Liam Rosenior believes Chelsea are "running out of time" in the Champions League race, ahead of their crucial clash against Manchester United this weekend.

The Blues are currently sixth in the Premier League, four points off fifth-placed Liverpool and seven behind United in third.

Since the start of March, no side in Europe’s top-five leagues have lost more games in all competitions than Chelsea (six in nine games). Their previous six defeats came over a period of 29 games (W15 D8 L6).

Chelsea have lost their last three Premier League matches, and only once this century have they lost four games in a row, doing so in April and May 2023 under Frank Lampard.

The Blues have not lost four in a row without scoring a goal since February and March 1998, which included a home defeat to United.

Rosenior has urged his side to show initiative against the Red Devils, as Chelsea could end the weekend as low as 10th if they fall to another defeat.

"As the season goes on, the fewer games you have left, the more important the games become," Rosenior said.

"We have to take advantage of this moment. We're running out of time.

"We need to show that initiative on Saturday and play on the front foot and make up those points, which is still definitely possible.

"If I look at each game, I think it's just come down to a loss of concentration or focus for a moment, which then has snowballed into the rest of the performances.

"What we have to do is manage the margins of the game a little bit better."

Chelsea versus Manchester United has been drawn more often than any other fixture in Premier League history (27).

Just seven of those 27 draws have been 0-0, also making it the fixture with the most score draws in the competition (20).

Saturday's game will be just the sixth Premier League meeting this season between two English managers.

It will also be the first to be played as late into a season as April between two Englishmen starting the day in the top six since April 1999, when John Gregory’s sixth-placed Aston Villa faced Harry Redknapp’s fifth-placed West Ham, with that game ending in a 0-0 draw.