Chelsea defender Gary Cahill has revealed that manager Roberto Di Matteo underlined the importance of a title challenge to the Blues’ squad ahead of the new season.
The European champions finished sixth in the Premier League last time out, a distant 25 points behind champions Manchester City but have started the new campaign with two wins out of two and Cahill is thrilled to be top of the table.
“The manager stressed beforehand that we haven’t been top of the league for a long time and, although it’s early, it’s nice to be sitting there,” he told reporters.
“It is something we needed to address this season and it has been drilled into us.
“It’s important that we challenge this year and we have made a good start.”
After opening with victory at Wigan, Chelsea beat Reading 4-2 on Wednesday with Fernando Torres opening his account for the season and Cahill was delighted to see the striker on the scoresheet.
“Maybe he [Torres] will relish being the main man this season. He has done that at the start of the season and has been great for us,” he added.
“It is good to see him score so early in the season,” he added.
“He has dealt with pressure before and that won’t be any different for him this time.
“He is the main man this year and has got off to a fantastic start.
“Fernando has worked hard in training like he always does. Even when he doesn’t score, he works hard for the side.
“To get off the mark already is great and he was scoring goals in the European Championship for Spain so he has taken that sort of form into this season.”