Wilshere discusses Chelsea and West Ham challenges

Mark Holmes
Mauro Zarate: Celebrates scoring for West Ham against Chelsea

Mauro Zarate: Celebrates scoring for West Ham against Chelsea

Jack Wilshere is refusing to rule Chelsea out of the Premier League title race despite another defeat for the champions at West Ham on Saturday.

Chelsea slipped to 15th in the table following the defeat at Upton Park, their fifth from 10 games, but Wilshere does not believe Jose Mourinho’s side can be ruled out of the title race just yet.

“There is not really much talk about, we’re trying to focus on ourselves,” the Arsenal midfielder told Sky Sports’ Goals on Sunday.

“Of course, going into the game yesterday we’d knew they’d lost the game and we’re obviously delighted with them losing games like that because they’re a big team and for me they’re still not out of it.

“I’m not sure how many points they are behind but they still have great quality, great characters, great leaders [like] John Terry, Gary Cahill and players who won’t settle for what is going on at the moment so I expect them to come back strong.

“I don’t think [you could have predicted their start]. But I don’t think they’re out of it yet. I know they’re struggling at the moment and they are a long way off but they still have great players, still have great qualities. They have players from last season who won the league, they definitely won’t be happy with what is going on at the moment so it will be difficult for them but they have great quality.”

West Ham, meanwhile, are only two points behind Wilshere’s Arsenal after Chelsea joined the Gunners, Liverpool and Manchester City on their impressive list of scalps so far this season.

 

“We played them in the first game and they were amazing,” Wilshere said of the east Londoners. “Then they had a few disappointing results at home but they seem to have picked their home form up and I’ve got a lot of family who are West Ham fans.

“I was a West Ham fan as a kid and a lot of my family are still big West Ham fans so they’re delighted. With players like [Dimitri] Payet, they’re players you just want to see more of, they’ve got great quality. I think they’ll be disappointed if they didn’t get in the top ten.”

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