Wise Chelsea midfielder Deco has told his team-mates to adopt a "war" mentality against Manchester United as the two clubs begin the final sprint towards the Premier League title with Chelsea one point ahead of their rivals.

Chelsea and United must each wage three more battles across England's fields in the fight for Premier League supremacy, and the feeling in both camps is that only maximum points will do from now on.

Experienced Brazilian Deco has issued a rallying cry to his Chelsea team-mates to take the golden opportunity in front of them, starting with Sunday's showdown with Stoke at Stamford Bridge.

Carlo Ancelotti's Chelsea side appeared to take control of the title race when they beat United 2-1 at Old Trafford, but the momentum swung back in the Red Devils' direction last week when they beat rivals Manchester City in the dying seconds and then watched on as Chelsea fell to Tottenham.

Deco has called for cool heads though, insisting that if Chelsea had been offered a one-point lead with three rounds to go at the start of the season, they would have taken it with both hands.

"The first thing we need to know is that we are first,'' he told Chelsea's official website. "The last three games will be difficult and of course there is pressure in our minds because we need to win our games if Man Utd win theirs.

"It is a war and we need to be prepared, but if you said on the first day of the Premier League in August we would be one point clear with three games to go, two at home and one game away, we would all say 'okay, we'll sign'! This is okay. It would be better if we won or Man Utd lost on the weekend, but that didn't happen. Now our moment is here - we have three games and we need to play well and be together.''

After Stoke, Chelsea continue at Liverpool before concluding at home against Wigan. United also welcome Stoke, on the last day of the season, after they host Tottenham on Saturday and visit Sunderland.

Deco, whose return to the side in the past month has coincided with a run of five straight wins until last weekend, dismisses the significance of the Tottenham result and instead turned his focus to the challenges ahead.

"We knew at 2-0 we could score. We tried and had chances but didn't score. It was frustrating but we need to carry on,'' he said. "I don't think we played a bad game - we didn't have a lot of luck - and we need to recognise they played well.'' (Soccernet)