Leboeuf tells Chelsea to go for broke

Former Chelsea defender Franck Leboeuf believes his old side should treat Monday’s match with Premier League leaders Manchester City like a cup tie.

Leboeuf, who spent five years at Stamford Bridge between 1996 and 2001, feels fifth-placed Chelsea’s manager Andre Villas-Boas should go all out for victory against the leaders, but has warned the Portuguese coach to beware City counterpart Roberto Mancini.

“Chelsea need to win to close the gap but Manchester City are flying right now in the Barclays Premier League so it will be very hard to catch them,” Leboeuf told Goal.com.

“Chelsea will have to approach this like it was an FA Cup game.”

“City will try to get a draw. They will sit back and wait for Chelsea to make a mistake and get them on a counter-attack. Coming from Italy’s Serie A, Robert Mancini will be an expert when it comes to tactics and so he will do his best to ruin any chance that Chelsea have.”

“City will be tough opponents for Chelsea to cope with because of the power and the strength and the skill of the Citizens.”

Leboeuf said Chelsea will have to pay considerable attention to in-form City playmaker David Silva.

“David Silva is has settled into the Barclays Premier League so quickly, he reminds me of what Gianfranco Zola did when he came to Chelsea and became a club legend,” the Frenchman said.

“Everyone thought it would take Zola ages to make the transition from Italian to English football but he adapted really quickly.”

“That is because as well as being very skilful and technically excellent players they are both tough cookies and that makes a massive difference.”

“They never complain even when they are subject to man-to-man marking when their opponents try desperately to stop them and they work really hard for their team.”

“On top of that, Silva really benefits from the help he gets from Yaya Toure who really works hard behind him. Silva can always be confident that he can focus on attacking and does not have to do too much defending because Toure and Gareth Barry are behind him.”