or whatever but it will be very tight, very close.

"I think that one game can make a big difference, so until the end it will be difficult for everyone."

Chelsea travel to City on the back of a hard-fought 1-1 draw with Sparta Prague in the Europa League on Thursday that took them into the last 16 of the competition.

With Manchester City eliminated from the group stages of the Champions League competition, they have had much more time to rest than their opponents. But Benitez refuses to dwell on the potential boost that gives City and he insists that by leaving out Frank Lampard and Ashley Cole against Sparta Prague, his squad remains fresh.

"We have played around nine games a month, so we have played more games than anyone in Europe," Benitez said.

"But we knew that before the game [against Prague], so I rested some players. Hopefully the players we use will be fine and we can keep the energy.

"When you play two games a week in two different competitions and you rest a few players and you win, they will say 'fantastic rotation', but if you lose they say 'why are you resting these players?'

"We will change some of them against City. That is very clear because we have to do it and that is the way if you are a top side. Because the club are successful, that is part of the price that you have to pay and we are really pleased to be paying this price."

Mancini also said City were not merely scrapping for the runners-up spot. "Our target is, of course, the battle to win the Premier League, we don't play [for] second," he said.

And anything other than victory over Chelsea will leave Mancini facing yet more questions about his future.

Mancini's frustration at being asked again about his future was apparent at a press conference on Friday when he lost his temper at a journalist, but the City manager did manage to look on the bright side.

"In Italy it is worse, there are some teams that sometimes change managers three or four times in one year," he said. "It is an improvement [in England]."

Agence France-Presse, Reuters