Grant not giving up hope

Chelsea coach Avram Grant insists his side are still in the race for the Barclays Premier League title even though Wigan put a massive dent in their ambitions with a 1-1 draw at Stamford Bridge.

The Blues are five points adrift of the leaders with four matches to play after failing beat Wigan.

"We need to win the games against Everton and Manchester United," admitted the Chelsea boss. "If not, it will be more difficult. We are still in it and we will keep on fighting but we need one more bad result off Manchester United."

He added: "The result did not help us but I thought the second half was one of our best performances from the footballing point of view.

"Every three or four minutes we created chances but their goalkeeper gave an excellent performance. This is football though; when you don't score the other team does."

Grant was robbed of striker Didier Drogba with a recurrence of his knee problem and midfielder Frank Lampard was called away at the last moment because of a family illness.

Drogba will have a scan on his injured knee on Tuesday to assess the damage but both may miss Thursday's clash with Everton.

"It is a personal matter with Frank and I would prefer to leave it at that," said Grant.

"I didn't like the first half but I think the players were a bit in shock because one of our best players had to leave the team at the last moment, which is understandable."