We still have four to go – Hakim Ziyech targeting huge trophy haul with Chelsea

Hakim Ziyech has expressed his desire to help Chelsea win more silverware this season ahead of another crucial week in their campaign.

The Morocco international was the hero against Crystal Palace on Saturday after he found the net with just a minute left at Selhurst Park to secure a 1-0 win.

It helped Chelsea strengthen their stranglehold on third place in the Premier League but with the title almost certainly out of reach, the Blues’ chief focus will be on adding more cups to their cabinet after they followed up UEFA Super Cup success in August with victory in the Club World Cup last weekend.

With a trip to Wembley on the horizon for the Carabao Cup final and important knock-out games in the Champions League and FA Cup coming up, Thomas Tuchel’s side want to build further momentum over the next couple of months.

Ziyech told BBC Match of the Day: “It was a difficult game without many chances, only a small number of chances.

“We had the disallowed goal but then it is the best feeling to score in the last minute.

“Of course it is hard but that is why you play football, to win trophies. That is what we are trying to do. We have won two already this season and still have four to go.”

Victory over Crystal Palace was only Chelsea’s third in the top flight from their last nine games, but did back up a 2-0 triumph over Tottenham on January 23.

The clash in south London was their first in the Premier League for almost a month and saw boss Tuchel ditch his favoured wing-backs formation to go with a flat back four.

Tuchel added: “We are trying to survive at the moment and you can see.

“There is a lot of pressure going on if you go to a (Club) World Cup and want to win it for Chelsea. The players put a lot of pressure on themselves and then we haven’t played Premier League for four weeks.

“It is a huge and strange mix of a lot of reasons why I personally did not over-expect today performance-wise.

“Then we had some issues in training with Azpi (Cesar Azpilicueta) and Callum Hudson-Odoi out from training, so this is where we are and it is like this. I know we can play better, I want to play better.”

Crystal Palace pushed Chelsea hard with Michael Olise firing wide early on while Wilfried Zaha had excellent chances at the end of both the first and second halves.

Yet Blues stopper Edouard Mendy, fresh from adding the Club World Cup to his African Cup of Nations title, did not need to make a single save.

“If you want to score goals, you have to hit the target or at least make the keeper work. Today we didn’t do it well,” Palace manager Patrick Vieira said.

First-choice goalkeeper Vicente Guaita had to be substituted at half-time.

Vieira added: “Vinny felt something behind his knee and decided to stop. He couldn’t play.”