Manchester City midfielder Fernandinho says the Citizens cannot allow Chelsea to open an eight-point lead at the top of the table.
City host the Blues on Sunday and the 29-year-old believes the game is best way to recover from the mid-week defeat away against Bayern Munich in the Champions League.
"When you lose a game like this at the end, after the game you feel a little bit sad," Fernandinho told the club's official website.
"But you have to recover as soon as you can. We have a great game against a big team like Chelsea and the best way to recover is to win that game.
"In the Premier League the most important thing is not to give the team at the top of the table reasons to keep winning game after game.
"We don't want a big space between us. We have to win because there would be six or eight points difference between us and Chelsea.
"We have to shorten it.
"We have to win, keep working and keep going until we are top of the table."
